The Importance of Early Childhood Cognitive Development

Early childhood generally refers to the period from birth through age 5. A child's cognitive development during early childhood, which includes building skills such as pre-reading, language, vocabulary, and numeracy, begins from the moment a child is born. Developmental scientists have found that the brain acquires a tremendous amount of information about language in the first year of life even before infants can speak. By the time babies utter or understand their first words, they know which particular sounds their language uses, what sounds can be combined to create words, and the tempo and rhythm of words and phrases.

There is a strong connection between the development a child undergoes early in life and the level of success that the child will experience later in life. For example, infants who are better at distinguishing the building blocks of speech at 6 months are better at other more complex language skills at 2 and 3 years of age and better at acquiring the skills for learning to read at 4 and 5 years of age. Not surprisingly, a child's knowledge of the alphabet in kindergarten is one of the most significant predictors of what that child's tenth grade reading ability will be.

When young children are provided an environment rich in language and literacy interactions and full of opportunities to listen to and use language constantly, they can begin to acquire the essential building blocks for learning how to read. A child who enters school without these skills runs a significant risk of starting behind and staying behind.

Early Childhood Care and Education

Young children are cared for in a wide variety of settings. According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, 38 percent of children age 5 or younger receive care on a regular basis from parents only. The remaining 62 percent of children are in one or more arrangements, including care by other relatives (24 percent), non-relatives (17 percent), or center-based programs (34 percent), including Head Start (6 percent). Children between the ages of 3 and 5 are more likely than children younger than 3 to be cared for in a center-based program, such as child care and Head Start. Children under the age of 3 are more likely to be in the care of a parent than are children older than 3.

Parents are a child's first and most important teachers. It is significant that nearly 40 percent of young children are cared for primarily by a parent. The Bush Administration believes it is important to support parents and families in their most important task in life raising their children through several means, including providing them information about early childhood development.

How Food Affects Behavior

By Gailon Totheroh, CBN News Science & Medical Reporter

CBNNews - There's a double threat out there that may help explain poor school performance, criminal behavior, alcoholism, and the growing numbers of Alzheimer's patients.

The possible culprits: food additives and junky diets. Dr. Russell Blaylock says it's a double whammy because of high sugar content and starchy carbohydrates. Those carbs, too, act like sugar in the body.

Blaylock is a retired neurosurgeon, clinical nutritionist, professor of biology at Belhaven College, and author of numerous books. In addition to writing a monthly health newsletter, The Blaylock Wellness Report," he recently put his lecture Nutrition and Behavior onto DVD.

The Sugar Syndrome

On that DVD, Blaylock explains the sugar syndrome: "Why would sugar have such a profound influence on brain function and psychological function? Now when the sugar is in excess, it produces excess release of insulin."

That is, if the insulin release is excessive, the blood sugar falls. That's known as hypoglycemia.

Among other effects, hypoglycemia causes the brain to secrete glutamate in levels that can cause agitation, depression, anger, anxiety, panic attacks and an increase in suicide risk.

Glutamate is a messenger molecule in the body. Tiny releases of glutamate play an important role in the body, but any excess can be dangerous - especially to the brain and nervous system.

This glutamate is identical to the flavor-enhancing monosodium glutamate (MSG) and its chemical cousins found in thousands of food products.

Consumed in food and added to the effects of sugar and simple carbs, serious excesses can result. For instance, repeated hypoglycemic episodes will increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's and ALS (Lou Gehrig's).

This low blood sugar can affect people in many different ways - especially considering the high numbers of vulnerable individuals.

It is estimated that 15 to 20 percent of U.S. adults are hypoglycemic. In children, the response is often hyperactivity. In both children and adults, there can be violent and aggressive behavior. In older people, there can be mental confusion -- as the low sugar fails to fuel the brain and making it more prone to Alzheimer's.

That hypoglycemic confusion is apparently what happened to Jack Samuels when he went out to grab milk at the grocery.

