Reblogged from my post on NeuWriteSD.org:
I’m always keen to hear how scientists are able to reach out to their communities, whether it is by talking to young students about research opportunities, by tutoring or teaching, or by taking steps outside the lab to make direct links between research and the community. At this year’s meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS), one of the invited symposia, entitled “The Broader Applicability of Insights from Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience”, focused on some of great links between developmental neuroscience and the community. One talk by John Gabrieli, professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at MIT, addressed the relationships between socioeconomic status (SES), elementary schools, standardized tests, and cognitive measures like IQ and processing speed [moral of the story: the elementary school you attend affects your standardized test scores, but not your IQ]. Here, I’ll focus on a talk by professor Helen Neville focused on how to train attention and reduce at-home stressors for kids coming from lower-SES backgrounds in order to buffer attentional skills from a young age. The moral of this story? Do all you can to create a stress-free, positive home environment, and give kids plenty of structured time to focus on tasks that require selective attention and suppression of distractions.Read more on NeuWriteSD.org.
"Do all you can to create a stress-free, positive home environment, and give kids plenty of structured time to focus on tasks that require selective attention and suppression of distractions."
ReplyDeleteEasier said than done considering of the numerous external factors in the house and in school. I do agree with the recommendation and basically it is what every parent wants to achieve for their children. Studying can be fun and stress-free if both the home and the school create such a creatively happy environment. - Layce of Studygeek.org
Hi layciegrace,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this note! As you say, much easier said than done. The study I describe in the post on neuwritesd.org combines both selective attention training tasks as well as parenting classes, and it's the parenting training that is more likely to reduce stress. These two aspects are not teased apart in this study-- but if I had to put money on it, I'd imagine that reducing stress is the key player here-- and I'm eager to hear about more applied research asking exactly what can be done toward that goal, and how.