January/February 2007

Latest Brain Development Research Being Put into Practice in Milwaukee

Recent discoveries in neuroscience have increased our understanding of what young children need most for healthy brain development. Whether at home or in a formal early education setting, children's brains will develop best if they are provided with:

  • chances to repeat activities;
  • regular routines and consistency;
  • opportunities to learn through hands-on interaction (play);
  • novel ways to learn and new experiences; and
  • positive, reliable and supportive relationships.

In this article, we highlight a Milwaukee center that incorporates this knowledge into the program. It is representative of the many positive efforts that are being undertaken in centers in Milwaukee. While there is considerable need for improvement in early care and education programs across the state, there are several examples of programs that are providing exactly what children need for optimal development.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) Children's Center is one of the programs that is doing it right. This nationally accredited center's brochure states that they "touch the hearts and minds of children." This is not just a promotional statement; observation of the program shows their philosophy in action.

In many ways, UWM Children's Center is not a typical early care and education program. The university system partially subsidizes the program, and provides opportunities for students to have practicum experiences that enhance staffing.

Just walking into each classroom, it is apparent that this is a special place for children. Each room is designed to be appropriate for the age of the children who learn there. These rooms foster a feeling of a safety, and present a caring and stimulating environment for learning. This is important because preschool children's brains are very responsive to environment. Young brains will adapt to whatever they are exposed to. Environments that are chaotic, disorderly or stressful have a direct negative influence on brain development.

The emergent curriculum used at the UWM Children's Center operates on the belief that children are competent learners. This philosophy allows for the interests and events in the lives of the children to guide learning. Through observation of interactions between staff and children in this program, it is apparent that respect for children and their individual needs are highly valued.

"A child does not learn from a passive kaleidoscope of experiences but from the outcomes of actions that he or she has initiated."

- Give Me a Child Until He is Seven, 1994

To develop the more complex areas of the brain, children must be able to experience things for themselves and feel the sense of accomplishment that goes along with completing tasks independently. To support this, adults need to allow (not force) enough time for children to try things over and over again. In this way the brain is reassured that what is learned is true. However, children need someone available to help and encourage them when things get overwhelming, and to support them in new situations. This support from caring adults provides comfort, a continued sense of excitement toward learning, and a strong base for continued growth. The qualified UWM staff skillfully guide the learning opportunities, with a supportive, positive approach.

"The characteristics of learning readiness are developed rather than taught and only through numerous concrete interactions with the world can a young child prepare to benefit from formal instruction later."

- David Elkind

Awareness of the importance of educated staff and favorable staff-to-child ratios is effectively put into practice at this center. Each classroom has a master teacher and an assistant master teacher or head teacher. UWM students also serve as assistant caregivers to help achieve smaller than usual staff-to-child ratios.

The quality and consistency of the relationship an infant/toddler has with his or her primary caregivers has a decisive influence on the "wiring" of the brain, impacting the nature and extent of adult capabilities. Consistency of caregivers is also emphasized at the UWM Children's Center. Children in an infant room stay in that room until they are about 18 months old, then transition only one time into a toddler room, where they stay until they are developmentally ready for a preschool room at about age 3. The staff works as a team; however, each child has a primary teacher assigned. Also integral to the relationship is the daily communication that takes place between the school and the home.

Documenting and assessing children's learning in an age appropriate way is an additional strength of the UWM Children's Center. Photos of children participating in activities, artwork, and recordings of children's words and stories are all techniques used for demonstrating children's learning. These are all prominently displayed. The educators, parents and the children themselves use them as ways to share in the delight of the growth taking place in these young brains.

In 2000, the National Research Council made this statement: "The policy issue is not one of getting children 'ready to learn,' but rather one of appreciating that they are born to learn and crafting policies and programs that actively build on their considerable capabilities."

The UWM Children's Center exemplifies that statement. The directors and staff are implementing a program that is giving children who are born to learn the joy of building on their capabilities in an environment that is designed for that purpose.

While many early care and education programs may not have the resources to provide the staffing and programming maintained by the UWM Children's Center, with careful planning and attention any program can implement many of the approaches observed here.

The UWM Children's Center and many similar programs across the state demonstrate that we know how to provide high quality early care and education programs with key quality components: highly qualified teachers, small class sizes and teacher-to-child ratios, parent involvement, curricula based on the latest knowledge about early brain development, and learning environments designed to ensure health and safety. In 2000 Wisconsin created 28 Early Childhood Centers for Excellence, with a high percentage located in Milwaukee. An evaluation by University of Wisconsin-Extension concluded that the initiative demonstrated the ability to substantially improve the quality of care provided in programs primarily serving children from low-income families. Under the strain of state budget pressures, funding for those centers was eliminated in 2005, and overall funding to improve the quality of early care and education has been cut by two-thirds since 2001. The challenge for the future is how to ensure that Wisconsin's children on a broad scale have access to programs as effective as the one at the UWM Children's Center.

"The policy issue is not one of getting children 'ready to learn,' but rather one of appreciating that they are born to learn and crafting policies and programs that actively build on their considerable capabilities."

- National Research Council, 2000