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Hello.
In this session I want to discuss in more detail some of the strategies, and
strategic approaches for intervention from a resilience framework.
We already saw the slide on methods, and
I mentioned that there are three basic, strategies for intervention.
In a resilience framework that are suggested by
the research that's accumulated.
And I want to talk a little bit more by giving you some examples of
these three approaches.
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One approach is risk focused.
Even though it's a resilience framework, it's important to take risk and
adversity into account.
Because one of the most powerful ways to promote better development in children is
to prevent, or reduce their exposure to life altering adversities.
And there are a number of examples listed here.
For example, one of the most powerful interventions that we have
observed in the past century is our efforts to improve
the chances of children to be born at full term.
We know that premature birth is a risk factor for human development.
And many efforts have been made in societies around the world to prevent
premature birth by providing better prenatal care, and
nutrition, and so forth for pregnant women.
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And it's far less expensive to.
Prevent premature birth and to deal with a young baby who's born two, or
three months too early, and
there are many other examples here that are risk focused in their design.
You can try to reduce the violence and adversity that children are exposed to.
You can.
Try to clean up the environment that children are living in.
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We know that, for example, lead exposure is toxic for human development.
And so, cleaning up lead, and making sure that children aren't exposed to lead.
In their environment is very important.
We also as societies, and in our child welfare systems,
can try to reduce the degree to which children have unnecessary stressors.
When we end up placing children in foster care, we can try to.
Strive for stability and reduce the ch,
you know, number of times they're moved from one foster care home to another,
because that's another preventable risk factor.
Similarly, you've heard how I study homeless families.
It's very important, if we can, to prevent homelessness or
to reduce the number of moves.
And changes in a childs life.
It's not good for
school achievement for children to move constantly from one school to another.
So, these are all examples on this list of risk focused efforts to promote
resilience by reducing the negative challenges in a child's life.
And some of these prevention strategies are extremely important.
A different kind of strategy is to focus on assets.
Try, instead of trying to prevent or
reduce risk, trying to build up, and add resources.
And promotive factors into a child's life.
These are influences that we know are good for most children in their,
to enable them to develop well and succeed.
And they, in situations of adversity,
these same kind of assets can make a great deal of difference.
And there are many examples here that'll be familiar to you.
We can provide financial support to children and families.
In many situations, we need to provide the basics, food,
water, shelter, medical care, dental care, that sort of thing.
That's particularly important, for example, after a disaster.
For children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, it can be important to
provide them with extra help for learning like a tutor or an after school program.
We can also focus our efforts at different levels.
We can support the education of family members or teachers.
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And other people in the environment of children.
Childcare workers.
So, that they understand child development and
know, learn better strategies for helping children learn, or disciplining children.
We can build resources in the form of libraries, or high technology schools.
We can provide community services, we can subsidize housing.
There are many ways we can add assets in the life of a child,
to try to promote positive development.
And many of these assets will work to help them deal with adversity as well.
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The third strategy is focused on the adaptive systems I've talked about.
The most fundamental.
And powerful of the resilience engines.
These are the ingredients of ordinary magic.
For example, we can try to make sure that
every child has a caregiver who's doing a good job.
We can try to support families and family functions so that.
Families can be resilient on the behalf of children.
We can encourage in many different ways opportunities, and
friendships, and connections for children that make it possible for
them to attend better schools, make friends with children who can.
Help them develop positive ways of getting along.
We can nurture brain development, both with food, and
with opportunities, and stimulation.
And we can also support cultural traditions that,
in a particular culture are known to make a big difference for children.
These are very powerful systems that can promote.
Resilience in the current time and also in the future for many children.
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We've learned over the years,
from a lot of research on resilience, particularly intervention research,
that interventions that work typically are developmentally strategic.
And culturally strategic, meaning that they take development into account.
They are timed and
targeted to focus on the right thing at the right time for child development.
They're also tuned in to the culture of a child or they focus and build on.
Cultural strengths.
Also, the,
there's some other characteristics of interventions that work, listed here.
They often combine promoting the positive with reducing the risk for negative.
Those are just a few examples.
I'm sure you can think of some more.
And, when you think about resilience, you also can.
Think either about an individual or about larger systems.
And these tips are about transforming the larger systems in which children live.
Sometimes we're trying to transform a child or a family, but
sometimes to promote resilience, we're trying to transform a school system for
example, or some other organization.
And a lot of the same.
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We've also learned over the years of research that there are probably windows
of opportunity when we can intervene strategically, so
that we get a bigger effect, either more improvement for our investment,
or we get a wider spreading effect over the course of development.
And here's some examples of situations.
That make a difference.
So, we know that sometimes in human development, and children are more open to
experience, that there are periods of brain development where
there's what we call high plasticity where the brain is more sensitive to input, and
if we intervene then, we can see it make quite a bit of difference.
In the child's development.
Many of those windows are early in development, but not all of them are.
We also know that when systems are changing for
whatever reason, either developmentally or because the person or
family moved to a new place or because there's been a challenge of some kind,.
Anything that throws a system into flux can create vulnerability, but it can also
create a window opportunity for change and that may be important for us to
consider when we're trying to help promote resilience in the midst of adversity.
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There are periods of opportunity in different points of development and
we've seen many examples throughout this course.
Some are very early, pre-natal.
Some are in early childhood.
For example, when we were trying to.
In, you know, change executive function in very high risk young children.
We did it in the preschool years.
It's a window of opportunity for learning these kinds of cognitive skills.
But there are other windows of opportunity, too.
We've seen how Michael Maddis.
Blossomed in the transition to adulthood, because he had opportunities.
And his thinking changed about his own life.
And he took charge, and managed to make his way from
a juvenile delinquent to a successful surgeon as he moved into adulthood.
And there're many examples of these windows.
Here's some more that we've talked about in the class over the course of
this course.
And I think that you can probably imagine many more.
And to close, I just want to have you
think about a few reminders as you think about these windows of opportunity.
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The fundamental adaptive systems, the ones I call ordinary magic, are very powerful,
and they're very versatile, and that's very important to remember,
because these systems can be a high priority in the work that we do.
They are so fundamental.
And they're so versatile that if these systems are operating well, they
can make all the difference as a child move, or an adult, moves through life.
It's also important to remember that, that cascades happen.
And there are negative cascades where problems in
one area spread to other areas over time.
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Or that one negative thing happens and it triggers another negative thing.
But there's also positive cascades and, if we intervene and
try to interrupt a negative cascade and start a positive one going,
we can have lasting and widespread effects on the course of child development.
And finally I want you to remember that opportunities matter, too.
It's not all about reducing, risks and just adding assets into people's lives.
Sometimes what people need is a second chance, and
opportunities to experience something new, to take their life in a new direction.
[SOUND]
Ann S. Masten, Ph.D., LPRegents Professor, Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Development
