What goes on inside the brains of babies? How much are we shaped by the first few years of our lives? Scientists now have new insights into how children think. Early Life, a three-part series that travels to Peru, Africa and Thailand, explores the science and the latest research in early brain development. In an email interview, television documentarian Steve Bradshaw told Amrita Gupta how he believes children today are often seen as potential economic units, and how the economic states of different countries can in fact influence a child’s stress levels and development.
You pick situations from Peru, Africa and Thailand. Do you think these apply to India?
We thought almost everything that’s been done on early childhood development – in TV and books – has been based on the west, and we wanted to get away from that. The implications are global. But we did film in a US lab in Boston, because it’s in the west that most of the science is currently being done. The science suggests that stimulating bright, well- cared-for kids – playing Mozart to babies for example – doesn’t necessarily do any good. The real message is that under-stimulation – and stress – can cause deficits that can damage development, and this is more likely to happen in a developing country or poor neighbourhood.
We did think of filming in India, because the cultural and language issues are interesting – should parents send their children to private pre-schools, because they’re more likely to teach English, which may help children get jobs, for example, in call centres? Or is that creating a problem for Indian culture and identity?
Are the problems that developed countries face with their youth – like school shootings – different from those faced by developing countries? Do anxiety levels vary with economic development?
We didn’t concentrate so much on violence in the end because we didn’t want to film kids in violent situations, or be in them ourselves. The impact of stress can vary according to expectations and the environment, but I’m told it can be an inverse relationship. In other words, if you live in a rough environment, you may be less easily stressed because you get used to it.
Even if this doesn’t happen, you may benefit from raised levels of the cortisol hormone [often called “the stress hormone”], because you will be safer if you have a quicker and more aggressive response. To the layman like me, it’s clearly more complex than just saying there’s a direct relationship with economic development.
How much of a balance needs to be struck between parents, the government and educational systems to produce a healthier future for children? Aren’t these all “nurture” elements in the “nature versus nurture” debate?
The experts I talked to got quite animated – even cross – when I spoke of a “nature versus nurture” debate. They say it misses the point, which is that genetic make-up expresses itself in young children by interaction. That’s what forms the crucial synaptic connections, or, more technically, causes the unused ones to fall away. So there’s no “versus” in there. As for balance between parents and support systems, obviously it’s the parents’ prime responsibility, but if they’re too hard-pressed to devote time to kids, you have to ask what the government is doing about that.
How does one quantify effective parenting?
We look at places in Turkey and Peru, where NGOs and local governments have tried to train parents in the importance of interaction. John Bruer, a sceptic of The Myth of the First Three Years – to quote the title of his book – points out that most kids turn out okay in most cultures – so parents shouldn’t get over-anxious.
Has the meaning of childhood been altered in the light of globalisation?
I think it most certainly has. Kids can too easily be seen primarily as potential economic units. And if that’s the case, they may be valued more for how they may help a globalised economy. This can conflict with local cultures, and also stress the children’s futures at the possible expense of looking at their present conditions. That’s why the child rights movement says early child development should be encouraged by first employing human rights as an argument and building on that. Certainly, in the USA, some early child development folk tend to talk in terms of “investment criteria” that may sound a little worrying to outsiders, but folks like former World Bank president James Wolfensohn seem to strike a good balance between the two.
Early Life airs on BBC World News on Saturdays at 3pm & 11pm, and on Sundays at 7am & 8pm. Please confirm local TV schedules. |
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