Northwest Early Childhood Institute - Conference Presentations
2007
Neurons to Neighborhoods In Action - Six Years Later
Ross Thompson, Ph.D., David Bergman, M.D., FAAP, David Willis, M.D., FAAP
Six years ago, the report Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development issued a strong call to action for a new national dialogue focused on society's shared responsibility for children and teh wisdom of strategic social development. This multidisciplinary group of nationally prominent experts urged society to use the exploding knowledge of early childhood development to maximize the nation's human capital and ensure the future vitality of its democratic institutions. This conference brought us together almost seven years later to focus on local and national momentum toward this goal.
Ross Thompson: We are in the midst of a historical turning-point in our understanding of early childhood development provoked by two discoveries: 1) the significance of early brain development, and 2) the importance of early experiences for school readiness. We are in the midst of a third discovery that also has the prospect of revolutionizing thinking about young children, and this concerns the depth and vulnerability of young children's emotional lives, and the implications for early mental health. Taken together with new work on the science of human capital formation, science is putting a spotlight on the importance of investing in babies and young children's lives in families, with important implications for public policy.
David Bergman: Currently well-child care (WCC) does not meet the needs of families or the aspirations of pediatric practitioners. Significant improvements in WCC will require transformational change. We will present the results of a large scale effort to define a future vision for well child care. We will review innovations in care coordination using “horizontal thinking;” methods to tailor the encounter to the individual needs of the family; and the use of new technology to free the office from its “bricks and mortar;” along with creative ways to pay for preventive and developmental services for children. Lastly we will discuss current efforts to implement many of these changes in a large HMOs.
David Willis: From the catalytic “call to community action” of the From Neurons to Neighborhood
report, Oregon’s early childhood community has built upon this opportunity for
collaboration, engagement and action. Fortunately and perhaps unexpectedly, a
previously disengaged health system of primary care has joined this effort becoming a
linchpin for achieving our hope of promoting healthy early childhood development for
all children. The physicians within our communities can strengthen our efforts through
family engagement, screening and monitoring of developmental and psychosocial status
and through new models of collaboration with the local early childhood systems. What
appears to be emerging in Oregon is a revolutionary model of developmental assurance
by means of an early childhood, public-private partnership that realizes our dreams for
all of Oregon’s youngest children and families.
Video Presentations to download (You will need Quicktime Player): Ross Thompson Presentation (88MB), David Bergman Presentation (70MB), David Willis Presentation (70MB)
2006
Engaging Parents as Experts: National and local efforts to create healthy early childhood partnerships
Paula Duncan, M.D., Colleen Peck Reuland, M.S., Roberta Weber, Ph.D., Rebecca Adelmann, Discussant
A gathering of national health care professionals, child care professionals, and researchers who promote early childhood prevention efforts led by strong family voices. National experts shared their knowledge of both policy- and community-level efforts that promote healthy psychosocial development of our youngest children through stronger collaborations with parents.
Paula Duncan, M.D., a national leader within the American Academy of Pediatrics, comes to Portland to share her experiences of early childhood community change in Vermont Child Health Improvement Project, Bright Futures, and ABCD projects. She focused on unique community opportunities for new partnerships with parents so that families get what they need when they access health care. Getting powerful information into the hands of parents to help drive up childcare quality is critical.
Colleen Peck Reuland described how Child & Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) parent survey data is guiding quality improvement in health care nationally and locally. Parent feedback is critical to creating family-centered systems. CAHMI has been gathering parent experience data for over 10 years.
Dr. Bobbie Weber shared her insights into developing a web-based data set that empowers parents as they make child care choices by providing them with quality and descriptive data on community child care facilities.
Becky Adelmann is a parent of a now-grown child with chronic disease, and the state coordinator of Family Voices in Oregon while directing Family & Consumer Involvement for an OHSU program. Becky has advocated for the transformation of health system responsiveness for parents for many years and connected today's presenters to the many "on the ground" parent advocacy issues.
Materials to download: Paula Duncan Presentation, Colleen Reuland Presentation, Bobbie Weber Presentation
Creating the Developmental Home: Bringing Pediatrics to the Early Childhood Community
Toward Early Childhood Community and Pediatric Partnerships: Assuring Future Health and Developmental Outcomes Helen DuPlessis, M.D., MPH,
Better Together: Integrating Early Child Health into Community Systems Edward L. Schor, M.D.
