Robert Paterson's Weblog

The bond

How different this time is. When Hope was born, she was taken away from Robin for  hours. Robin did not touch her.

Once the baby's shoulder had emerged, Hope pulled her own baby from her body onto her tummy and then to her breast.

It took days for Robin and Hope to return home. After only a few hours, Hope was home with her baby and slept last night with the baby (no name yet) and Charlie.

Surely this opportunity to bond is helpful?

The Reality of the Early Years

The officials have for years being using the Terms "The Early Years" to justify anything they wanted to do.  They are doing this now.

So here in a few short posts are the highlights of the research and what it all means. My point is to ask

"What does all of this mean for how we approach the investment we make in our kids as a society?

Ask yourself is the advice that the government is getting that purports to be based on this research based on this or on something else?

What to do about the Early Years

The Big Idea

The message of the Early Years is that we are most capable of learning until the age of 6. Underpinning this message is the idea of "plasticity". This is not news. What might become news is if we find out what to do with this knowledge.

For the problem is that we have not known what to do about this knowledge. We have not known how to move from concept to action? Until now.

We believe that the research has now come together to provide us with a clear direction and a clear focus. If we focus on the acquisition of vocab by the age of 2 and its drivers the amount and quality of conversation and the amount and timing of touch we believe that we will have resolved the gigantic complexity of the early years into a field narrow enough yet powerful enough to get movement. This series of articles will explore this proposition and link the separate areas of research into a coherent and self supporting whole.

The trajectory of vocab
Our brains and our world view are open to many choices at birth but by 3 many of the alternatives and the trajectory for our future development is largely set. By the age of 2 the size of our vocabulary will indicate how we will be able to learn all the way through school.

This slide shows us a dramatic picture. Vocab is a powerful and measurable predictive factor. If we measure an infant's ability to understand vocabulary at 2 we can get a strong sense of the development trajectory for life.

Much of the research now informs us that by 4 the vocab trajectory is largely set. Infants with a vocab of 150 or less will normally develop on a very shallow trajectory reaching by grade 10 an ability of grade 5. At the other end of the scale, infants with a vocab of 300 words will be on track for an exponential trajectory leading to a vocab of a 2nd year university student in grade 10.

This revelation about the predictive power of vocab attainment raises the issue of the idea of Trajectories and when they are able to be influenced. Chaos theory tells us that "Initial Conditions" are the most powerful element in how systems unfold. It is likely that vocab attainment in the Early Years represents the measure of the Initial Conditions of human development.

The impact of this idea

This insight has huge implications for how we as a society consider our current investment in the education system that begins age 6

Here are three consecutive links to a series of articles that explore this in depth. Each article is also linked so that, if you choose, you can go deeper into each main idea.

My intent is to pull together a wide range of research that has not easily been accessible for the lay person and to combine this insight into the Early Years with a suggestion for how we might use network principles to form an organization that could help us all.

1. The Power of the Vocab Trajectory - the key factor for our children's development

2. The Keys to the Kingdom - things that will help us get there

3. Building the Network - how we could use network principles to build a human organization to support us in this work

The Big Idea

The message of the Early Years is that we are most capable of learning until the age of 6. Underpinning this message is the idea of "plasticity". This is not news. What might become news is if we find out what to do with this knowledge.

For the problem is that we have not known what to do about this knowledge. We have not known how to move from concept to action? Until now.

We believe that the research has now come together to provide us with a clear direction and a clear focus. If we focus on the acquisition of vocab by the age of 2 and its drivers the amount and quality of conversation and the amount and timing of touch we believe that we will have resolved the gigantic complexity of the early years into a field narrow enough yet powerful enough to get movement. This series of articles will explore this proposition and link the separate areas of research into a coherent and self supporting whole.

The trajectory of vocab
Our brains and our world view are open to many choices at birth but by 3 many of the alternatives and the trajectory for our future development is largely set. By the age of 2 the size of our vocabulary will indicate how we will be able to learn all the way through school.

This slide shows us a dramatic picture. Vocab is a powerful and measurable predictive factor. If we measure an infant's ability to understand vocabulary at 2 we can get a strong sense of the development trajectory for life.

Much of the research now informs us that by 4 the vocab trajectory is largely set. Infants with a vocab of 150 or less will normally develop on a very shallow trajectory reaching by grade 10 an ability of grade 5. At the other end of the scale, infants with a vocab of 300 words will be on track for an exponential trajectory leading to a vocab of a 2nd year university student in grade 10.

This revelation about the predictive power of vocab attainment raises the issue of the idea of Trajectories and when they are able to be influenced. Chaos theory tells us that "Initial Conditions" are the most powerful element in how systems unfold. It is likely that vocab attainment in the Early Years represents the measure of the Initial Conditions of human development.

The impact of this idea

This insight has huge implications for how we as a society consider our current investment in the education system that begins age 6

Here are three consecutive links to a series of articles that explore this in depth. Each article is also linked so that, if you choose, you can go deeper into each main idea.

