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Committee on From Neurons to Neighborhoods: Anniversary Workshop
Board on Children, Youth, and Families
Steve Olson, Rapporteur
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS • 500 Fifth Street, NW • Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Govern-
ing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the
councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineer-
ing, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for
the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropri-
ate balance.
This project was supported by IOM Healthy Kids Communication Campaign. Any
opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication
are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations
or agencies that provided support for this project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-20978-6
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-20978-1
Additional copies of this report are available from the National Academies Press,
500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202)
334-3313, http://www.nap.edu.
For more information about the Institute of Medicine, visit the IOM home page
at: www.iom.edu.
Copyright 2012 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Suggested citation: IOM (Institute of Medicine) and NRC (National Research
Council). 2012. From Neurons to Neighborhoods: An Update: Workshop Summary.
Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society
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Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Acad-
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and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy
of Sciences.
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of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding en-
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sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the
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ing programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research,
and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is presi-
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COMMITTEE ON FROM NEURONS TO
NEIGHBORHOODS: ANNIVERSARY WORKSHOP
JACK P. SHONKOFF (Chair), Director, Center on the Developing Child,
Harvard University
HUDA AKIL, Co-Director, The Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience
Institute, University of Michigan
DEBBIE I. CHANG, Senior Vice President and Executive Director,
Nemours Health and Prevention Services, Newark, DE
BERNARD GUYER, Zanvyl Kreiger Professor of Children’s Health
Emeritus, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins
University
RUTH MASSINGA, CEO, Emerita, Casey Family Programs, Seattle, WA
BRUCE S. McEWEN, Alfred E. Mirsky Professor, Harold and Margaret
Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, Rockefeller
University, New York, NY
PAMELA MORRIS, Professor of Psychology and Social Intervention, The
Steinhart School of Culture, Education & Human Development, New
York University
DEBORAH A. PHILLIPS, Professor, Department of Psychology,
Georgetown University
IOM Staff
ROSEMARY CHALK, Study Director
WENDY KEENAN, Program Associate
v
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Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen
for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with
procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review
Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid
and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published
report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional
standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge.
The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect
the integrity of the process. We wish to thank the following individuals for
their review of this report:
Duane Alexander, National Institutes of Health
O. Marion Burton, University of South Carolina
P. Lindsay Chase-Landsale, Northwestern University
Sarah L. Friedman, CNA Corp.
Lonnie R. Sherrod, Society for Research in Child Development
Ross A. Thompson, University of California, Davis
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive
comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions
or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its
release. The review of this report was overseen by Jeanne Brooks-Gunn,
Columbia University. Appointed by the National Research Council and
vii
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viii REVIEWERS
Institute of Medicine, she was responsible for making certain that an in-
dependent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with
institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully con-
sidered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with
the authoring committee and the institution.
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Contents
Preface xi
1 From Neurons to Neighborhoods: Reflections on Four Themes 1
2 Research Issues in Early Childhood Development 9
Nature, Nurture, and the Research Agenda at NICHD,
Alan Guttmacher, 10
The Role of Stress in Physical and Mental Health,
Bruce McEwen, 14
What We Have Learned about Learning, Deborah Stipek, 19
3 Policy Issues in Early Childhood Development 25
The Federal Policy Environment, Joan Lombardi, 26
A Global Perspective, Mary Eming Young, 31
Creating the Future of Early Childhood Policy and Practice,
Jack P. Shonkoff, 35
4 Final Remarks 43
References 45
Appendixes
A Original Committee Membership and Charge 47
B Workshop Agenda and Participants 49
ix
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Preface
The original study From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of
Early Childhood Development was released at a press conference in the
Washington, DC, headquarters of the National Academy of Sciences on
October 3, 2000 (see Appendix A for the original committee membership
and statement of task). For weeks before the event, study director Deborah
Phillips and I, along with members of the Committee on Integrating the
Science of Early Childhood Development, had been preparing diligently and
hoping that our report would garner significant media coverage and have
a major impact on policy makers. However, when the report was finally
released, the findings of a 6-year investigation into President Bill Clinton’s
involvement in the Whitewater case were delivered to the Congress—and
our carefully constructed announcement fell off the public’s radar screen.
I’ll never forget the words of Vanee Vines, the National Academies’
press officer, who worked with us on the report and put our disappoint-
ment into a broader perspective. “This report is not a breaking news story,”
she said. “You have to give people time to read it carefully and digest its
content. I promise you that this report will have legs.”
More than a decade later, those words have held up well. From Neu-
rons to Neighborhoods, the product of a 2.5-year study, has indeed had
legs. Moreover—to extend the metaphor—it stood up and ran on those
legs. It called for a fundamental reexamination of the nation’s response
to the needs of young children and families, drawing upon a wealth of
scientific knowledge that had emerged in recent decades. The study shaped
policy agendas and intervention efforts at national, state, and local levels.
