Well basically at every point there are different paths that we can take and choices that either we make or things that happen to us that can set us in one direction or another, and that starts right from before birth. If my mom drink alcohol during pregnancy to the point where I have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, I will have tremendous challenges in terms of attention deficit, in terms of decision making etcetera throughout my life. So the only way to address that, I mean we can help to steer back on a positive course with a lot of structure and supports and other things, but if we can prevent the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, then already you\u2019re in a better position. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Same for early stages when the brain is forming, when different body parts are developing etcetera, not being exposed to tobacco smoke, having adequate nutrition in the micronutrients that we need, having a stimulating environment so that our vision is developing, so you know, just even the fact of having visuals like mobiles in the crib and people talking to you and engaging you and you\u2019re moving and working, all of that sets you on one course. Whereas if you just leave a baby in a crib and ignore them, and if you give them apple juice or pop or whatever in a bottle before they go to bed, their teeth rot out, they can\u2019t get as good nutrition, I mean it\u2019s, again, they\u2019re all small decisions in a way but when they add up, and then at each point it\u2019s understanding that if we\u2019ve got off course how we can correct course. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some things we can treat, but not everything we can treat. Some things we can mitigate or reduce the impact, but not everything, so that way thinking back to those root causes; the root problems, and trying to improve that trajectory from the beginning is absolutely critical, and it\u2019s not that as parents we need to beat ourselves up because we all do, you know, it\u2019s a learning experience. You\u2019re first kid is different than your second and your third, but if you do the best you can the reassuring thing is that by in large kids are pretty resilient, but if you throw everything at them, they\u2019re going to struggle. But, you know, one day you yelled a little too loud, you know, they\u2019ll get over it, especially if they\u2019re in a loving caring environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s really about finding a balance, and we actually grow with our kids. Kids are not the future, they\u2019re today. They\u2019re the present . They\u2019re an important part of our society. They\u2019re an important part of our learning and our growing ourselves as we see kids, as kids ask us questions, and we explore ideas. Things we never would have thought about other than hearing that question even. Plus the way in which they enrich our lives. So they\u2019re not just the future, they are the present, and I think that\u2019s one of the big challenges often in policy and education, it\u2019s often as if they\u2019re these empty vessels we\u2019re going to fill up and create them. No, they are part of the dynamic society of today and we need to respect them for that, and they actually, my observation is they often know a lot more than we give them credit for, and are much wiser, much wiser than we give them credit for. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well basically at every point there are different paths that we can take and choices that either we make or things that happen to us that can set us in one direction or another, and that starts right from before birth. If my mom drink alcohol during pregnancy to the point where I have Fetal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-text-only.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2409","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2410,"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2409\/revisions\/2410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}