On the science of early learning and what it means for public policy

At AEI’s recent event, “The science of early learning,”Dr. Jack Shonkoff, director of Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, proposed that the current discussion of early education is stuck on universal pre-K for 4-year-olds, partisan funding squabbles, and a demand for instant results. Instead, he observed, we ought to approach closing the achievement gap the way medical researchers developed effective treatments for childhood leukemia, which turned it from a death sentence into a treatable disease. Although the process of creating successful early education programs is in many ways more complicated than treating a disease, we must nevertheless behave like medical researchers by focusing on innovative scientific research, persevering through failures, and refusing to declare victory too quickly.

Science is nonpartisan, Shonkoff pointed out as he presented the basics of childhood brain development. According to empirical evidence, young children learn through “serve and return interactions” where they internalize and eventually mimic adults’ behavior. During this process, neural circuits connect and strengthen with use, while unused circuits are pruned away. According to Shonkoff, children require a positive relationship with an adult for the growth and reinforcement of the neural circuits that which memory, language, and literacy are based on.

This child-adult relationship matters even more to children in high-risk environments. Toxic stress, or the continuous activation of the stress response system that many low-income children experience, spells disaster for brain development. When the stress response system is activated, the heart rate increases and adrenaline and other hormones are sent through the body. Ideally, a caring adult will calm a stressed child, but in situations of neglect and abuse, a child’s stress response system will remain activated, and the continuous stream of stress hormones will damage valuable neural circuits. Therefore, the presence of at least one supportive adult in a child’s life is absolutely necessary to a child’s brain development, especially in high-stress environments.

According to Shonkoff, evidence points to a need for early childhood programs (such as parent education or offering quality childcare) that create supportive, consistent child-adult relationships for low-income, at-risk children, so that those children will develop the neural pathways upon which literacy and language are built. Scientific research must become our common ground. Innovators require an environment where they can take risks without fear of losing funding. In such an environment, researchers will assess their mistakes and move forward, rather than ignoring their studies’ shortcomings in order to stay in business.

According to Dr. Shonkoff, programs that survive the refining research process should not be universally expanded, but scaled in communities and among populations for which they work. We need a “portfolio of interventions,” he says, that are scientifically-based, innovation-driven, and under constant revision.

Natalie Runkle is an editorial intern at AEI.