How to Talk About Early Child Development: Lessons from the - - PDF document

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How to Talk About Early Child Development: Lessons from the Research

• 30 focus groups with civically active adults in 15 states

2001 - 2006

• Cognitive interviews with 82 adults in 8 states
• Cognitive interviews with 10 business leaders in DC area +

experimental survey with 2,000 business owners

• 6 focus groups with state legislators in 3 states + 40

interviews in 5 states

• 500 talk back interviews with ordinary Americans to test

simplifying models

• Experimental surveys with 2,000 on-line informants in 2007,

4,200 in 2008

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• Media

Content Analyses

• Peer

Discourse Analysis

Pump the Swamp

• Expert/Advocate

Interviews and Materials Review

• Discourse Analysis

Professional Mtgs.

• Cultural Models

Interviews

• Peer Discourse

Analysis

Map the Gap

• Simplifying Models

Development (Peer Discourse Analysis, Interviews, Linguistic Analysis, and Experimental Tests)

• Reframe Analysis

(Peer Discourse Analysis, Interviews, and Experimental Tests)

Expose and Close the Holes

• Experimental

Tests of Frame Effects

• Peer

Discourse Analysis

Reframe the Blame

• Media Campaigns/

Ads

• CD Tool-Kits
• FrameChecks
• Study Circles
• TA Intensive
• Webinars/

Workshops

• Message/Creative

Briefs

• Benchmark

Surveys

• Spokesperson

Training Seal the

Deal

• The reason we need to care about this issue as a society is

(Value).

• The way this problem works is (Simplifying Model,

Messenger, Visual).

• Here’s how big this problem/solution is (Social Math).
• What prevents it from working as it should is (Simplifying

Model, Messenger, Visual).

• The consequences for society if left unchecked are (Causal

Series).

• The potential benefits for society if repaired, maintained, etc.

are (Causal Series, Simplifying Model, Messenger).

• Here are the solutions that experts recommend (Messenger).

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Interaction Brain Architecture Emotional Development Social Development Cognitive Development

Fate Free will Parents Genes Environment Black Box Successful child Unsuccessful child

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Momma knows best Bad parents Private not public issue

Physical = Focus Control and contain

Safety

Community = Predator

Self-made Child

Family Bubble

Very Complicated

We turned out OK Something about the brain Only for scientists

Schools

Hurried Child Fancy Parents Flash cards in cribs Development is automatic Discipline = focus Stress is good for you Leave it alone Everything matters

Opportunity

Children = future Begins in school Skill begets skill Brains are built Child development=prosperity

• Their environments: housing,

neighborhoods, schools, museums, libraries, community resources

• Their relationships: caregivers, neighbors,

peers, adults in addition to parents - teachers, mentors, coaches

• Their healthy development: multi-track, age-

appropriate stimuli and opportunities

• Their learning and values: social, cognitive,

emotional and moral

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Media Frames of Children

Center for Communications and Community

• Crime and health stories predominate
• In health stories, the dominant frame is child

safety (seat belts)

• Only 13% of stories look at systemic factors
• Only 3% look at development
• Frame is “the imperiled child” or child as

precious object

Content analysis of local news, 11,000 stories, July 2000, 3 affiliates in 6 cities

Advocates

Kids are very complex Everything counts Children are made for learning Infants become persons at a very early age The brain is not developed at birth Early intervention services are critical Education is about individualized service Parenting is difficult Parents are teachers Parents are students Trained coaches are needed for parents All parents are good Parents are experts Experts Self Regulatory Development "The ability to inhibit a response

• ne is all set to perform,

sometimes called effortful control, has been of special interest to researchers who seek to understand how individual differences in children's tendencies to respond to stressful or exciting events affect the growth of emotion regulation. Effortful control is one component

• f a larger set of inhibitory

competencies, termed 'executive functions', discussed later..."

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You say…They think

You (the experts) say… They (the public) thinks…

Environments are important in shaping

• utcomes and individual differences.

Yeah, parents are really important… Environments can effect genes. But there’s really nothing you can do about genes, they’re set in stone, you get what you get and that’s it. Genes and environments shape

• utcomes.

But will power trumps it all. You can

• vercome all the other “stuff” by being

motivated and disciplined. Things like making plans, shifting gears, and inhibiting emotions and behaviors are basic skills and competencies. But what’s really basic is a good moral compass, sense of responsibility and self- confidence. Basic skills and competencies can be taught, practiced, and learned in early education. Kids get basics competencies passively— like osmosis—from parents.

