While the coronavirus pandemic has changed many things around the world, it has not stopped child development. In this series of special episodes of The Brain Architects podcast, we aim to share helpful resources and ideas in support of all those who are caring for children while dealing with the impacts of COVID-19.

The first guest of this special series is Center Director Dr. Jack Shonkoff. He and host Sally Pfitzer discuss how to support healthy child development during a pandemic, including the importance of caring for caregivers. They also talk about what we’ve already learned as a result of the coronavirus, and what we hope to continue learning.

Upcoming episodes of this special series will focus on how pediatricians are responding, racial disparities in the impact of the virus, and more.

COVID-19 Special Edition: A Different World

Healthy development in the early years provides the building blocks for educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, strong communities, and successful parenting of the next generation. By improving children’s environments, relationships, and experiences early in life, society can address many costly problems, including incarceration, homelessness, and the failure to complete high school. But if you’re a parent, caregiver, teacher, or someone who works with children every day, you may be wondering, “Where do I start?!” From brain architecture to toxic stress to serve and return, The Brain Architects, a new podcast from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University will explore what we can do during this incredibly important period to ensure that all children have a strong foundation for future development.

Social Sciences

Science & Medicine

Kids & Family

Science

Parenting

Life Sciences

Contents
Podcast
Panelists
Additional Resources
Transcript


In March 2024, we continued our Place Matters webinar series with our third installment: “A Place to Play: Moving Towards Fairness of Place for All Children.” During the webinar, we explored the power of play in supporting early childhood development, as well as the importance of ensuring that children and caregivers have access to safe green spaces, like parks and playgrounds. Our panel of experts discussed how access to safe, stimulating, and joyful play space is not equally distributed across communities, along with strategies to work toward building a future where all children have a safe place to play. The webinar discussion has been adapted for this episode of the Brain Architects podcast.




Panelists


Leah Anyanwu (Moderator)Programme Specialist, Children on the Move, Children's Learning and Development, The LEGO Foundation

Cynthia Briscoe BrownAtlanta Board of Education Seat 8 At Large

Kathy Hirsh-PasekProfessor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University; Senior Fellow, Brookings Institute

Lysa RatlifChief Executive Officer, KABOOM!

Le-Quyen VuExecutive Director, Indochinese American Council

Melissa Rivard  (Webinar Host)Director of Engagement Strategies, Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

Cameron Seymour-Hawkins (Podcast Host)Communications Coordinator, Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University




Additional Resources

 	

 	Place Matters: The Environment We Create Shapes the Foundations of Healthy Development 
 	Presentation Slides 
 	Playful Learning Landscapes 
 	KABOOM! 
 	Atlanta Community School Parks Initiative 
 	LEGO Foundation 
 	Indochinese American Council 



Transcript
Cameron Seymour-Hawkins: Welcome to The Brain Architects, a podcast from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. I’m Cameron Seymour-Hawkins, the Center’s Communications Coordinator. Our Center believes that advances in the science of child development provide a powerful source of new ideas that can improve outcomes for children and their caregivers. By sharing the latest science from the field, we hope to help you make that science actionable and apply it in your work in ways that can increase your impact. 

In March, we continued our Place Matters webinar series with our third installment: “A Place to Play: Moving Towards Fairness of Place for All Children.” During the webinar, we explored how play and a family’s access to safe green spaces, like parks and playgrounds, support early development. Our panel of experts discussed how access to safe, stimulating, and joyful play space is not equally distributed along with strategies to work toward building a future where all children have a safe place to play. We’re excited to share part of this conversation on today’s episode of the Brain Architects podcast.  

If you’re interested in in seeing some examples of community-led solutions to address gaps in play space equity presented by Lysa Ratliff of KABOOM and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek of Playful Learning Landscapes, we encourage you to head over to our YouTube channel to view the full webinar recording.  

Now, without further ado, here’s Melissa Rivard, the Center’s Assistant Director of Innovation Strategies, who will set the stage for our conversation. 

Melissa Rivard: Welcome and thank you all so much for joining us today. It's really gratifying to have so many of you showing up for this really important topic. So thank you. I'm Melissa Rivard, Assistant Director of Innovation Strategies and I will be your host today.

