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You might think IQ is going up, but if you look at what subtest scores are increasing, it's really just the ability to abstract and answer hypotheticals (see Flynn, 2007). This just means it is the left brain that is being developed, and it's at the expense of the right brain. And that's just what our childcare practices are doing.
Undercare, not getting the care the body and brain expects, especially influences right brain development--the initial seat of emotional development and where knowledge built from experience is initially stored. The right brain undergoes rapid development in the first two years of life when extensive calm and interactive, symbiotic, loving care is expected. Instead because of undercare, we see emotional intelligence decreasing and IQ maintaining itself (see here for the type of care expected).
As we neglect fostering how to BE (living in the present moment with one's emotions) and DO things (action intelligence), our kids grow in the ways the culture allows--in abstracting from real life into media-derived lives. People have learned to live "second-hand" lives, lives mediated by others. Unfortunately, it mostly makes for shallow unsatisfying living and orientations that are dangerous to real life. Detachment from aliveness (i.e., emotions, connections, relationships, nature) means you can make all sorts of life-destroying decisions without any sense of real consequences or pangs of remorse.
Metaphors
A child trying to develop with less than ideal care (undercare) is like building a house without nails. When stressors arise, as they inevitably do, the house will be shaken and mutilated. Or maybe better said, it's more like building a house without windows, or with a backdoor that doesn't open, or a staircase with no stairs. The particular defect depends on the timing of the undercare-what systems were under development when the evolutionarily-expected support was not received? You may not notice the defect until you need that aspect of the house, like when winter comes and there is no furnace. The brain doesn't have the full complement of capabilities but it isn't apparent until the foundation is needed for the next level of development. Adolescence arrives and you discover that the groundwork for serotonin receptors was faultily developed in the first year of life from the child not being carried or breastfed, leading to clinical depression.
A child trying to develop in an abusive environment is like trying to build a house during a hurricane. Actually, the house examples may be misleading. They make you think that you actually have a functional house in the end.
Perhaps it is better to use cake baking as a metaphor for childrearing (not pregnancy-one in the oven!). Like baking a cake, there is a certain timing and sequence to childrearing. If you put the salt in after everything else, it won't be well mixed. If you forget the baking powder, it will never rise. If you have the oven temperature too low, you'll end up with a dry crusty product. If you turn the oven off in the middle, you'll have unfinished batter. If you never turn the oven on, you'll have an eventually rotting mess, the ingredients gelling in some unimagined fashion. Child development is similar. If you don't pay attention to the ancestral sequence and timing of care, you will end up with pockets of undercooked, unfinished or misdesigned brain and body systems.
What concretely am I talking about?
Experience from the beginning of life can influence developmental outcomes, including social and moral outcomes. For example, in the first days of prenatal life the developing blastocyst's germ wall may be stressed in such a way that shows identifiable methylation later in disparate parts of the body (blood, brain's temporal lobe) that deletes an oxytocin receptor linked to autism (Gregory et al., 2009). What stressors might do this? Environmental effects on fetal and child development include maternal diet during gestation (with different effects depending on timing), infant and child diet, xenobiotic chemicals (e.g., bi-sphenol-A plastic), and radiation (for a review, see Dolinoy, Weidman & Jirtle, 2007). These can directly influence methylation and chromatin remodeling factors resulting in an alteration in the fetal epigenome and subsequent gene expression. This means that women who are wanting or in the condition to be able to get pregnant should be eating well, avoiding radiation, plastics and other chemicals.
Similar effects on child outcomes are found postnatally from what caregivers do or do not do.
Let's just talk about one example. 0-6 months is the preattachment phase when the caregivers' responsivity (noticing signals early and meeting the baby's needs quickly so that the baby does NOT become distressed) lays the groundwork for secure attachment later. Secure attachment, in part, represents good neurobiological development and leads to all sorts of positive cognitive, social, emotional and moral outcomes.
For example, Feldman found that responsivity at 3 months was linked to attachment later. Our work, which starts at 4 months, concurs. Mother-child responsive relationship at 4 months predicts predicts the child's self regulation, cooperation and social engagement by 18 months and older. Responsivity also predicts less aggression, depression but more competence and intelligence by age 2 and beyond.
The early months of caregiver-baby relationship is key, setting the pattern for the rest of the life (although, yes, there are other sensitive periods for different aspects, but perhaps none so key as the early mutual co-regulatory relationship).
So if you want your child to be fully alive, perceptive, social and smart, follow our ancestral practices: nurse, hold, respond, let play, and share care.
*I focused on early care here, but undercare afflicts all age groups, which I will write about in another blog. However, undercare may have its greatest effects in early life when the body and brain are being constructed.
POSTS ON PARENTING ISSUES AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT:
INFANT SLEEP AND SLEEP TRAINING:
6 Hidden Myths Behind Baby Sleep Training Advocacy
Child Sleep Training’s “Best Review of Research”
Parents Misled by Cry-It-Out Sleep Training Reports
REBUTTAL to critique of "Parents Misled by...Sleep Training Reports"
Baby Sleep Training: Mistakes “Experts” and Parents Make
'Let Crying Babes Lie'? So Wrong
Simple Ways to Calm a Crying Baby
Normal, Human Infant Sleep: Feeding Method and Development
Normal Infant Sleep: Changing Patterns
Normal Parent Behaviors and Why They Won’t Hurt Your Child
Normal Infant Sleep: Night Nursing's Importance
More Normal Parenting for Sleep
Understanding and Helping Toddler Sleep
Understanding and Helping Toddler Sleep-Tiredness?
Understanding and Helping Toddler Sleep--Preparing Success
Bed Sharing With Babies: What is the Hype About?