Pre-K students are expelled at a rate more than three times

that of children in grades K-12, according to a primary study by researchers at Yale on the rate of expulsion in prekindergarten programs serving three- and four-year-olds. The study found that although rates of expulsion vary widely among the 40 states funding prekindergarten, state expulsion rates for prekindergarteners exceed those in K-12 classes in all but three states. Expulsions are lowest in classrooms located in public schools and Head Start, and highest in faith-affiliated centers, for-profit childcare and other community-based

• settings. In classrooms where the teacher had no access to a

psychologist or psychiatrist, students were expelled about twice as frequently...

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...Boys were expelled at a rate over 4.5 times that of girls.

African-Americans attending state-funded prekindergarten were about twice as likely to be expelled as Latino and Caucasian children, and over five times as likely to be expelled as Asian-American children. “No one wants to hear about three- and four-year-olds being expelled from preschool, but it happens rather frequently,” said the study’s author. “Pre-K teachers need access to the support staff they need to help manage classroom behavior problems. Without this support, we are setting up for failure both our children and their teachers.” “Children’s development is affected most strongly by factors close to the child, such as his or her immediate family. However, neighborhoods, schools, and extended families also affect children. More distant influences, such as public policies, the media and the larger culture, also can affect children, though the effects of these distant factors tend to be transmitted through family and community influences. Peer influences can be negative but are more often positive and do not inevitably or necessarily displace parental influences, even among adolescents. Genetic influences affect possibilities for children’s characteristics and development, but the effects of genes occur in interaction with environmental

• influences. Hence, it is not so much ‘nature vs. nurture’ as an
• ngoing interaction between heredity and environment. Happily,

there are few critical periods, or times, when irreversible problems develop.”

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To explain the science in such a way that it redirects attention away from the default positions

• by identifying Values and explanations that make the

societal, not individual goals, obvious

• by creating Simplifying Models that serve to better

explain how development works

• by explaining the consequences of inaction
• by showing how they can be attached to policy

thinking

To Change the Outcome…..

• When communications is inadequate,

people default to the “pictures in their heads”

• When communications is effective, people

can see an issue from a different perspective

You Must Change the Lens

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Fate Free will Parents Genes Environment

Successful child Unsuccessful child Brain Architecture and Toxic Stress Prosperous Society

Dysfunctional Society

• 1. Child development is a foundation for community

development and economic development, as capable children become the foundation of a prosperous and sustainable society (Prosperity).

• 2. The basic architecture of the brain is constructed

through an ongoing process that begins before birth and continues into adulthood (Brain Architecture).

• 3. Brains are built from the bottom up (Skill Begets Skill).

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• 4. Interaction of genes and experience shapes the

developing brain and relationships are the active ingredient in this Serve and Return process (Serve and Return).

• 5. Cognitive, emotional, and social capacities are

inextricably intertwined, and learning, behavior and physical and mental health are inter-related over the life course (Can’t Do One)

• 6. Toxic stress damages the developing brain and leads to

problems in learning, behavior, and increased susceptibility to physical and mental illness over time (Toxic Stress).

• 7. Brain plasticity and the ability to change behavior decrease
• ver time and getting it right early is less costly, to society

and individuals, than trying to fix it later (Pay Now/Pay Later).

• 8. We have the capacity to measure effectiveness factors that

make the difference between programs that work and those that don’t work to support children’s healthy development. Identifying those factors and explaining how to replicate them and then bring them to scale should be the work of a rigorous enterprise that is devoted to evaluation science (Effectiveness Factors, Evaluation Science).

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Filling in the Blanks: What Develops? The brain’s architecture....

The early years of life matter because early experiences affect the architecture of the maturing brain. As it emerges, the quality of that architecture establishes either a sturdy or a fragile foundation for all of the development and behavior that follows --- and getting things right the first time is easier than trying to fix them later.

Early Childhood Stress Influences Developmental Outcomes How is development disrupted?

• Important to development & in the

context of stable and supportive relationships

• Potentially disruptive, but buffered by

supportive relationships & safe environments

• Disrupts brain architecture, increases

the risk of stress-related physical and mental illness Positive Tolerable Toxic

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Interaction as Serve and Return How is that brain architecture built? Addition of Concepts from National Forum on Early Childhood Program Evaluation

• By requiring the application of the most rigorous program

evaluation science to new children’s programs, we can make smarter decisions among competing programs and we can replicate the successes (Evaluation Science).

• We can measure Effectiveness Factors that often make

the difference between programs that work and those that don’t work to support children’s healthy development (Effectiveness Factors).

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Models Make People Smarter

Q: How does growing up in poverty affect a child’s school readiness? A: I would say in a lot of cases, I wouldn’t say in all cases, growing up in poverty would hinder them, but I guess in some cases it would hinder them, sort

• f being ready to get to school as

knowing, I guess maybe kids who are not in poverty growing up do have an advantage, as far as they probably know a little more when they start school than children who are raised in poverty. Q: How does growing up in poverty affect brain architecture? A: I believe because you’re stressed a lot because you have a lot of stress; usually parents that do not make a lot

• f money are usually under a

lot of stress, so that makes the child be under stress as well, also that would affect I guess the growth of the brain.

