PB4L Conference 2019 - Keynote Speaker: Nathan Wallis

 Friday 30 August PB4L Conference

Keynote Speaker: Nathan Wallis 

The Developing Brain - Ka Tikaka o Ka Roro

Understanding the teenage brain; need to understand neuroscience

• First 1000 days of life (3 years) - brain is genetically deciding what it needs to know for the rest of its life - nurture, environment, not just genes by itself - most important time period in your life 

• face to face contact - conversations, words spoken to them 0-1 years correlates with your success as an adult (first born statistically more successful)

• more emotionally connected you are to a person, more brain development

• culture vs. research - higher up in education system you are you are deemed ‘more successful’ and have more importance on a child’s life, but it is the opposite 

• prosocial relationships - “drunk in love” on oxytocin - responding positively all the time, reflects in the baby as well
  
  

• brain is moulded by the environment, less than 30% genetically set when they are born 

• brain 4 - frontal cortex; “anything the dog (brain 1-3) can’t do” - what is reported on at school, what makes you a good person, what keeps you out of jail… full developed, previously said was age 12 (based on size, not on internal development) 2019 - technology tells us late 20s. 

• Reaching milestones, more related to gender and birth order than IQ (first born girls ahead of the game)
  
  

brain 1 - survival, brain 2 - movement (reptilian brain), brain 3 - emotions (mammal brain), brain 4 - boundaries/consequences/thinking/learning (human brain)

• you get to brain 4 by supporting brains 1-3 

• brains work from the bottom to the top
  
  

• 6 months - survival mode - love

• 6-18 months is when children have movement - motor-skills developed during this time 

• 2-8 years emotional response (ECE curriculums, social/emotional skills) - feeling brain 

• 7 transition period - allow age 4, 5, 6 to be 4, 5, 6 not worrying about them getting “ready for school” with sitting on the mat, holding a pencil, counting etc. that can be done 7+, literacy and numeracy will ‘disappear’ or be ‘ironed out’ by 8, emotional control (feeling brain) is more important (disposition of themselves as a learner) - Te Whariki ECE curriculum 

• 6-27 controlling yourself/thinking/learning etc. (key competencies, curriculums, different part of the brain) - thinking brain 

10% of the time adults make decisions the same way as a teenager ex) getting a cookie for a snack 

• Prioritizing the feeling of enjoyment vs. the final outcomes (not healthy etc.) 

Second Session - continuing on 

Teenagers have issues reading facial expressions - think with amygdala (anger button) - teachers/parents/peers appear angry to them so they are reactive

• Fusiform gyrus needs to form 

Traumas are increased when the child is 11 - divorce, death, etc.  Risk Factors Alcohol before age 18, creates problems in adulthood (45 year old who commits a crime drunk, drank when they were a teenager)  New Zealand norm is that social acceptable drinks are 13. Other countries, 3.  Adult who has not drank as a teenager should be able to drink 8 drinks and not lose control of their frontal cortex Marijuana before 18 - drops 8 IQ points, if you have schizophrenia gene, it is more likely to activate  Meth, too ‘new’ to have long term research, but seems to leave holes in frontal cortex - not able to recover as easily, people will likely end up in special needs care to deal with this as adults  5+ children in a whanau  Child care in first 3 years Not a close relationship with extended family (grandparents) Looking a culture and not knowing the language ex) Maori Family violence Foster care, parents who were in foster care Positives Bilingualism Knowing an instrument - even better before age 7 (like learning a second language)  Parents at home until 3 years Close relationships with extended whanau Same teacher for more than one year at school, extra points for every year Parents who have tertiary education

Helicopter parents - don’t allow children to take risks, when left to their own devices, these children will actually take more dangerous risks as they haven’t figured out on their own what is a ‘hard fall’ ex) won’t fall off the monkey bars because they are not allowed, but will jump off the roof when parents aren’t watching 

Anxiety - comes from genes (will vary in terms of how much) as well as environment 

• Everyone has a disposition for anxiety or depression when something goes wrong, likely at some point will experience it

• ex) Christchurch earthquakes, kids who were predispositions with genes on “5/10 points”, earthquake hits and point goes up “6/10” - 6/10 turns it on, probably going to experience anxiety 

• Risk factors adds points, positives can cancel them out - there’s no way to predict how it will happen, won’t know how much you are genetically predispositioned for 

• Not everyone will have the same experiences genetically or situationally