Bedsharing or Co-Sleeping Can Save Babies' Lives
BIRTH
Painkillers for Childbirth? The Few Pros and Many Cons
What's the Use of Midwives and Doulas?
What if Jesus Had Been Born in the USA?
CIRCUMCISION
Why Continue to Harm Boys from Ignorance of Male Anatomy?
What Is the Greatest Danger for an Uncircumcised Boy?
Circumcision Ethics and Economics
Circumcision: Social, Sexual, Psychological Realities
More Circumcision Myths You May Believe: Hygiene and STDs
Myths about Circumcision You Likely Believe
BREASTFEEDING
Talk About Breastfeeding With Your Family, Friends and Doctor
Breastmilk Wipes Out Formula: Responses to Critical Comments
In Light of Last Week's Posts: Is Pushing* Formula Evil?
The REAL Truth about Breastfeeding
5 Things You Thought You Knew about Breastfeeding
The TREMENDOUS Benefits of Doing What is Normal: Breastfeeding
Myths you probably believe about infant formula
Your assumptions about infant formula are probably wrong
It’s Breastfeeding Week: Why should you care?
PARENTING: GENERAL
Research on Spanking: It's Bad for ALL Kids
What Happened to Ethics in Pediatric Medicine?
Baby-, Parent- or Life-Centered Parenting?
Ten Ways to Truly Respect Motherhood
Parents Should Know the Limitations of Science Experiments
Babies "don’t cry in Africa," why should they cry in the USA?
Blame the baby or blame the experts?
Dumb Parent(ing), Dumberer Child
Are you treating your child like a prisoner?
Undercare: The bane of American life?
Promoting Thriving in School-Aged Children: A Checklist
Is it good to make kids afraid?
Are you or your child on a (touch) starvation diet?
Mother’s touch of dead baby causes “miracle”
What Does Good Parenting Look Like? You Decide.
CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
Are You a “Childist?" Test Yourself
Babies Are Needy—Does That Bug You?
Do We Need Declaration for the Rights of the Baby?
The Decline of Children and the Moral Sense
Believing "children are resilient" may be a fantasy
How America Morally Fails its Children: What Needs to Change
Increase the well-being of children around you
SERIES ON CHILD FLOURISHING*
1. Kindness in Kids and the Nature-Nurture Debate (Dr. Sarina Saturn)
2. Why Synchronize and Bond With Your Children (Dr. Ruth Feldman)
3. “I want it—now!” How Children Learn Self-Control (Dr. Julie Braungart-Rieker)
4. Why Kids Should Be Protected from Toxic Stress (Dr. Bruce Perry)
5. “Mr. Mom” The New (or Old?) Normal (Dr. Lee Gettler)
6. Why Dad’s “Talk” is Important (Dr. Holly Brophy-Herb)
7. Conflict in the Family: Why Mom and Dad Should Say “Sorry” (Dr. Mark Cummings)
8. Domination or Partnership? How Does Your Family Stack Up? (Dr. Riane Eisler)
9. Why Carefully Invest Daily in a Child (Dr. Robin Nelson)
ALSO SEE: What is Child Flourishing?
NOTE on BASIC ASSUMPTIONS:
When I write about human nature, I use the 99% of human genus history as a baseline. That is the context of small-band hunter-gatherers. These are “immediate-return” societies with few possessions who migrate and forage. They have no hierarchy or coercion and value generosity and sharing. They exhibit both high autonomy and high commitment to the group. They have high social wellbeing. See comparison between dominant Western culture and this evolved heritage in my article (you can download from my website):
Narvaez, D. (2013). The 99 Percent—Development and socialization within an evolutionary context: Growing up to become “A good and useful human being.” In D. Fry (Ed.), War, Peace and Human Nature: The convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views (pp. 643-672). New York: Oxford University Press.
When I write about parenting, I assume the importance of the evolved developmental niche (EDN) for raising human infants (which initially arose over 30 million years ago with the emergence of the social mammals and has been slightly altered among human groups based on anthropological research).
The EDN is the baseline I use for determining what fosters optimal human health, wellbeing and compassionate morality. The niche includes at least the following: infant-initiated breastfeeding for several years, nearly constant touch early, responsiveness to needs so the young child does not get distressed, playful companionship with multi-aged playmates, multiple adult caregivers, positive social support, and soothing perinatal experiences.
All EDN characteristics are linked to health in mammalian and human studies (for reviews, see Narvaez, Panksepp, Schore & Gleason, 2013; Narvaez, Valentino, Fuentes, McKenna & Gray, 2014; Narvaez, 2014) Thus, shifts away from the EDN baseline are risky and must be supported with longitudinal data looking at wellbeing in children and adults. My comments and posts stem from these basic assumptions.
My research laboratory has documented the importance of the EDN for child wellbeing and moral development with more papers in the works see (my Website to download papers):
Narvaez, D., Gleason, T., Wang, L., Brooks, J., Lefever, J., Cheng, A., & Centers for the Prevention of Child Neglect (2013). The Evolved Development Niche: Longitudinal Effects of Caregiving Practices on Early Childhood Psychosocial Development. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 28 (4), 759–773. Doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2013.07.003
Narvaez, D., Wang, L., Gleason, T., Cheng, A., Lefever, J., & Deng, L. (2013). The Evolved Developmental Niche and sociomoral outcomes in Chinese three-year-olds. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 10(2), 106-127.
Also see these books for selected reviews:
Evolution, Early Experience and Human Development (Oxford University Press)
Ancestral Landscapes in Human Evolution (Oxford University Press)
Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom (W.W. Norton)