Effects on Salience

• f Brain Architecture Model

“I think what really gets me …is that it could actually have a chemical or biological or some sort

• f impact on the child’s brain. … Behavior is one

thing, and attitude and personality is one thing, but if it can really negatively impact … the chemistry and the makeup of the brain – you can damage that that early – that’s really serious. That’s more than just having a bad personality, that’s really screwing up a kid.” Simplifying Models Informant

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Models Prompt Reconsideration

“It is not a surprise what [Shonkoff is] describing, the foundation and building blocks

• f an educable child…When you hear that full

day kindergarten is just baby-sitting, that may not be as much of a political statement as just a dumb-ass statement.” SC legislator

• Media

Content Analyses

• Peer

Discourse Analysis

Pump the Swamp

• Expert/Advocate

Interviews and Materials Review

• Discourse Analysis

Professional Mtgs.

• Cultural Models

Interviews

• Peer Discourse

Analysis

Map the Gap

• Simplifying Models

Development (Peer Discourse Analysis, Interviews, Linguistic Analysis, and Experimental Tests)

• Reframe Analysis

(Peer Discourse Analysis, Interviews, and Experimental Tests)

Expose and Close the Holes

• Experimental

Tests of Frame Effects

• Peer

Discourse Analysis

Reframe the Blame

• Media Campaigns/

Ads

• CD Tool-Kits
• FrameChecks
• Study Circles
• TA Intensive
• Webinars/

Workshops

• Message/Creative

Briefs

• Benchmark

Surveys

• Spokesperson

Training Seal the

Deal

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• Exposure to any part of the core story enhances policy

support

• Can’t Do One has the greatest effect, lifting support for 3/5

policy batteries

• Prosperity/Pay Now lift 2/5 policy batteries
• Men and people who placed a low priority on child well-

being were most affected

• Conventional wisdom about frame effects should be

questioned: business leaders responded more robustly to a developmental frame than a “just the facts” frame

• is it possible to advance the public’s support for public policies that address child

development and wellbeing by exposing them to alternative ways of thinking about these issues: (1) as broader social concerns, (2) as consonant with the ways they are discussed by advocates and in the early childhood development literature; and/or (3) by enhancing the public’s understanding of the science of early child development? (Test Values, Simplifying Models, and Principles)

• to the extent that the frames we test successfully lift public support for policy

reforms, is it also possible to demonstrate similar frame effects on other policy related outcomes such as policy salience, support for public funding, and attribution

• f responsibility for policies that address these social concerns? (Test frame

elements against a broader set of policy outcomes)

• is support for the core story of early childhood development advanced by

incorporating the notion of physical health as part of the frame and if so, at what level of presentation do we find the greatest impacts? (Test health as a component)

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Measure Impact of Exposure on Policy Ba7eries:

CMH, Child Maltreatment, Poverty, ECD, Salience, HHS, AoR, WTP

Analysis of the Differences Between the Treatment and Control Groups (Controlling for Demographic and Poli>cal Factors )

Mental Health Battery

• Expansion of Mental health and substance abuse services
• Victims of child abuse should receive priority in the allocation of mental health

funds

• Culturally/linguistically appropriate screening for early detection of mental health

concerns Child Maltreatment Battery

• Additional resources to community programs that work to prevent child neglect
• Make it easier for judges/courts who deal with family issues related to abuse and

neglect

• Improve foster care and adoption systems

Poverty, Work, and Income Battery

• Income supplements for low-wage working parents
• Paid parental leave programs for low-income parents
• Provide funding for high-quality care settings for poor infants and toddlers

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Frame Element Mental Health Abuse/ Neglect Prevention Health/ Nutrition Early Child Care Poverty/ Work Supports Attribution

• f

Responsibility Values Prosperity .033* .039** .045** .009 .034* .052 Ingenuity .033* .048** .041** .038** .030* .055* Future .016 .037* .021 .018 .02 .051 Responsible Manager .015 .038** .023 .013 .009 .051 Health as Value .020 .022 .033* .005 .012 .053 Vulnerable Child/Fairness .009 .014 .021 .007 .003 .051 Simplifying Models and Principles Environment of Relationships .012 .024 .019 .007 .018 .052 Health as Principle .018 .024 .021 .017 .024 .053 Toxic Stress - with Health .011 .034* .045* .038* .019 .056* Toxic Stress .040* .070** .037* .021 .023 .052 Pay Now/Pay Later – with Health .022 .040** .037* .035* .001 .054 Pay Now/Pay Later .009 .024 .014 .034 .002 .053 Brain Architecture – with Health .007 .021 .017 .00 .009 .051 Brain Architecture .013 .032* .002 .002 .013 .051 Effectiveness Factors .008 .013 .004 .002 .005 .053 Continuous Quality Improvement .004 .016 .009 .009 .002 .052 Return on Investment .005 .033* .030 .042* .025 .053*

Statistically significant differences indicated by * p ≤ .10 and **p < .05.