My intent is to pull together a wide range of research that has not easily been accessible for the lay person and to combine this insight into the Early Years with a suggestion for how we might use network principles to form an organization that could help us all.

1. The Power of the Vocab Trajectory - the key factor for our children's development

2. The Keys to the Kingdom - things that will help us get there

3. Building the Network - how we could use network principles to build a human organization to support us in this work

Who is responsible for this advice to the Premier?

In the press release that gave the reasons for the changes to Kindergaten - the justification for the change was out in to the Premier's mouth

Premier Robert Ghiz says the revised policy reflects Government's commitment to lifelong learning beginning in the early years. "There is a great deal of new research that indicates young children benefit from being in a structured learning environment," he said. "We want to do everything possible to support early literacy and learning, to identify learning difficulties at an early age and provide the necessary early interventions," he said.

There is no research that says that young children benefit from STRUCTURED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS. In fact the research is the opposite - what children benefit most from is play based learning!

This kind of advice is not only wrong but dangerous. There is a downside in pushing boys that are not ready. Here is an excellent article on how tricky the gender development issues are between the genders.

How many boys are ready at age five to start kindergarten?

A: On the order of 12 per cent; 88 per cent would do better if they started at age six. The key to success in early elementary education is doing the right thing at the right time. Farmers understand this. You can have the best farmland in the world and the best feed corn in the world, but if you try to plant your crop in the middle of a January snowstorm, you will not be successful. Likewise, you may have a very bright boy, but if you’re asking him to do things that are not developmentally appropriate, he won’t be successful. And the danger is that he will develop negative attitudes toward school, and it will be very difficult to change them.

I had the honour of working for Dr Fraser Mustard as his outreach communications advisor as the research about the potential of the Early Years was first brought to the public. I say this because I am now going to be clear about what is going on.

The departments of education and social services seem to have no idea of what this topic is all about - they consistently use some of the language to justify recommendations that at best have nothing to do with the key findings and as we see here at worst to recommend actions that have serious risks.

Why should the minister or the elected officials know? In this case they have to rely on the "experts". The "experts" show me that they have not done their homework.

If they care to understand the issues of the Early Years - Please go here to where I offer a broad over view of what the research says.

The Importance of the Early Years

In 2008 I plan to devote a lot of my life to working with my friend Ann to make the ideas behind "The Early Years" more real.

If there is any doubt as to the wisdom of helping parents get better connected to their babies - please have a look at this clip from a national Geographic video on how the knowledge of how the brain is set up for learning and for socialization in the early years is applied to Help Dogs - PS the puppies are very very very cute too.

Relationships - Complex Work - Science - Parenting

By chance, as I was looking for more material on Romanian Orphans, I came across this outstanding series on relationships, parenting and the complex outcomes on children of what they experience. It is Called the Science of Mother's day

Apart from the insight that it provides as to why so many kids do so badly at school, the issues related to daycare etc. It also provokes my thoughts about how we are organized for work.

I hear all the time about Stress in the workplace but see little evidence of the tasks themselves being stressful. Compared to say warfare or a dealing room, most jobs are exceptionally routine and require little skill or effort for a well rounded person. But the stress is real and we see its evidence in an ever increasing spiral of health care costs. The workplace drives much of our adult illness today. This slide taken from the Whitehall Study in the link shows that in the British Civil Service that you are 4 times more likely to die early of Heart Disease than the people at the top.

The further down you are in the modern hierarchy, the less long you will live and be healthy.

So here is the link - if you have a workplace where you neglect the needs for real relationship you will get an unhealthy and acting out workforce.

If you have a home life where this is also true, then your kids are in trouble. If there is no loving person in a child's life then later there will be little chance that he will be able to cope with life and little chance that any remedial action will turn this around. What is behind this bold statement?

The connection between neglect and abuse and a primate's ability to thrive or cope is the hormone called Cortisol. Neglect and abuse, drive the production of Cortisol.

High Cortisol levels are at the foundation of the behavioral and health problems of the modern age. What drives them is that we have dropped the ball on the reality that for humans, legitimate relationships are the holy grail for a good life and a healthy society.

I will come back soon to this and point out the dollar costs to the workplace and to the healthcare system. But in the follow on you can see the costs of abuse and neglect on PEI's Children.

Trusted Space - Human Development 1

So what does this mysterious looking diagram have to do with understanding human development? What does it tell us about our roles as parents? What does it tell us about school? Can it tell us something about literacy - about obesity - about behavior about whether your children will cope well with life or not.

Will it make a difference to your lives, to the lives of your children and to society - I hope so.

It's going to tell you a lot about all of these things - more than I can fit into one post - so I will keep the science in the background (Follow the link for the support for all I am going to talk about here) and I will focus on the essential here. I will also split this up into a number of posts.