Early childhood developmental research, prevention science and developmental neuroscience converge to thrust forward exciting opportunities to address the needs of young families, infants and young children in new ways. This conference brought together all the disciplines that surround families to examine the role of the pediatric medical practitioner in creating a Developmental Home for young children. The Developmental Home promotes expanding the role for pediatricians within the health and early childhood community. The strengths of pediatrics can be brought to innovative community efforts when pediatric professionals become "one of the team."
Helen DuPlessis, M.D., MPH, is an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and an adjunct assistant professor at the UCLA School of Public Health.
Edward L. Schor, M.D., vice president of the Commonwealth Fund, leads the Fund's Child Development and Preventive Care program. Dr. Schor, a pediatrician, served as medical director for the Iowa Department of Public Health, Division of Family and Community Health before joining The Commonwealth Fund in 2002. He has a special interest in the social determinants of child health and family functioning. He is editor of the book Caring for Your School-Age Child.
Materials to download: DuPlessis/Schor Presentation
2005
Attachment, Neuroscience and Early Brain Development
Alan Schore, Ph.D.
Local child and family clinicians were invited to this intimate presentation, in order to consider the formation of a collaborative interdisciplinary study group focusing on the latest research from the broad fields of attachment theory, neuroscience and early brain development, interpersonal neurobiology and infant mental health. A subscription group is now attending four lectures by Schore and supplemental telephone conferences in 2006-2007.
Dr. Schore is best known for his book ?AffAffect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of Emotional Development ? (Er (Erlbaum, 1994). This book broke new ground by connecting the intellectual worlds of human development, neurobiology, and psychoanalytic theory. It describes the direct links between emotional regulation, the earliest relational experiences that give rise to attachment, and anatomical, biochemical brain development, specifically right brain and right prefrontal cortex. Such core concepts have had direct impact on good psychotherapeutic practices.
An Evening with Dr. Dan Siegel
A presentation about the neurobiology of child development by Dr. Dan Siegel, author of The Developing Mind and Parenting from the Inside Out and researcher in the field of early childhood socio-emotional health. Learn more about the work of Northwest Early Childhood Institute as well. Dr. Siegel joins a wide range of disciplines in exploring the idea that the mind develops at the interface between human relationships and the unfolding structure and function of the brain. Recent discoveries from a number of independent fields can be synthesized to explain how the mind is directly shaped by interpersonal experiences, especially early childhood attachments.
Dr. Siegel is the co-editor of a handbook of psychiatry and the author of the internationally acclaimed text, The Developing Mind: Toward a Neurobiology of Interpersonal Experience (1999). His book with Mary Hartzell, M.Ed., Parenting from the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive (2003) explores the application of this newly emerging view of the mind, the brain, and human relationships.
- When: October 20, 2005
- Co-sponsors: Bill and Carol Kinnune
Relationship of Adverse Childhood Experiences to Adult Health and Well-being
Vincent Felitti, M.D., (Return Engagement)
Dr. Felitti is one of the principal investigators, along with the Centers for Disease Control, of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, a long-term, in-depth analysis of over 18,000 adults that correlates their current health status with eight categories of negative childhood experiences. Findings reveal a powerful relationship between searing emotional experiences as children and our physical and mental health as adults, including most of the chronic diseases causing early deaths in the United States. To date, over 30 scientific articles have been published and over 100 conference and workshop presentations have been made.
Dr. Felitti described a more recent study that documented in 120,000 patients the impact of simply creating an opportunity for them to discuss their adverse childhood experiences with the caregiver during the office visit. Preliminary data show a reduction in office visits of over 30%, and in emergency room visits of 12%, in this group of patients during the subsequent year. The potential impact of this study, in concert with the ACE Study, on the health of our citizens is enormous. For this reason, NWECI invited Dr. Felitti to return to Portland for a second presentation of his work and its relevance to the everyday practice of medicine and mental health.