• Prosperity and Ingenuity have powerful and

broad effects on policy support

• Health as a value only lifts health policies
• Abuse and neglect policies are advanced by

the core story, but not those currently in use (Vulnerable Child, Health, Pay Now)

• Toxic Stress is a powerful simplifying model

across policies

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Some Values Work Well

• Prosperity Frame. Early childhood development is important for

community development and economic development because skills and capacities that begin developing in early childhood become the basis of a prosperous and sustainable society -- from positive school achievement to work force skills to cooperative and lawful behavior. We should allocate societal assets to young children because they predict our society’s prosperity.

• Ingenuity Frame. Society needs to invent and replicate more effective

policies and programs for young children. Innovative states have been able to design high quality programs for children. These programs have solved problems in early childhood development and shown significant long-term improvements for children – but many counties don’t have access to these innovations.

Some Values Don’t Work

• Health Frame. Investments in better children’s health result in economic

and health benefits for all of society. Children’s health potential is influenced earlier than we thought because we now know that early adverse experiences can have life-long health consequences. This can affect the health of the heart and immune system, so if society wants to lower health care costs, we should invest in early childhood development.

• The Vulnerable Child/Fairness Frame. Society needs to invest in

programs that help the most vulnerable children whose families struggle to make ends meet. One way to level the playing field for children who suffer from poverty and discrimination is to financially support their access to the same high quality early childhood programs that wealthier families can afford. We should allocate societal resources more fairly for vulnerable young children.

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Level One Value Simplifying Model Solutions Issue Domain

Fairness, Opportunity for All, Ingenuity, Future Health, Education, Race, Workforce Development FMLA, Child Nutrition Act, Head Start Brain Architecture, Toxic Stress,

Level 1: Value Level 2: Issue Domain Level 3: Specific Policy “Ask”

Child Development Future Prosperity

simplifying model that concretizes Level 2

Brain Architecture Quality Standards in Early Care Settings Toxic Stress

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• The reason we need to care about this issue as a society is

(Value).

• The way this problem works is (Simplifying Model,

Messenger, Visual).

• Here’s how big this problem/solution is (Social Math).
• What prevents it from working as it should is (Simplifying

Model, Messenger, Visual).

• The consequences for society if left unchecked are (Causal

Series).

• The potential benefits for society if repaired, maintained, etc.

are (Causal Series, Simplifying Model, Messenger).

• Here are the solutions that experts recommend (Messenger).
• What this is ABOUT?
• What is the Problem?
• What are the Solutions?
• Who is Responsible?
• values
• context
• metaphors
• numbers
• visuals
• tone
• messengers

I know this story! It’s about X

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• If our society is to prosper in the future, we will need to make

sure that all children have the opportunity to develop intellectually, socially and emotionally. VALUE

• But science tells us that many children’s futures are

undermined when stress damages the early brain

• architecture. That stress may result from family tensions
• ver a lost job or death in the family. That stress makes

babies’ brains release a chemical that stunts cell growth. SIMPLIFYING MODEL

• When communities make family mental health services

available so that early interventions can take place, they put in place a preventive system that catches children before they fall. SOLUTION

• Early childhood development is important for community

development and economic development because skills and capacities that begin developing in early childhood become the basis of a prosperous and sustainable society. VALUE

• Children grow up in an environment of relationships that affects all

aspects of their development. The support and interaction of trusted adults shapes a child’s brain circuits, and can affect academic performance and interpersonal skills later in life. SIMPLIFYING MODEL

• Science shows that the training, knowledge and skills of consistent

caregivers are critical to the solid foundation of brain architecture. But currently, the turnover rate among early caregivers is very high, due in large part to low pay. Science would suggest to policymakers that this early lack of investment will have long-term consequences on society’s future. SOLUTION

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How Americans Think about Early Childhood Development: Coming Attractions

Education Research Executive Function Research Gene/Environment Research Child Mental Health Research

www.frameworksinstitute.org ( c ) 2009 FrameWorks Institute Slides in this presentation were developed by the FrameWorks Institute for individual use and cannot be represented, adapted or distributed without the express written permission of the Institute. All images in this presentation are licensed for the purpose of this presentation only and may not be reproduced elsewhere.