It captured a gratifying level of attention in the United States and around
xi
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xii PREFACE
the world and has helped to foster a highly dynamic and increasingly visible
science of early childhood development. It contributed to a growing public
understanding of the foundational importance of the early childhood years
and has stimulated a global conversation about the unmet needs of millions
of young children.
Ten years later, on October 27-28, 2010, the Board on Children, Youth,
and Families of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Research
Council (NRC), which shepherded the creation of From Neurons to Neigh-
borhoods, held a 2-day workshop in Washington, DC, to review and com-
memorate a decade of advances related to the mission of the report. The
workshop began with a series of highly interactive breakout sessions in
which experts in early childhood development examined the four organiz-
ing themes of the original report and identified both measurable progress
and remaining challenges; a summary of the themes and the conclusions
of the breakout sessions appear in Chapter 1. A celebratory dinner on the
evening of the first day brought together many of the people involved in the
original funding, writing, and dissemination of the report to reflect on the
reasons for its influence and to discuss future directions for the science of
early childhood development and its application. The next day, six speakers
chosen for their diverse perspectives on early childhood research and policy
issues discussed how to build on the accomplishments of the past decade
and to launch the next era in early childhood science, policy, and practice.
Their perspectives, which are summarized in Chapters 2 and 3, are just
illustrative of the many that could have been discussed at the workshop.
Their talks provided a lively cross-section of reflections on the importance
of the report and on future research and policy directions. My closing re-
marks at the workshop are summarized in the final chapter of this report.
From its inception, From Neurons to Neighborhoods has been driven
by the proposition that there is a single, integrated science of early child-
hood development despite the extent to which it is carved up and divided
among a diversity of professional disciplines, policy sectors, and service
delivery systems. While much work still remains to be done toward this
goal, one of the report’s chief contributions was to identify that common
base of knowledge on which researchers, educators, health care providers,
courts, policy makers, civic leaders, and many other constituencies have
been able to build. The presentations at the 2010 workshop demonstrate
both the promise of this integrated science and the rich diversity of contri-
butions to that science.
Perhaps the most rewarding source of gratification for the authoring
committee is the extent to which From Neurons to Neighborhoods has
helped transform the public discourse about young children. As stated on
the last page of the report, our aim was to “mobilize the best available
knowledge (and promote its continued growth) in order to move beyond
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xiii
PREFACE
simple questions about whether environments and early experiences make a
difference.” These concluding thoughts ended with a challenge “to answer
questions about how to enhance the quality of those environments and ex-
periences in an effort to promote the health and development of young chil-
dren.” As we take stock of what has been accomplished since those words
were written, it is clear that significant progress has been made in answering
the “why” question, while much remains to be done to answer questions
that begin with “what, how, and what’s next?” In this context, many of the
toughest challenges today are variations on themes that were identified by
the committee and articulated in the report more than a decade ago.
As the date for this anniversary celebration approached, I reread the
acknowledgments section of the report and counted 123 people who con-
tributed to its creation—far too many to thank individually again by name.
That said, several key people deserve special mention beyond the 17 ex-
traordinary members of the original study committee. Deborah Phillips was
an inspiring and indefatigable study director who guided the report from
its earliest conception through its writing, publication, and release. Much
of the report’s success should be credited to her extraordinary efforts. The
13 members of the IOM-NRC review committee provided us with a formi-
dable stack of comments and suggestions that greatly improved the report,
and our editors—Eugenia Grohman and Christine McShane—scrutinized
every word of the manuscript before it was sent to the printer.
The anniversary event, From Neurons to Neighborhoods: Ten Years
Later, was organized by Rosemary Chalk, the director of the Board on
Children, Youth, and Families. Pamella Atayi, Reine Homawoo, Wendy
Keenan, and Rachel Pittluck provided valuable assistance in organizing
and running the event. Steve Olson wrote the summary, working from a
transcript generated by Caset Associates, Ltd.
One of the most valuable pieces of advice that the Committee on Inte-
grating the Science of Early Childhood Development received very early in
the writing of From Neurons to Neighborhoods was that it should try to
help build the knowledge base that would be needed 10 years in the future,
not just address the pressing issues of the day. The content and energy dis-
played at the anniversary gathering for From Neurons to Neighborhoods
indicate that the committee successfully embraced this advice. The past
decade has seen immense progress, and the prospect of future advances in
the domains of science, policy, and practice is even more exciting. The reas-
suring message that followed our less than auspicious release was prophetic.
The science of early childhood development does indeed have legs!
Jack P. Shonkoff, Chair
Committee on From Neurons to Neighborhoods: Anniversary Workshop
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