- When: September 12, 2005
- Co-sponsors: Oregon Commission on Children and Families, United Way of the Columbia-Willamette
Cultural Aspects of Early Childhood Development
Dr. Barbara Rogoff
Barbara Rogoff, Ph.D. is a major figure in cultural anthropology that focuses her work on cross-cultural early child development. Dr. Rogoff presented a view of early human development that looks at both the differences and similarities among cultures. Beyond demonstrating that "human development is a cultural process," Dr. Rogoff showed us patterns to help us make sense of the cultural outcomes of child rearing practices. Her research and theory spans several disciplines, including cross-cultural psychology, socio-cultural research, linguistic and psychological anthropology, and history. Barbara Rogoff, Ph.D. is UC-Santa Cruz Foundation Professor of Psychology and holds the UC Presidential Chair. Recent books include Learning Together: Children and Adults in a School Community (Oxford, 2001) and The Cultural Nature of Human Development (Oxford, 2003).
Adverse Early Childhood Experiences Shape the Future: Newest Findings
The Relationship of Adverse Childhood Experiences to Adult Health and Well-being, Vincent Felitti, M.D.
Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence, Robin Karr-Morse
The ACE Study documents the conversion of traumatic emotional experiences in childhood into organic disease later in life. One does not "just get over" some things, not even fifty years later. Dr. Vincent Felitti began this research in charge of an obesity treatment program and has become a forceful spokesman on the negative impacts of adverse childhood experiences on adults. Dr. Felitti is one of the principal investigators, along with the Centers for Disease Control, of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, a long-term, in-depth analysis of over 18,000 adults that matches their current health status against eight categories of adverse childhood experiences. Findings reveal a powerful relationship between our emotional experiences as children and our physical and mental health as adults, including compelling correlations with preventable diseases and early deaths in American adults. These findings should have the power to transform pediatric medicine as well as the focus of medical treatment for all adult disease.
Robin Karr-Morse is co-author of Ghosts From the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence. Her message is bold: to understand the tide of violent behavior, we must look earlier, before adolescence, before grade school, before preschool - to the cradle. Karr-Morse is a veteran of both child welfare and public education systems in Oregon and has started or directed many public or non-profit programs to combat child abuse and strengthen parenting. Karr-Morse was a consultant to Dr. T. Berry Brazelton's Touchpoints Program and is a lecturer on the Brazelton Seminar Faculty, and is currently a family therapist in private practice.
Materials to download: Dr. Felitti's Presentation
2003
Promoting Community-based Collaborations to Address Problems of Early Childhood Mental Health
The Honorable John Kitzhaber, M.D., Former Governor of Oregon
At an event to thank major donors of the Hearing & Speech Institute and welcome associates of the newly acquired division Northwest Early Childhood Institute, former governor John Kitzhaber elaborated on his ongoing mission to "disturb the universe" by promoting community-based collaborations to address problems of early childhood mental health and other social concerns. Kitzhaber has been meeting with Dr. Donald Rushmer, Executive Director of the Hearing & Speech Institute, and Dr. David Willis, Director of the Northwest Early Childhood Institute, for the last six months in an effort to build a model of consensus-building and collaboration that will do more to ensure the healthy social-emotional development of babies and young children.
2002
Regulatory and MultiSensory Challenges Affecting Parent-Child Relationships
Georga DeGangi, Ph.D. OTR
A unique training event featuring Dr. Georgia DeGangi, Ph.D. provided a two-day training focused on the following topics:
- Regulatory and multi-sensory challenges affecting development and the parent-child relationship
- Assessment of self -regulation, sensory processing, and attention
- Systematic observations of parent-child interactions using the Functional Emotional Development Scale
- Treatment approaches: Sensory integration, parent-child interactive therapy, and parent guidance
- Treatment of high irritability, sleep, feeding, and sensory issues
- Treatment of attention, communication, and interaction issues
- Case presentations
- When: November, 2002
- Co-sponsors: Portland Early Intervention Programs, Early Head Start Family Center of Portland, Hearing & Speech Institute, OHSU Child Development and Rehabilitation Center
Third Annual Community Conference: Health Promotions through Health Systems
Changing Pediatrics: Practical Experiences, Barry Zuckerman, M.D.
