AH125: Science-Driven Innovation in the Early Childhood Ecosystem

The primary aim of this course is to leverage advances in the biological, behavioral, and social sciences to catalyze more effective policies and programs to strengthen the foundations of early development and lifelong health in the prenatal and early childhood periods. Drawing on a diversity of perspectives, students will learn how interactions among early experiences, individual variation in sensitivity to context, and developmental timing shape brain architecture and other biological systems (e.g., immune and metabolic) that affect learning, behavior, and health. Particular attention is focused on how adverse experiences and exposures related to intergenerational poverty, racism, and other structural inequities, as well as individual disruptions in the caregiving environment, are built into the developing body and lead to either successful adaptation (i.e., resilience) or disparities in educational achievement and both physical and mental well-being. Students from a diversity of professional and personal backgrounds work on team projects over the course of the semester to explore how enhanced understanding of causal mechanisms that influence early development can catalyze fresh thinking about the variable effectiveness of "evidence-based" policies and programs and inform new strategies (at the child, family, and community levels) to achieve greater impacts on the lives of all young children facing adversity.
Recommended/intended for students who are motivated to be change agents in practice, policy, and/or research.