"I just, I remember getting way out into the countryside and pulling to the side of the road and trying to sort of calm myself and think where did I come from?" he recalled.

Samuels, a retired hospital administrator, had accidentally consumed some MSG, the flavor- enhancing food additive. MSG can cause hypoglycemia on its own.

What's Lurking in Food Labels

Samuels is also an activist against MSG, and heads the Truth in Labeling Campaign. He diligently tries to avoid all forms of it, but has struggled because there are so many hidden sources.

Food labels will sometimes list monosodium glutamate, but MSG usually appears under deceptive names like hydrolyzed corn, autolyzed yeast, broth, textured protein and even natural flavors. ---hidden sources link here or at end?

Another danger is alcohol - because it acts just like sugar.

Blaylock explains the process: "The alcohol is the source of tremendous energy. And so when their blood sugar falls, they drink the alcohol, they feel better. And their blood sugar falls again, they drink more alcohol."

One study found an astonishing 97 percent of alcoholics to be hypoglycemic. Yet another study showed that when an alcoholic's hypoglycemia is treated with nutrition, 70 percent of them become sober. When other alcoholism treatment methods are used, only 25 percent or less find relief from their addiction.

And it may be partly the alcohol component of the diet soda sweetener aspartame that makes it hypoglycemic. Blaylock says the aspartate in aspartame acts like MSG, stimulating actual glutamate receptors in the pancreas to release and increase insulin.

That brings out more dietary danger, according to Blaylock, "So you tend to eat and snack and nibble. And you gain weight. Monosodium glutamate will make you do the same thing. Now the food manufacturers know this. That's why they put so much MSG in food."

In addition, the MSG additives, also known as excitotoxins, can destroy the neurons in a crucial part of the brain. This can result in gross obesity.

And then there are the effects of just regular sugar on children. One study gave kids sugar equal to one soda. As a result, their test scores went down. In fact, at one hour after the sugar, they made twice as many mistakes. The sugar-loaded students also showed more "inappropriate behavior" during free play.

Safe Foods

So what diet is anti-hypoglycemic? That would be lean meat and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. For supplements, a good multivitamin and some fish oil are considered quite helpful.

Another key is limiting sugars and starches. That would include sugar itself as well as products with corn syrup. Most fruit juices are very sugary as well. Then there are the white culprits: white bread, white rice, white pasta and white potatoes.

And by avoiding most processed food, you'll be more likely to steer clear of the MSG that so often lurks among the ingredients of many processed foods such as soups, varieties of canned tuna, flavored chips, box mixes, and frozen prepared selections.

There's even some evidence that eating the good and avoiding the bad is what worked for ex-convicts on parole. One study found that a good diet enabled parolees to maintain good behavior over half of the time. Those with a bad diet fared less than half as well.

With those results, perhaps the government is looking into the connection between nutrition and behavior.

Samuels comments, "There is very little financial reward for a researcher to find the cause of a disease and consequently most of the research dollars go to the development of drugs to treat a disease -- because there's a lot of money involved there."

He has spent years trying to get government officials to his pleas for better research and more truthful food labeling.

Blaylock says think of the kids -- and start teaching them about nutrition. That could make for a better home life today and future adults better able to excel in the world.