Dr Barry Zuckerman is a professor of pediatrics and public health at Boston University School of Medicine and Chief of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center with chief research and advocacy interests in 1) promoting health and development of children and 2) training child health professionals. His initiatives include:
- REACH OUT AND READ promotes literacy for young children in over 1000 sites of primary care when pediatricians give books at every patient visit starting at 6 months
- HEALTHY STEPS multi-site national trial of expanded pediatric services emphasizing child development
- FAMILY ADVOCACY PROGRAM legal advocacy and policy work within pediatric settings
Dr. Zuckerman is the author of over 150 scientific publications and the editor of 4 books including Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics: Handbook for Primary Care.
Afternoon small groups (facilited by):
- Child Development in Primary Care: Beyond Rhetoric (Bilderback)
- Implementing an Early Literacy Program in Your Practice (PAP)
- Preventive MH Opportunities in Public Health (Dr. Maldonado & Dr. Astrid Newell)
- Healthy Steps and Touch Point Programs: Practical Experiences (Dr. Barry Zuckerman & Robin Karr-Morse)
- Every Encounter is an Intervention (Drs. Shahmoon-Shanok and Buckendorf)
- When: April 22, 2002
- Co-Sponsors: Emanuel Children's Hospital, Oregon Health Sciences University (Department of Pediatrics), Oregon Pediatric Society, Portland Academy of Pediatrics, Multnomah County Mental Health Partnership, Oregon Health Division, Oregon Chapter of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
2001
Strengthening Attachment: Promising Strategies
Kathryn Barnard Ph.D., Kent Hoffman, Ph.D.
Understanding Attachment: Dr. Barnard introduced the day by describing the parent-child emotional bond known in some professional circles as attachment, which is being revealed to be central to many diverse child outcomes. An attuned, mutually comforting relationship with a parent, or a weak one, often measured in the laboratory by activating the child's separation anxiety, is shown in many different studies to heavily influence a variety of adolescent and adult problems, including mental illness, addiction, criminality, violence, and adult failure in jobs, relationships, and social participation. The poor attachment is often repeated when the child becomes a parent, even if outward social accomplishment such as marriage and employment has been achieved. She touched on a few attachment interventions, including the Circle of Security profiled for the rest of the day.
Application of Attachment Theory: Promising Strategies Kent Hoffman, Bert Powell, and Glen Cooper introduced their twenty-week parent intervention group named Circle of Security. They described the theoretical underpinnings, some early evidence of improved attachment as a measured outcome, and some of the methods used in the groups, such as stop-motion replay of parent-child interaction and therapeutic group dynamics. They conduct a modified Ainsworth Strange Situation experimental protocol at the beginning, middle, and end of the groups, and have them scored to show outcomes, which seem extremely promising. Closing remarks were offered by Mary Mertz, Portland Early Intervention Program, including ideas to apply Circle of Security concepts and practices to Portland community.
- When: Saturday, April 28, 2001
- Co-Sponsors: Portland Public Schools (Healthy Students Grant, Early Childhood Mental Health Best Practices Project), Multnomah County Early Childhood Care and Education Council, Legacy Emanuel Children's Hospital/Legacy Health System, Friends of the Children, Morrison Center, Oregon State Mental Health Division, Oregon Commission on Children, Families and Community
Materials to download: Circle of Security
Second Annual Community Conference: From Neurons to Neighborhoods
Charles A. Nelson, Ph.D., Kathryn Barnard, Ph.D., Ruth Massinga, M.S.
Early childhood experts who contributed to the new book by the National Research Council, From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development were the presenters. A three-year study by the nation's leading experts in early child development, the report integrates the research on early childhood development. It presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the social and emotional lives of young children, parenting and child care, economic security and workplaces, and the opportunities and challenges of early interventions.
- Charles A. Nelson, Ph.D. is a leading researcher in developmental cognitive neuroscience. He is a professor of child psychology, pediatrics, and neuroscience at the University of Minnesota.
- Kathryn Barnard, Ph.D. is the Director, School of Nursing, University of Washington, and an Adjunct Professor of Psychology. Dr. Barnard's lifetime of work on attachment and strengthening parent-child relations is cited in From Neurons to Neighborhoods.
- Ruth Massinga, M.S. is chief executive officer of Casey Family Programs, a nationwide operating foundation devoted to the support of children and families within foster care.
