Assessing the Developing Child

1. Assessing the Developing Child Jane Holmes Bernstein Ph.D. Neuropsychology Program Department of Psychiatry Children’s Hospital Boston Harvard Medical School

2. MIND, BRAIN and EDUCATION in 2011

3. Mary Cassatt, 1898 Collection RauZurich

4. 4 points…

5. POINT #1 • traditional models for understanding children’s behavior are inadequate to the current task

6. Traditionally, focused on measurement— of a child’s abilities

7. Measuring children’s abilities • Psychometric paradigm • Skill based • Factor analysis of cognitive constructs underlying skills • Emphasis on inter-child ranking…

8. In 2011…. • Neuropsychology: Emphasis on biology

9. Biological organism behaving in environment

10. Emphasis on whole childas unit of analysis Analysis is intra-child

11. Clinical goal …increase success of organism’s behaving in environment [ecological validity defined in terms of organism acting in niche]

12. Evaluation data collection clinical analysis diagnosis Management education intervention [Rx & Tx] Assessment

13. POINT #2 Neuro = brain

14. What “drives” brains….?

15. INSERT CLASSROOM IMAGE

16. INSERT CLASSROOM IMAGE NOPE!!

17. What “drives” brains….?

18. What “drives” brains….? S e x !

21. What “drives” brains….? S e x ! Perpetuation of the species

22. What “drives” brains….? Food Fight Flight Friends S e x

23. What “drives” brains….? Food Fight Flight Friends S e x Preservation of self

24. What “drives” brains….? ….survival …. of the individual…. of the species….

25. “What drives brains?” Evolutionary context of ‘brain’

26. What are brains for?

27. What are brains for? Thinking….

28. What are brains for? • Doing! Motor action…….

29. POINT #3

30. How do brains work……

31. Digression… You are part of an intellectual tradition….

32. A bit of history…… • For >500 years: • The person has been at the center of how we think about ourselves

33. Fundamental assumption…. “..autonomous individual is center of knowledge and cognition..” (Dumont, 1965) “..the boundaries of the individual provide the proper framework within which psychological processes can be adequately analyzed..” (Wertsch et al., 1985)

34. Cognition: = set of processes that are internal and accessible only to the person to whom they belong

35. Fits with our experience of the world • Important for our psychological health

36. Fine….. • BUT….. It’s wrong!!!!! And we have NEUROSCIENCE to thank…..

37. Why is this important? This long-held belief shapes how we understand learning and learners. It shapes psychological and educational research…. It thus shapes our education system. …and,

38. More recent times…. • Emphasis has shifted from child-as-learner • To child-as-owner-of-the- learning-organ

39. Brain….

40. Brain… get built Doesn’t develop in a vacuum function

41. [BRAIN CONTEXT]

42. Can you have dyslexia if no-one ever asks you to read?

43. No ! • Biological vulnerability versus • Manifest symptom

44. Physical Brain systems Neurochemical bath Physical world [space, light, sound..] Psychological Social Emotional Beliefs, goals, values Brain-Context interaction

45. Context Tendency to think SPATIAL context But, not just spatial (here-and-now);

46. Context Not just spatial (here-and-now); but TEMPORAL contextis critical to the analysis (history: how-did-it-get-this-way?)

47. Context Temporalcontext: • evolution of THE brain • construction of the current social setting • developmental experience of THIS brain

48. Recall this… Levels in neuroscience • Genes • Gene expression • Molecules [regulate brain development] • Cells • Chemical circuits • Anatomical circuits • Functional circuits • Activity of mind/brain [normal and derailed feeling and thinking]

49. Levels in neuroscience • Genes • Gene expression • Molecules [regulate brain development] • Cells • Chemical circuits • Anatomical circuits • Functional circuits • Activity of mind/brain [normal and derailed feeling and thinking]

50. Levels in neuroscience • Genes • Gene expression • Molecules [regulate brain development] • Cells • Chemical circuits • Anatomical circuits • Functional circuits • Activity of mind/brain [normal and derailed feeling and thinking]