Title: The Promotion of Healthy Mental Functioning Stuart G. Shanker Distinguished Research Professor Director, Milton & Ethel Harris Research Initiative
1The Promotion of Healthy Mental
FunctioningStuart G. ShankerDistinguished
Research Professor Director, Milton Ethel
Harris Research Initiative
- ISSA Roundtable, October 14, 2009
2At the Point of School-Entry, approximately
- 1.1 of children with have an Autistic Spectrum
Disorder - 4 of children will have an externalizing
disorder (e.g., conduct disorder, aggresion) - 55 of children will have an internalizing
disorder (e.g., depression, anxiety disorder) - Between 7-12 of children will have ADHD
3A True Population Problem
- Research by Doug Willms (2002) suggests that
approximately 26 of all children are vulnerable - Further research by Rimm-Kaufmann, Pianta Cox
(2001) suggests that a further 25 of all
children, while not mentally ill, can neither be
said to be mentally healthy
4Why Cant We Change Trajectories?
- After decades of trying, it has turned out that
it is extremely difficult to alter any of the
above problems or to change educational
trajectories - This led to the famous hypothesis by Herrnstein
Murray (1994) that the answer must be in the
genes
5Two Key Revolutions
- Probabilistic epigenetics genes dont operate in
anything like the manner postulated by the
genetic determinists (see Gottlieb 1997) - The real source of the childs problems lies in
effortful control (Rothbart 1989 Posner
Rothbart 2006)
6Self-Regulation
- If the 20th Century was The Century of the Gene
(Fox-Keller 2000), the 21st Century will be the
Century of Self-Regulation (Shonkoff Phillips,
From Neurons to Neighborhoods, 2000)
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8Research at MEHRI
- Our research shows that autistic children are, in
fact, capable of genuine implicit learning, where
the only rewards for engaging in social
interaction are the social interaction itself - We see a significant shift, as a result of early
intervention, from automatic or reactive to
voluntary or learned forms of self-regulation
9Scaling Up
- How do we apply these results to the whole
population - How do we mitigate, if not prevent, the sorts of
problems outlined at the start of this talk? - How do we enhance the self-regulation of every
child?
10The Pascal Report With our Best Future in Mind
(2009)
- The province of Ontario has just initiated a
massive integrated approach to Early Child
Development 0-8 - Among its highlights are
- Universal preschool for 4 and 5 year-olds
- Turning schools into community hubs
11The Key to Scaling Up
- A new approach to teacher-training
- The Ontario teacher-training curriculum Every
Child Every Opportunity is built around
maximizing self-regulation - Specialists trained in human development in
understanding the experiences that promote
self-regulation and those that may actually
exacerbate problems
12Secondary Altriciality
- Early plasticity enables the childs brain to be
highly attuned to the environment in which she is
born - Synaptic growth in the first 2 years is massive
- There is huge over-production of synapses that,
at 8 months, will start to be pruned back - Synaptic pruning is regulated by babys emotional
interactions with her caregivers
1304-212
Sound Vision Smell
Touch Proprioception Taste
Neal Halfon
14The Role of the Primary Caregiver in Early Brain
Growth
- The primary caregiver serves as an external
brain, regulating and stimulating the babys
brain - Dyadic experiences are vital for
- Sensory integration
- Sensory/motor integration
- Emotion-regulation
- Effortful Control
15Development of Self-Regulation
- Baby is born with limited capacity to regulate
her own arousal, pay attention, control impulses,
etc. - This function is performed in early months by
caregivers (Fox Calkins 2003) - Infant develops the capacity to self-regulate by
being regulated - This goes on for a considerable length of time,
e.g., as the caregiver helps the child learn how
to express emotions, how to regulate stress
16Five Levels of Self-Regulation
- Biological (temperament, reactivity)
- Emotional (regulation of emotions, stress)
- Cognitive (sustained attention inhibit impulses
ignore distractions cope with frustration,
delay) - Social co-regulating
- Self-reflection (awareness of ones strengths and
weaknesses)
17The Brain-to-Brain Interactive System
- Nature provided us with an exquisitely sensitive
interactive system, in which specific types of
experiences result in the delivery of specific
types of stimuli to systems that come online
hierarchically - There are three key stages in this process
- Proximal
- Distal
- Verbal
- In each of these stages, early brain development
is fundamentally dyadic
18Reading
- Fogel, A, King, B Shanker, S (2007) Human
Development in the 21st Century (Cambridge UP) - Greenspan, S Shanker, S (2004) The First Idea
(Perseus) - McCain, M, JF Mustard SG Shanker (2007) Early
Years Study II Putting Science into Action. - Shanker, SG (2008) In Search of the Pathways
that lead to mentally healthy children, Journal
of Developmental Processes