Here is the big idea - Complex Systems are exceptionally sensitive to what are described as Initial Conditions. Raising a child is a complex project because there are so many variables. As every parent knows - there is no job out there more challenging or hence more complex than raising our kids.

This implies that what happens to our children when they are very very young will have the greatest impact on how they turn out. But this is not how we behave or spend our resources and money. In fact we spend most on things that have little or no impact while ignoring what is essential to meet the challenge of Initial Conditions. We don't even know what are the few best things that we can do to meet these needs. This is what I hope to help you see more clearly.

To understand the importance of Initial Conditions, let's go back to the rocket going to the moon for a minute.

Imagine what would happen if at launch the speed was too low to get into orbit. The rocket would fall back to Earth. Imagine if the speed had been too high? The Rocket would have gone directly out into space and never would have ben able to retrurn. There is no course correction for these two failures. Once you are falling out of orbit - you cannot get back. Once you are on track to leave the system there is no coming back.

Later however there are more and more course correction that will work PROVIDED YOU HAVE GOT THE FIRST BIT OF THE TRIP CORRECT. We saw that with Apollo 13.

Well this is true for all complex systems that ALL USE THIS TRAJECTORY.

Here is a close up of the early years for humans. The Trusted Space, where the greatest leverage and sensitivity to Intial Conditions is located  in the boxes have have the curve labelled 1 1 2 3 5 and 8. These periods drive the curve for our entire life. It is here that we decide what kind of world we we live in - is it a safe one or not? We decide who we are. Are we worthy or not? It is here that we go safely into orbit ready for life's mission, or where we fall back or become lost in space. What do I mean fall back or become lost in space?

What this slide shows us is that in spite of billions spent in trying to help kids read in school, that we are making no progress. It is too late!

What this shows is that what appears to be a tiny gap in ability at 6 widens out in spite of every attempt to close it by the school system.

Here is another more linear view of the trajectory. There are two two year olds here. One can understand 300 words and the other 150. By the age of 15 (Grade 10) the one who understood 300 words is at a second year of university level in ability to comprehend and act in the world. The one who understood 150 has plateaued at grade 5. (I will explain this all in more detail later.)

Does this trajectory apply only to learning and literacy? No the development of our worldview by 3 not only affects how our brain is wired up, it also sets the norms for our chemical reactions to stress. This is when we are wired or not to act out and or to have addictions. This is where we will find the key to the obesity epidemic and to the fact that 30% of our kids arrive in school unable to behave in social settings.

We know that there is a problem. On PEI we know that we have a literacy crisis and we know that we have an obesity/diabetes crisis. Good for us - we know that we have a problem at last. But the deeper problem is that we think that we can find a solution by investing more too late.

As we start to understand how Development really works, we will find that adding more T/A's at school is a waste. We will discover that adding more Gym to school will not help a jot in confronting obesity.

In my next posts I will go deeper into what is happening in the first 6 years.  I will also describe the simple things that we can all do that will make a difference. The solutions are I promise very simple.

Best Start - Funding Restored

Chester Gillan, PEI's Minister for Health and Social Services announced yesterday that the Province will sign a long term contract with Best Start for 1 million a year - in effect restoring funding back to a level where Best Start can contemplate restoring coverage for 3 years.

I would like to thank the Minister and all those who have worked so hard to make this happen. In particular, I would like to thank the Premier who, throughout all the provinces budgetary challenges, has done his best to keep the faith.

PEI is the site now of a revolution that I think will unfold in education and health. For the last 100 years, the key assumption was that education was an external process applied by schools to children from the age of 6 and above. For as long, health care was assumed to be an external process applied by doctors to people.

Now on PEI we are establishing a new set of assumptions. That the experience that a child has inside the family is a very important determinant of their ability to learn and be healthy. That learning and health trajectories are set by an internal process influenced by what happens as a consequence of the experince a child has in interacting with their parents.

This then starts to shift the investment away from remediation to prevention and to opportunity. That the best time to invest in the future of our children is from conception to 6. There is hope that on PEI we will now be able to design and implement a support system that will start with conception and parenting and go the whole way via daycare, kindergarten, school and college and university.

This is the best news that I have had since the birth of my own children

This is an exciting time. PEI's response to a bad grade on our educational outcomes a few years back has been an authentic response and a willingness to do more than apply band aids

Best Start - What we really do - Mother the Mother

Here is what we really do.

Best Start Video

Many of you know that I am a passionate supporter of a program on PEI called Best Start. This program offers any parent who has a challenge in parenting, in-home help from a person who is just like her but who has been trained to help the mother gain confidence that she can understand the needs of her child and develop the best possible relationship with the baby.

Here is a link to a 4 minute video news item in Real shot a few years ago but that will give you a sense of what this can do. Doris who is the mother featured is now a member of our board and has been a tireless and valiant supporter.

LEAP - Background

LEAP is on its way. If you would like to learn how we got our

initial support I attach a pdf document. I hope that this will help you and your community.

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