Black – life course perspective

If we are looking for healthy adults who are contributing to society and who are happy and doing well then the time to invest in those – in getting those healthy adults is very early in life. By ensuring that children have the health, nutrition and learning opportunities and responsive care and protection, then children are better able to take advantage of the educational systems, and then as they continue they’re more likely to stay in school, less likely to run into trouble and the trajectory goes well. 

What we’ve learned is that there are inflection points. There are – there are times of potential vulnerability, and those are times when one would think about checking in or investing.  The – early in life we have the time when children transition from breastfeeding to solid feeding. So we need to make sure that children have healthy food and a healthy feeding environment, a regular schedule that occurs. So that’s thinking about their health and nutrition and routines and responsive care. 

Then another time has – is as children grow a bit older and are beyond the sort of immunization period, they have less contact with the health system. Now I’m talking about a child who’s about two. So they have less contact with the health system but generally they haven’t reached the education system yet. That’s a very, very vulnerable time. It’s a potential gap in children’s development. Particularly as we have the increase in maternal employment, so that in the past when traditionally moms were at home, they may not be at home anymore. So that’s a time when we certainly need to pay attention to children’s development and ensure that we have opportunities for them to receive the five aspects of nurturing care, whether it be at home or it be in childcare. That’s – so that’s developmentally a very important time. 

Then we have as children get into school, we think of school age often as latency age, but we need to make sure that our schools are ready for our children. That means that we have high quality schools where children are given the opportunity to learn by responding not just being passive. So if children then are – proceed through elementary school and then we get into early adolescence. Oh my, there are other vulnerabilities that happen as we have the growth and hormonal changes of adolescence, and at that point we also need to make sure that children are able to stay on track. And that if they get off track, that there are opportunities to get back on track. 

So investing early in life gives you a good start, but it doesn’t mean that you’re done, that there are these check in points, inflection points through development. 

And then when we get up to at the end of the typical schooling, whether it’s called high school or secondary school, then that’s a time that children move into adulthood. It’s another – can be another inflection point. So to look at lifespan development means that there are check in times all along, there may be some boosters along, but there should be less need for intervention if we have a strong beginning.