A Place to Play: Moving Towards Fairness of Place for All Children

Contents
Podcast

Additional Resources
Transcript


 

In December 2023, we continued our Place Matters webinar series with our second installment: “Understanding Racism’s Impact on Child Development: Working Towards Fairness of Place in the United States.” During the webinar, Stephanie Curenton, PhD, Nathaniel Harnett, PhD, Mavis Sanders, PhD, and Natalie Slopen, ScD, discussed their latest research, exploring how racism gets “under the skin” to impact children’s development and how it contributes to unequal access to opportunity in the places where children live, grow, play, and learn. Together, they explored ways to dismantle systemic barriers and work toward solutions that promote healthy child development. The webinar discussion has been adapted for this episode of the Brain Architects podcast. 







Additional Resources

 	

 	Place Matters: The Environment We Create Shapes the Foundations of Healthy Development
 	Moving Upstream: Confronting Racism to Open Up Children’s Potential
 	Priorities for Child Trends’ Applied Research Agenda on Black Children and Families - Child Trends
 	A Bibliographic Tool on Protective Community Resources for Children and Youth - Child Trends
 	Black Children and Youth Can Benefit From Focused Research on Protective Community Resources - Child Trends
 	Black Adolescents Are More Likely to Flourish in Neighborhoods Featuring Four Key Amenities - Child Trends



Transcript
 

Cameron Seymour-Hawkins: Welcome to The Brain Architects, a podcast from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. I’m Cameron Seymour-Hawkins, the Center’s Communications Coordinator.Our Center believes that advances in the science of child development provide a powerful source of new ideas that can improve outcomes for children and their caregivers. By sharing the latest science from the field, we hope to help you make that science actionable and apply it in your work in ways that can increase your impact.

In December, we continued our Place Matters webinar series with our second installment: “Understanding Racism’s Impact on Child Development: Working Towards Fairness of Place in the United States.” During the webinar, Doctors Stephanie Curenton, Nathaniel Harnett, Mavis Sanders, and Natalie Slopen, discussed their latest research, exploring how racism gets “under the skin” to impact children’s development and how it contributes to unequal access to opportunity in the places where children live, grow, play, and learn. Together, they explored ways to dismantle systemic barriers and work toward solutions that promote healthy child development. We’re excited to share this conversation on today’s episode of the Brain Architects podcast.

Now, without further ado, here’s Tassy Warren, the Center’s Deputy Director and Chief Strategy Officer, who will set the stage for our conversation.

Tassy Warren: Hello. Welcome to today's webinar. Understanding Racism's Impact on Child Development. Working towards fairness of place in the United States. We're so excited to bring you into this conversation. Whether you're joining us for the first time or are a regular to the Center on the Developing Child, thank you for being here today. This webinar is part of our Place Matters Webinar series. The series is designed to expand upon our Center's recent work on how influences from our environments, particularly the built in natural environments, play a role in shaping early childhood development beginning before birth. Throughout this series, we're highlighting scientific and community expertise and offering strategies to work towards fairness of place and to create the conditions that will allow all children to thrive.

Understanding Racism's Impact on Child Development: Working Towards Fairness of Place in the United States

Contents
Podcast
Panelists
Additional Resources
Transcript


 

In the fall of 2023, we kicked off our three-part Place Matters webinar series with our first installment: “A New Lens on Poverty: Working Towards Fairness of Place in the United States.” The webinar discussion featured the work of Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, FAAP, whose research uncovered the water crisis in Flint, H. Luke Shaefer, PhD, co-author of the new book The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America, and their groundbreaking new program, RxKids, an innovative effort to address child poverty and improve health equity. This conversation, moderated by our Chief Science Officer, Lindsey Burghardt, MD, MPH, FAAP, has been adapted for the Brain Architects podcast.  




Panelists


Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, FAAPFounding Director, Pediatric Public Health Initiative 

H. Luke Shaefer, PhDProfessor of Public Policy and Director of Policy Solutions, University of Michigan 

Lindsey C. Burghardt, MD, MPH, FAAP (Moderator)Chief Science Officer, Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

Rebecca Hansen, MFA (Webinar Host)Director of Communications, Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

Amelia Johnson (Podcast Host)Communications Specialist, Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University




Additional Resources

 	

 	Place Matters: The Environment We Create Shapes the Foundations of Healthy Development
 	RxKids
 	The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America
 	What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City



Transcript
Amelia Johnson: Welcome to The Brain Architects, a podcast from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. I’m Amelia Johnson, the Center’s Communications Specialist. Our Center believes that advances in the science of child development provide a powerful source of new ideas that can improve outcomes for children and their caregivers. By sharing the latest science from the field, we hope to help you make that science actionable and apply it in your work in ways that can increase your impact. 

