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TEDx Talks
Published: 2015-04-28
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCscN4zuvd4
and Jenny I'm going to be looking at how a strong start can help us build a more equal society as we celebrate twenty five years of independence we remember those magic moments in our history do you remember this one who could forget when Frank Fredericks one to two hundred meters and brought home the gold medal does anyone here think that Frank would agree to have his
starting blocks ten meters behind the starting or five meters behind the starting line or one meter behind this action of course not because Frank knows that a strong start is what you need for success strong start is what you need for a good finish and you know what same thing is true in life first thousand days of life from conception to are absolutely fundamental for the
development of a child for the child's health child's well being and even the child's future prosperity first thousand days of life laid down the architecture of the brain the first thousand days of life our period of growth and development and a window of opportunity that makes all the difference to that job I'm not talking theoretically I'm not even talking is it educator I'm talking about what
the latest science of brain development is telling us look at the slot based on brain imaging which is only become possible very recently the bottom axis is the year of the child the age of the child and those colored lines are different aspects of brain development and what do we see we see that all aspects of brain development RP seeking and developing well before the child
is four years old and in fact in many cases in the first year of life you might have already known that hearing and vision to Green Line in the dark purple line developed very early in a child in the first year of life and the same is true of language the yellow line it develops well before a child goes to school so was so great this
afternoon to be hearing about the importance of early deter see we do need to start early but what surprised me when I saw this slide for the first time is that even areas like here skills social development emotional development or being established at a very young age for the child goes to any kindergarten while still at home although a baby is born with all its brain
cells a hundred million built a hundred billion of them the connections between those neurons are established in the first years of life and those connections come from a stimulating and caring environment the brain is not state any stimulated in those very early days of life and years of life we are depriving that child of a healthy developments the newborn brain listen to this is so interesting
the newborn brain uses ninety seven percent of the energy that that child takes in a four year old's brain is only using forty four percent of the energy that that child takes in so imagine what happens if a child is malnourished dress and undo nourishment will mean that there is a reduced energy to develop those brain functions that you see here in the slot and what
happens then we unintentionally increase the inequalities in our from this very early start and studies have shown us that children with poor nutrition lack of stimulation excessive exposure to violence or stress we'll finish fewer grades in school will earn less and we'll have poorer health then there will nursed peers this is not acceptable and it is not something we can afford in our country we need
to act now if we want to have a more equal society if we want to ensure our children reach their full potential and become the friends and the sorrows and into two bows of tomorrow I'd like to show you a few statistics that I believe are important for our new government's as they enter their own first a thousand days to consider about ten thousand infants every
year are born exposed to HIV no fortunately because we have a very successful prevention of mother to child transmission program they will not necessarily be HIV positive but they will be exposed to HIV and we know that they and their families may need extra support we also know that twenty four percent of the children in our country are stunted and that means short for their age
chronic I remember what we said ninety seven percent of the energy of a child goes to brain development and they need that energy sorry just six percent of the children our country are not living with a biological parent not so mother not a father in in some regions this statistic is as high as fifty two percent and this is a potential risk factor in other countries
studies have shown especially for girls health not to be living with their mother another worrying thing is that the children who may need it most are not the ones who are going to be attending an early childhood development program such as a kindergarten and the quality of the early childhood programs to kindergartens in the preschools in our country are not equal a mother a domestic worker
non Korean Gaza or any other informal settlements near us may have to leave her child when she goes to work with a neighbor who is caring for eight other babies there in a room on a bed in a dark room receiving the minimal attention that's needed for physical comfort but not the stimulation you need for brained about this is detrimental to the health and development of
those children and finally what is the result of this well the result is that one in five children in grade one are repeating one of five children grade one a repeating this is not sufficient system but there's good news and the good news is that early interventions can make a difference this slide shows information from a study done in Jamaica and this proves that very simple
programs can bring stunted children up to the development level of their non stunted peers so that's tough line on the top is non stunted children and the line just below that shows you the result of this program two components of this simple program were home visiting so well trained home visitor would go to the home of actual risk mothers with their young infants and model good
early childhood stimulation how does that mother engage with her baby the second component was a nutrition package to that family and those two simple things brought the children right up to the level of their non stunted peers within twenty four months and what I really find interesting about this slide look at that third line stimulate even children who only received a home visit improved in fact
