`The myth of the first three years` still skewing policy

"Five charity-led consortia will receive a share of £215m as part of a bid to improve the life chances of vulnerable under-threes, the Big Lottery Fund has announced. The Big Lottery Fund wants to support 60,000 under-threes over the next decade."

"The charities, including the National Children's Bureau, NSPCC and Pre-school Learning Alliance, have been awarded up to £50m each to devise a long-term plan for supporting parents with children from pregnancy to three years old. The funding is part of the Lottery’s A Better Start initiative and will be used to fund projects in Blackpool, Bradford, Lambeth, Nottingham and Southend, the details of which are below."

"Announcing the funding, Dharmendra Kanani, director of the Big Lottery Fund, said: "Parents want the best for their children and as a society we know that what happens in the first three years of life profoundly affects a child’s future life chances."

"A poor start in life can affect your health, wellbeing, outlook on life and how you form relationships. "Prevention matters more in the early years as we have a much greater understanding of what can and might improve the life chances of a future generation."

http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/1144889/charities-win-share-gbp215m-lottery-intervention-fund

Earlier in the year John Bruer talked to Helene Guldberg who asked him about the myth of the first three years.

HG  What – if any – negative effects has infant determinism had?

JB    Jerry Kagan, a developmental psychologist at Harvard, has written extensively on the history and consequences of infant determinism in his book, Three Seductive Ideas. In fact, I think the term, infant determinism, might even be his.

One negative effect of infant determinism is an unwarranted over-emphasis on early childhood. This can skew policy. We have to be open to the possibility that our science may overturn or modify our long-standing cultural biases. 

HG  Would you argue that what parents do doesn’t matter at all?

JB  Of course, what a parent does matters. However, the claim that what parents do during the first three years has irreversible, lifelong effects in all areas of cognitive, social and emotional development is not supported by neuroscience.

http://www.heleneguldberg.co.uk/index.php/site/article/135/

The Scottish Government still refers to the same debunked neuroscience on its website:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/07/7181/3