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Poster #104 - A New Neuroscience Education Program to Promote Healthy Brain Development in Children

Fri, March 22, 7:45 to 9:15am, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

Children who grow up in disadvantaged communities and face adverse childhood experiences are more likely to fall behind in academic and personal achievement and are at a higher risk for numerous chronic diseases and mental health conditions. Working for Kids: Building Skills is an educational program designed to teach all members of a community about the importance of early learning environments and experiences on brain development to help buffer the impact of early life stresses. This program is designed as both an educational program for parents and a train-the-trainer program for professionals (e.g., social workers, public health workers, child care professionals). Two hundred and seventy professionals were trained to give four 1.5-hour training sessions. The program teaches about what ages constitute the plastic period for different brain circuits, how the use of a neural circuit during the plastic period strengthens that circuit, how environment shapes brain development, the importance of social supports, and what styles of interacting with children best facilitate effective learning. After sessions 1, 2, and 3, participants answered post-training knowledge surveys about brain development. Professionals answered the questions correctly 89.26 ± 3.66%, 91.02 ± 6.03%, and 90.88 ± 3.87% of the time, respectively. These professionals then trained 484 other adults (e.g., child care workers, home visitors, parents) who answered the questions correctly in sessions 1-4 83%, 74%, 87% and 97% of the time, respectively. We conclude that this educational program is highly effective in teaching adults about how to promote sturdy brain development in children. However, in addition to the initial training we wanted to develop a means of continuing to provide adults with ongoing information about how experiences impact children’s brain development. The First Pathways Game (www.firstpathwaysgame.com) was developed to meet this goal. This game includes over 160 freely available age-appropriate activities for kids 0-5 years of age and adults to do together to help build strong brain pathways for important life skills, including communication, cognitive, social-emotional, motor, and number skills, creative play, and early science learning. Each activity has a 30 second demonstration video that highlights the specific brain circuits that are strengthened by that particular activity. In the first weeks after launching, 21 people have played the game, playing an average of 4.33±1.09 activities the first time they logged on and an average of 1.24±0.32 sessions to date. The early science learning activities were also piloted in Pittsburgh Public School’s Head Start parent program. Parents received a questionnaire asking them which activities they and their child liked the most (rated on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the most liked). The three highest rated early science learning activities were “Mapping my Morning” (4.15±0.30; n=13), “Building a Home” (4.38±0.33; n=13), and “Detecting Differences in Plants” (4.55±0.24; n=9). Together, these educational tools are effective in teaching key concepts about developmental neuroscience to those in stressed and disadvantaged communities; this program also provides easy access to activities that promote healthy brain development for those at a high risk for academic underachievement and chronic health problems.

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