Participants in Frontiers
of Innovation—an effort to use science to inform early learning
practices—came together in Seattle this week to share progress on testing four
promising ways to support healthy child development. FOI pairs scientists with
early learning professionals to co-design and test new strategies to build
executive function and address mental health concerns in parents and children.
The focus is on testing ideas on a quick cycle: Strategies that work could be
taken to scale around the state; strategies that don’t work can be altered and
tested again.
“It’s amazing what happens when you connect people who do this [early learning] work and
are passionate about it with the scientists, and give them permission to
co-create,” said Department of Early Learning Assistant Director for Quality
Practice and Professional Growth Juliet Morrison.
Filming Interactions to Nurture Development (FIND)
In this model developed at the Oregon Social Learning Center
(OSLC) at the University of Oregon, coaches videotape adults interacting with
children and then show them clips where they are supporting children’s
development.
“We look at the film to identify moments where good things
are happening,” said Melanie Berry, an OSLC research associate. She added that
the program reinforces and strengthens the naturally occurring supportive
interactions between young children and adults, so-called “serve
and return” interactions that help shape the brain.
Children’s Home Society of Washington (CHS) is one program testing out
FIND with some of the families it serves with home visiting.
“Imagine you’re in a situation where you are under
investigation for abuse or neglect, and then someone comes in and says, ‘OK,
let’s look at what you’re doing right,’” said Jason Gortney, CHS community
manager.
Licensed family home child care provider Lorrie Hope,
another FIND pilot participant, was trained and has since coached three of the
families in her care using FIND. Because she lives in southeast Washington, her
training was all done online.
“I have a much stronger relationship with my parents,” she
said. “We are more trusting with each other and we have a common language.”
Attachment Vitamins
University of California San Francisco research Annmarie
Hulette developed the Attachment Vitamins curriculum to help improve caregiver
knowledge of important child development issues including executive
function and toxic
stress. It’s currently being tested by Children’s Home Society and
Centralia College.
“Attachment Vitamins is giving us the active ingredients we
can take out of the child-parent psychotherapy model and plug into home
visiting,” said Gortney. At Centralia College, they are piloting the curriculum
in the Teens Entering Education Now (TEEN) program for 14 to 21-year-olds who are
pregnant or parenting.
Executive Function Games
“Not every parent and child knows how to play together,”
said University of California Berkeley Associate Professor Silvia Bunge, who is
working with Childhaven and Centralia College to introduce games that
caregivers and children can play together to build cognitive flexibility (the
capacity to nimbly switch gears and apply different rules in different
settings—for example, children using inside and outside voices in different
situations.
At Childhaven, researchers are finding improvement in
children’s cognitive flexibility after 10 weeks of playing the specially
designed games in their classroom.
“It’s accessible, it’s sustainable—it’s not something that’s
overly burdensome,” said Childhaven Vice President of Branch Program Operations
Bethany Larsen.
Mindfulness Parenting Program (SEA CAP)
University of Washington Professor of Psychology Liliana
Lengua has long studied how income impacts parenting and chld development. She
developed the Social and Emotional and Academic Success of Children and Parents
(SEA CAP), which helps adults cultivate mindfulness and emotional regulation.
This promotes warm interactions between adult and child, and helps the adult
learn to “scaffold” learning by guiding children in tasks but stepping out to
let the child practice autonomy.
Educational Service District 112 in Vancouver is embedding
the mindfulness training in its existing weekly parent-child play group.
“When you practice these skills over time, it becomes easier
to access, so when you find yourself in a moment of stress, it’s there for you
to use,” said Corina McEntire, ESD 112 professional development manager.