Learning to Forgive

Love ... What a powerful experience to know you are with the one person you believe to be the only person right for you! There's a magical moment when you realize you can't imagine ever spending another day without this person next to you. Every thought is consumed with fantasies and incredible expectations for the future! Sound familiar? You might be experiencing these very feelings this moment. Excitement, Anticipation, and Confidence. Amy and I (Michael) were in this mode just two weeks after we started dating! We actually discussed marriage on the second day! There was no doubt for either of us that we were meant to be together. I felt like nothing or no one could ever prevent our being together "till death do us part". That is, till I made a visit to Conroe, Texas just two weeks after we started dating. Amy gave me permission to use this illustration from our own lives because it was such a major turning point in our relationship, TWICE. I couldn't believe I was on a plane going to see the one woman I had dreamed about for three years! I met Amy as a freshman at Baylor and she was a sophomore. I became a Yell-leader, which is just a masculine way to say I was a Cheerleader, just to be close to her and to try and win her over! My plans didn't quite work out like I'd hoped, for when I made the team and became closer to Amy, I found out she was practically engaged. Which turned out to be the case only three months after making the Yell-leading squad, which Amy had been the only reason for being on the squad. Obviously things worked out, and it is a long and incredible story of God's grace and miraculous power. But only two weeks into our budding relationship, Amy shared something that would change the course of our relationship forever. We had just spent a wonderful day on Lack Conroe. Jet-skiing, sun tanning, and having fun in the humid and stifling heat of Conroe, Texas, just North of Houston. It felt like I was living a dream, which was partly true because a dream was all I had for three years prior to this day. Everything seemed perfect, everything seemed blessed by God, well, almost everything. After spending the day at Lake Conroe, Amy and I were sitting on the couch upstairs in her parents house. I don't remember exactly what we were doing, but I remember vividly what happened next. As we were sitting on the couch, Amy looked up at me cautiously. "I have to tell you something," she said in a quiet voice. "OK," I quickly responded like it was no big deal. "Well, it's serious, and I don't want to hide anything from you in this relationship," she said with hesitation. I wanted to stop her, because her face appeared to say, "this might end what we have here!" Which I didn't want any part of, but thanks to God, what Amy shared next opened my eyes to a new world of the power of forgiveness. "I want you to know that I'm not a virgin." Amy almost seemed to grimace at the sound of her own voice, like she was now something less than what she'd been only seconds before. Luckily the statement took me by surprise, so I didn't say anything at first. This allowed Amy to open up even more, "I wanted you to know because I wanted to give you the opportunity to end this relationship before it got any more serious." "End this relationship!" I thought to myself, "Did I just hear that?" The one woman I've dreamt about for three years now believes she is not worth me pursuing any longer because she's not a virgin. I was stunned. Not to hear she wasn't a virgin, but because she thought I might not want to date her because of it. Thankfully God had prepared me for this moment years before when my brother shared with me the same news. Amy began to cry ever so slightly, and I noticed the gleam of her tears running down the side of her cheek in the dim light of the room. Since this moment, Amy has said that what happened next freed her to experience the full weight of God's forgiveness and allowed her to move gracefully into her future by forgiving her past. I'd like to admit that what I did was all my idea. But I would be less than honest in doing so. However, I am glad it happened. As we both sat on the couch in an awkward silence, Amy wondering what our future was to be, and myself wondering what to say next. God reminded me of a story. I didn't say a word, but instead, got up from the couch and went into the bathroom. I came out of the bathroom with a bucket and cloth. She must have been confused. Still remaining silent, I knelt down before Amy in a humble fashion and began cleansing her feet with the cloth and bucket of water. The moment is forever etched in the memory of our beginning. With every stroke of the cloth touching her bare feet, I reminded Amy of all the ways she was blessed by God. I reminded her of the innocence that was hers in Christ. I reminded her that if I expected to marry someone perfect, I'd never get married. We both started weeping! It was magical for the two of us. This moment is what makes forgiveness a necessity for any relationship, especially the relationship of a husband and wife. A privilege of being an adult is to experience life's greatest joys and its greatest sorrows. We are now capable of very important decisions affecting the rest of their lives. Our decisions may require the seeking or accepting of forgiveness.

Time for Flu Shots

CBNNews.com - The Centers for Disease Control is advising a record number of Americans to get a flu shot this fall. They report about 86 percent of the population or 261 million people will need to be innoculated.

For the first time, the government is recommending that all children ages 5 to 18 be vaccinated. That's an additional 30 million more school children than ever before.

Also, children aged 6-months to 8 years should get two flu shots at least one month a part, because a single shot may not give them full protection.