In October, we kicked off our three-part Place Matters webinar series with our first installment: “A New Lens on Poverty: Working Towards Fairness of Place in the United States.” During the webinar, Dr. Lindsey Burghardt, our Chief Science Officer, moderated a discussion between Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, whose research uncovered the water crisis in Flint, and H. Luke Shaefer, co-author of the new book The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America. The resulting explores how the qualities of the places where people live are shaped by historic and current policies, which have created deep disadvantage across many communities with important implications for the health and development of the children who live there. We’re happy to share these insights with you all on today’s episode. 

Now, without further ado, here’s Rebecca Hansen, the Center’s Director of Communications, who will set the stage with a brief overview of the webinar series. 

Rebecca Hansen: Alright, hello, everyone. My name is Rebecca Hansen, and I'm the Director of Communications here at the Center on the Developing Child. And I'm very excited to welcome you all to today's webinar, A New Lens on Poverty: Working Toward Fairness of Place in the United States. This webinar is the first in an ongoing series designed to examine the many ways that a child's broader environment, including the built and natural environments, as well as the systemic factors that shape those environments,

A New Lens on Poverty: Working Towards Fairness of Place in the United States

Contents
Podcast
Panelists
Additional Resources
Transcript


In June, we hosted a webinar about our latest Working Paper, Place Matters: The Environment We Create Shapes the Foundations of Healthy Development, which examines how a wide range of conditions in the places where children live, grow, play, and learn can shape how children develop. The paper examines the many ways in which the built and natural environment surrounding a child can affect their development, emphasizes how the latest science can help deepen our understanding, and points towards promising opportunities to re-design environments so that all children can grow up in homes and neighborhoods free of hazards and rich with opportunity. Corey Zimmerman, our Chief Program Officer, moderated a discussion around these themes between Dr. Lindsey Burghardt (Chief Science Officer) and Dr. Dominique Lightsey-Joseph (Director of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Strategy) which has been adapted for this episode of the Brain Architects podcast.  

 




Panelists


Tassy Warren, EdM (Podcast Host)Deputy Director and Chief Strategy Officer, Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

Corey Zimmerman, EdM (Moderator)Chief Program Officer, Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

Lindsey C. Burghardt, MD, MPH, FAAPChief Science Officer, Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

Dominique Lightsey-Joseph, EdD, EdMDirector of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB) Strategy, Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University




Additional Resources

 	

 	Place Matters: The Environment We Create Shapes the Foundations of Healthy Development
 	Place Matters: An Action Guide for Policy
 	Place Matters: What Surrounds Us Shapes Us
 	Child Opportunity Index (COI)
 	Healthy School Environments - US Environmental Protection Agency




Transcript
Tassy Warren: Welcome to The Brain Architects, a podcast from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. I’m Tassy Warren, the Center’s Deputy Director and Chief Strategy Officer. Our Center believes that advances in the science of child development provide a powerful source of new ideas that can improve outcomes for children and their caregivers. By sharing the latest science from the field, we hope to help you make that science actionable and apply it in your work in ways that can increase your impact.

In June, we hosted a webinar about our latest Working Paper, Place Matters: The Environment We Create Shapes the Foundations of Healthy Development, which examines how a wide range of conditions in the places where children live, grow, play, and learn can shape how childre

During the webinar, Corey Zimmerman, our Chief Program Officer, moderated a discussion around these themes between Dr. Lindsey Burghardt (Chief Science Officer) and Dr. Dominique Lightsey-Joseph (Director of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Strategy) which we're happy to share with you all on today’s episode. To access the full Working Paper and related publications, please visit our website at developingchild.harvard.edu.

Now, without further ado, here’s Corey Zimmerman.

 

Corey Zimmerman: Hi, everybody. Welcome. I'm Corey Zimmerman. I'm the Chief Program Officer here at the Center on the Developing Child, and today we're going to be discussing a paper, the name of it is Place Matters: The Environment We Create Shapes the Foundation of Healthy Development. This paper was written by our National Scientific Council on Developing Child and was released earlier this year in March.


COVID-19 Special Edition: A Different World

Download our free app to listen on your phone