- When: Friday, April 27, 2001
- Co-Sponsors: Legacy Emanuel Children's Hosptial/Legacy Health System, Oregon Health Sciences University, Oregon Pediatric Society, Oregon Commission on Children, Families and Community
Materials to download: New Understandings about Early Brain Development, the Development of Memory and Brain Plasticity
City Club Luncheon: Affect Regulation - A Fundamental Process for Psychobiological Development, Brain Organization, and Psychotherapy
Alan Schore, Ph.D.
Dr. Schore is best known for his book Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of Emotional Development (Erlbaum, 1994). This book broke new ground by connecting the intellectual worlds of human development, neurobiology, and psychoanalytic theory. It describes the direct links between emotional regulation, the earliest relational experiences that give rise to attachment, and anatomical, biochemical brain development, specifically right brain and right prefrontal cortex. Such core concepts have had direct impact on good psychotherapeutic practices. This talk focused on two topics:
- Parent-infant communication and the neurobiology of emotional development
- Relevance of recent research on attachement theory and developmental neuroscience to affectively-focused psychotherapy
- When: Friday, April 20, 2001
- Co-Sponsor: Portland City Club
Neurodevelopment and Adverse Childhood Experiences: The Consequences of Maltreatment
Bruce Perry, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Perry is the nation's foremost authority on early brain development and the neurodevelopmental effects of childhood maltreatment. Afterward, community leaders spoke about the integration of such neurodevelopmental findings into medicine, juvenile justice, mental health & Early Intervention treatment, and into public policy. Finally the group heard from Dr. Perry about systems in Texas, his web-based Child Trauma Academy, and current national research and practice.
- When: Friday, January 5, 2001
- Co-Sponsors: Legacy Emanuel Children's Hosptial, CARES NW - Leila Keltner, M.D.
Materials to download: Experience, Brain Development and the Next Generation, Neurodevelopment and Adverse Childhood Experiences
City Club Luncheon: Affect Regulation - A Fundamental Process for Psychobiological Development, Brain Organization, and Psychotherapy
Alan Schore, Ph.D.
Dr. Schore is best known for his book Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of Emotional Development (Erlbaum, 1994). This book broke new ground by connecting the intellectual worlds of human development, neurobiology, and psychoanalytic theory. It describes the direct links between emotional regulation, the earliest relational experiences that give rise to attachment, and anatomical, biochemical brain development, specifically right brain and right prefrontal cortex. Such core concepts have had direct impact on good psychotherapeutic practices. This talk focused on two topics:
- Parent-infant communication and the neurobiology of emotional development
- Relevance of recent research on attachement theory and developmental neuroscience to affectively-focused psychotherapy
- When: Friday, April 20, 2001
- Co-Sponsor: Portland City Club
2000
Stanley Greenspan
Dr. Greenspan was invited to address a cadre of supervisors, mentors, trainers and others in positions from which to disseminate best practice methods to the broader early childhood mental health community and to the early childhood care and education community.
- When: July, 2000
- Co-Sponsors: Multnomah County Early Childhood Care and Education Council, Best Practices Project
The Developing Mind: Toward An Interpersonal Neurobiology
Daniel J. Siegel, M.D.
Dr. Siegel brought together the rapidly changing science of brain development and social and emotional child development. Interdisciplinary views from a range of scientific fields were integrated with clinical examples to describe how the human mind emerges in infants and young children. Both the brain’s structures and functions are influenced greatly by social and emotional experiences. The conference described many ways of conceptualizing, studying, and treating the mind:
- Mind, Brain and Experience
- What is memory, anyway?
- Interpersonal Communication and Attachment
- Emotion: A Developmental, Neurobiological, and Subjective View
- Mental Representations and the Neural Contruction of Reality
- States of Mind and Self-Regulation
- Interpersonal Connections, Neural Integration, and Mental Health
Dan Siegel is co-editor of a handbook of psychiatry and the author of numerous publications including a recent book The Developing Mind: Toward a Neurobiology of Interpersonal Experience. This book has been utilized by a variety of organizations, including the Council on Technology and the Individual, the Sundance Institute, psychiatry departments worldwide, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Vatican.
- When: May 4, 2000
- Co-Sponsor: Legacy Health System
Materials to download: Dr. Siegel's CV
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