"Get out there and get protected and protect others and for sure protect your children," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"People should start getting vaccinated now, yesterday actually," added Dr. William Schaffner, president-elect of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.

Also on CDC's get-vaccinated list: Anyone 50 or older. Health care workers; caregivers and relatives of the high-risk; and pregnant women. Newborns can't be vaccinated, but a fetus does absorb protection from a vaccinated mother.

The CDC says unlike years past, there's an ample supply of vaccine with 143 million to 146 million doses available.

Each year, the flu kills about 36,000 Americans and sends another 200,000 to the hospital. Children of any age that appear healthy can die from the flu - 86 last year, with an age range from babies to teens.

Perhaps the most stunning fact from the CDC -- just 42 percent of health care workers get vaccinated. These are people who could be infecting patients in doctors' offices and hospitals.

CDC's Gerberding called it "unconscionable" for health workers to avoid vaccination: "This is a patient safety issue."

The flu vaccine costs around $25. Choices include the old-fashioned shot for all ages, and the nasal vaccine FluMist, which can be used in healthy people ages 2 to 49.

More than 140 schools around the country are scheduling flu-vaccination days, some with free vaccine, according FluMist maker MedImmune Inc.

Keeping Seafood Safe and Plentiful

NOAA.gov - New figures show that Americans eat more than 16 pounds of seafood per person each year. But what to eat, how much, and the availability of certain seafood gets confusing.

Americans eat everything from salmon caught in Alaska and shrimp raised in farms off the China coast, to orange roughy from the deep trenches of the Southern Pacific. Our appetite for seafood is large and growing, and we need help weeding through all of the information.

That's why NOAA developed FishWatch.noaa.gov, a comprehensive web site that offers valuable information on availability, safety, quality, preparation, and health guidelines for your favorite seafood -- all in an easy-to-read format. You'll learn the current population status of your favorite seafood, as well as how to effectively shop for and safely store your seafood.

On FishWatch.noaa.gov, you can find information on about 80 of the most common species that are harvested, farmed, and eaten in the United States. For each species you can learn about population size, fishing practices, import/export statistics, photos, factoids, nutritional content, and more.

Healthy Fisheries Support a Healthy Economy
Seafood is big business in the United States, and NOAA is working hard to help ensure that consumers get the best seafood possible, while maintaining healthy fish stocks.

Healthy fisheries provide more than a great meal; they provide jobs, recreation and more for millions of Americans. In 2007, commercial fishers in the U.S. caught more than nine billion pounds of seafood, worth more than $4 billion. And consumers in the U.S. spent approximately $68 billion on seafood. It's been a challenge for stocks to keep up with our demand.

The nation imports about 84 percent of its seafood, and at least half of that seafood is farmed. America's aquaculture industry, though vibrant and diverse, currently meets only 5 to 7 percent of U.S. demand for seafood. And the majority of that is catfish. Marine products such as U.S. farmed oysters, clams, mussels and salmon supply only 1.5 percent of American seafood demand. Expanding U.S. sustainable aquaculture would provide consumers with even more affordable, locally and regionally produced seafood.

NOAA's Aquaculture Program
Aquaculture is the fastest growing form of food production in the world. It is also a significant source of protein for people in many countries, including the United States. Globally, nearly half the fish consumed by humans is produced by fish farms. This worldwide trend toward aquaculture production is expected to continue. At the same time, demand for safe, healthy seafood also is expected to grow.

NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service is working hard to promote sustainable fisheries, protect fish habitats, and reduce wasteful fishing practices as well as prevent lost economic potential associated with overfishing, declining species and degraded habitats. We assess and predict the status of fish stocks, ensure compliance with fisheries regulations, and work to reduce wasteful fishing practices -- all to ensure the continued availability of safe and nutritious seafood.

Visit www.FishWatch.noaa.gov to learn more about sustainable fisheries and seafood safety, and www.aquaculture.noaa.gov to learn more about NOAA's Aquaculture Program.