they proved more than the children too only receive nutrition so this interaction of parents with their children is critical Iberians minute Trudy changes the brain isn't that remarkable a baby's environments and care can increase or decrease the number of connections in their brain by up to twenty five percent in this side you see the synapses of a newborn a one month old and nine month old
a two year old and an adult and where do we see the biggest change zero two two first thousand days look at the development of the brain during those first two years and not so much afterwards between to an adult the more it seems there are in the brain the greater the brain's ability to process information and to learn so although we have risk factors here
Namibia and we do have risk factors we have disease such as HIV we have poverty we have alcoholism we have domestic violence we have maternal depression which might be as high as thirty percent so although we have risk factors we also have very positive traditional child rearing practices we have breast feeding we have groups bonding to infants who are crime we have seating on demand carrying
our babies touching our babies instant missiles story telling scene reading all of these are very positive traditional child rearing packed this is that developed the brain and protect our children I was recently in Rwanda and what struck me while I was there on-again very rural areas are geometric shapes in black and white decorating the hawks and you know what younger instance respond most to strong geometric
shapes in black and white and these aren't expensive books from the U. S. easier on rural Hudson Ruanda so we know how to rear children and we know what the needs of children are relationships are among the most important experience that young children can pass and they have a particularly strong influence on emotional and social functioning remember the lines in the graph no I love this
picture and it's not only because my granddaughter it's also because we see in mother responding to her crying child and what does she do turns to look at the child she reaches out to touch the child's she starts making baby talk which is universal in all societies to babies and the baby constant we are genetically programmed be responsive parents we are genetically programmed to respond to
children instance in positive ways and server genetically programmed to respond to their parents to adults when a baby is born in the hospital with the lights and the noise and the doctor and the monitor does the baby looked at the monitor no the baby it finds the face of its mother a human voice a human touch so don't be in too much for her to give
your children tablets they need the human's face we also know that children many and Meurer their parents from a very young age babies mimicked in Europe and parents do the same with their children and I'm not this is not only mothers fathers also have an important role to play in this so if you want your children to listen to you if you want your children to
learn from you if you want your children to follow in your footsteps don't wait to engage with them when they're five six or ten or twelve in gauge with your children now and I'm speaking to fathers and mothers and this develops grooves in the brain that allow for trust understanding and communication between people so investments early investments these early investments at the very start of life
have a major impact and they can address many of the challenges that we're facing in our country inequality however to violence investments maybe nature will be less effective this slide shows a very famous study done in two thousand seven about the rate of return on investments and we can see where it makes the most difference in the early years if we do not invest at that
time we've missed the window of opportunity to influence the structure of the brain of personality of cognition and those moments actually are gone right now isn't nation the investments we're making you can see here on the slide focused on primary secondary and tertiary education and people say perhaps they're not paying off I'm not suggesting to the new minister of higher education that we take away from
hired but I am suggesting we need to invest more in our youngest citizens we're neglecting these early years and as we saw from Jamaica we doesn't have to be necessarily huge amounts but we have to invest if we want these major investments to yield results what must we do we have to act now we have to act decisively at the national level into personal level we
need nutrition programs for pregnant women and for women with young children we need home visiting programs with trains community members who can go into homes with at risk parents young mothers teenage mothers mothers who have had HIV we need to be visiting those homes we need mothers groups where marginalized in isolated women can meet together and get the support they need from each other and we
need subsidies for quality daycare for working women and pre schools for all children with a special focus on the poor who need that support in this way we can ensure that our society becomes more equal and that our children get the strongest start so they can go on and finish at a personal level I think the message to men is men love the mothers of your
children the most important thing a father can do is to love the mother and then go on and engage with your baby from an early age right from the start and women avoid alcohol avoid smoking each well see the support of other mothers who know and recognize your role as the first educator of this child's and parents enjoy your children hung them love them keeps them
cuddle them well then this is not frivolous this is an investment so in summary I would like to say that the flexibility and plastic this is of the brain in the first years of life in those first a thousand days and this capacity to grow lays the groundwork for future six as science magazine says here in this quote an increase in thriving children over the next
fifteen years would lay a strong foundation for healthy prosperous and peaceful society it is difficult to see how the world could end poverty and inequality without addressing early childhood development so I celebrate our twenty five years of independence we celebrate our new government and it's a first a thousand days and I encourage all of us to celebrate and protect the first thousand days by children
