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Listen "Figuring Out Children's Healthy Brain Development w/Dr. Dana Suskind"
Episode Synopsis
Welcome to Episode #9 of the FITFO Podcast. My guest for this episode is Dr. Dana Suskind. She is the best selling author of Thirty Million words (a must read for all parents!) Founder and Co-Director of the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health, Director of the Pediatric Cochlear Implant Program, and Professor of Surgery, Pediatrics, and Public Policy (affiliate) at the University of Chicago.
As a surgeon, social scientist, and leading authority on the role parents and caregivers play in promoting children’s healthy brain development, Dr. Dana Suskind approaches her fight against this nation’s opportunity gaps from a unique and rich perspective rooted in the knowledge that science can and should be the basis for social change.
Dr. Dana Suskind’s career, which began in the operating room, evolved when she observed profound inequities among her patients, with some thriving after receiving a cochlear implant, and other struggling to meet their intellectual potential. Recognizing the critical importance of early language exposure on the developing child, she founded the precursor to the TMW Center for Public Health + Early Learning (the Thirty Million Word Initiative) in 2008. Since then, Dr. Suskind and her team have designed, delivered, and rigorously evaluated cutting-edge programs that help parents and caregivers harness the power of their language to build children’s brains and shape their futures.
Once profiled in The Chicago Tribune’s “Remarkable Woman” series, Dr. Dana Suskind is the author of over 50 scientific publications , the “empowering” and “beautifully written” Thirty Million Words: Building a Child’s Brain (Dutton, 2015) and Parent Nation: Unlocking Every Child’s Potential, Fulfilling Society’s Promise (Dutton, 2022). She is a member of the American Academic of Pediatrics and a Fellow for the council on Early Childhood. Her work has been profiled by numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, The Economist, Forbes, NPR, and Freakonomics.
Follow her on Instagram & Twitter @drdanasuskind
Time Stamps:
2 Intro to Dr. Dana
4:17 how her best selling book Thirty Million Worlds came to be
7:00 Hart and Risley study and the thirty million word gap.
11:25 the impact of Neuroplasticity on the first 3 years of life
13 This 3 lbs of complex matter, our 🧠
15 The 3Ts - Tune in, Talk More, Take Turns
20 present parenting
23 creating executive functions and self regulation for your kiddos
24:49 Understanding the normal developmental milestones and having realistic expectations
27:19 - why aren’t pediatricians talking about early language development in regular visits?
35 US ranks at the bottom of OPEC for paid family leave
40 Financial Impacts of investing in child development per James Heckman
42 the concept of good enough parenting
47 what can we do as parent nation to progress forward?
49 - TMW Dad Talk, learning the basics of brain development for fathers
Referenced in the Pod:
Hart and Risely -
Rachel Romeo - @rachelrromeo https://www.lena.org/conversational-turns-brain-growth-executive-function/
James Heckman - @heckmanequation https://heckmanequation.org/resource/invest-in-early-childhood-development-reduce-deficits-strengthen-the-economy/
As a surgeon, social scientist, and leading authority on the role parents and caregivers play in promoting children’s healthy brain development, Dr. Dana Suskind approaches her fight against this nation’s opportunity gaps from a unique and rich perspective rooted in the knowledge that science can and should be the basis for social change.
Dr. Dana Suskind’s career, which began in the operating room, evolved when she observed profound inequities among her patients, with some thriving after receiving a cochlear implant, and other struggling to meet their intellectual potential. Recognizing the critical importance of early language exposure on the developing child, she founded the precursor to the TMW Center for Public Health + Early Learning (the Thirty Million Word Initiative) in 2008. Since then, Dr. Suskind and her team have designed, delivered, and rigorously evaluated cutting-edge programs that help parents and caregivers harness the power of their language to build children’s brains and shape their futures.
Once profiled in The Chicago Tribune’s “Remarkable Woman” series, Dr. Dana Suskind is the author of over 50 scientific publications , the “empowering” and “beautifully written” Thirty Million Words: Building a Child’s Brain (Dutton, 2015) and Parent Nation: Unlocking Every Child’s Potential, Fulfilling Society’s Promise (Dutton, 2022). She is a member of the American Academic of Pediatrics and a Fellow for the council on Early Childhood. Her work has been profiled by numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, The Economist, Forbes, NPR, and Freakonomics.
Follow her on Instagram & Twitter @drdanasuskind
Time Stamps:
2 Intro to Dr. Dana
4:17 how her best selling book Thirty Million Worlds came to be
7:00 Hart and Risley study and the thirty million word gap.
11:25 the impact of Neuroplasticity on the first 3 years of life
13 This 3 lbs of complex matter, our 🧠
15 The 3Ts - Tune in, Talk More, Take Turns
20 present parenting
23 creating executive functions and self regulation for your kiddos
24:49 Understanding the normal developmental milestones and having realistic expectations
27:19 - why aren’t pediatricians talking about early language development in regular visits?
35 US ranks at the bottom of OPEC for paid family leave
40 Financial Impacts of investing in child development per James Heckman
42 the concept of good enough parenting
47 what can we do as parent nation to progress forward?
49 - TMW Dad Talk, learning the basics of brain development for fathers
Referenced in the Pod:
Hart and Risely -
Rachel Romeo - @rachelrromeo https://www.lena.org/conversational-turns-brain-growth-executive-function/
James Heckman - @heckmanequation https://heckmanequation.org/resource/invest-in-early-childhood-development-reduce-deficits-strengthen-the-economy/
In God we trust