“The Brain Development Revolution”: Early Childhood and Public Policy (with Ross Thompson)

Ross Thompson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of California, Davis joins Early Matters to discuss his decades of research in early development, and his new book, The Brain Development Revolution: Science, the Media, and Public Policy. 

Professor Thompson explains current scientific understanding of developmental neuroscience and the insights it provides into early childhood brain development. He also describes findings from decades of behavioral research on children’s thinking, learning, reasoning, language, memory, and emotional development, and explains why integrating the science of brain and of mind is important to advancing understanding of early development.

He recounts his new book's fascinating exploration of how ongoing, highly-coordinated public messaging campaigns led to the dominance of brain science in  early childhood policy debates over the past few decades, and highlights the distinction between science and values in shaping public policy. Finally, he emphasizes our moral obligation to support children’s well-being, calling for a focus on children as individuals rather than as future contributors to the economy.

Key Takeaways

• Neuroscience and behavioral psychology provide complementary but distinct bodies of knowledge about early development. Integrating these two fields — the science of brain and of mind — is crucial to advancing understanding of early development.
• Ongoing, sophisticated public messaging campaigns led to the current dominance of brain science in early childhood policy debates. 
• Although less well-known, decades of research from behavioral psychology have also yielded a wealth of crucial knowledge about children’s thinking, learning, reasoning, language, memory, and emotional development, actually predating the "brain development revolution." 
• We often fail to make a critical distinction between science and values in debating early childhood policy.
• Adults have a moral obligation to children to promote their well-being, not because of children’s future contribution to economic productivity, but as an end in itself.

Relevant Work

The Brain Development Revolution: Science, the Media, and Public Policy

The Brain Development Revolution provides a fascinating, insightful account of how brain science came to dominate

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