September 18, 2024 • 53 mins
Carol sits down with Dr. Leah Austin, President and CEO of the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI), to explore the many ways infants learn and how parents can nurture their development from birth. Dr. Austin also shares her expertise on infant health and nutrition, the impact of climate change on our little ones, and so much more.
Tune in to hear Dr. Austin’s practical tips on supporting our babies' health and learning, and the essential work NBCDI is doing to give parents the knowledge and resources they need to care for children in the critical first three years of life and beyond. Whether you’re a new parent or caring for young children, this episode is filled with helpful advice.
Over the course of this season we’re focusing on parenting across all stages of child development, from babies to the grown and flown. Join us on this insightful journey!
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Tune in to hear Dr. Austin’s practical tips on supporting our babies' health and learning, and the essential work NBCDI is doing to give parents the knowledge and resources they need to care for children in the critical first three years of life and beyond. Whether you’re a new parent or caring for young children, this episode is filled with helpful advice.
Over the course of this season we’re focusing on parenting across all stages of child development, from babies to the grown and flown. Join us on this insightful journey!
Episode Links:
More GCP:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to Ground Controlled Parenting, a blog and
now a podcast created for parents raising black and brown children.
I'm the creator and your host, Carol Sutton Lewis. In
this podcast series, I talk with some really interesting people
about the job and the joy of parenting. Today, I
am so happy to be joined by doctor Leah Austen,
President and CEO of the National Black Child Development Institute,
(00:27):
otherwise known as NBCDI.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
NBCDI is a fifty three year.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Old national organization focused on the healthy child development of
Black children. Under doctor Austin's leadership, NBCDI provides educators and
parents with culturally relevant resources that respond to the unique
strengths and needs of Black children from birth through age eight,
around issues including early child education, health, child welfare, literacy.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
And family engagement.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
NBCDI believes that the first eight years of a child's
life set the foundation for their.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Health, safety, and overall well being.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
They have established eight essential outcomes from Black children aged
zero to eight that they work hard to achieve, which
include working to ensure children are born at a healthy birthwate,
have nutritious meals, have clean air to breathe and water
to drink, and have supporting and nurturing learning environments. Doctor
Austin began her career as a public school teacher in Washington, DC,
(01:23):
and she worked in leadership positions with a number of
nonprofit organizations, including the United Way of Grad Atlanta, the
Ani Cacy Foundation, and the Shot Foundation for Public Education.
She holds degrees from Fisk University, Howard University, and the
University of Pennsylvania Mayama Mana.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
She has a son, Blate, who is ten. Welcome to
Ground Control Parenting, Doctor Leah Austen.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Thank you. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I'm so happy to have you with us. So tell
us all more about MBCDI and the great work that
it's doing to help our black children thrive. I want
to hear about it all and especially focus on your
work with children ages zero to three. So let's get started,
and I want to start by asking you to please
tell us what NBCDI does.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Is it primarily a research organization or a think tank?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah? Absolutely, so we're both. We really describe ourselves as
both a think tank and a do tank. So what
does that mean. The think tank side of the organization
is really the institute side of the organization. So this
is where we are engaged in research, We are engaged
in policy analysis, policy making, and then the DO side
(02:37):
is really our work that looks like advocacy and movement
building and so really doing work nationally and in communities
to ensure that the conditions are set such that black
children I really have better opportunities to thrive. And those
conditions can be policy conditions, they can be programmatic conditions.
(02:58):
And then I would also just add in terms of
our structures, we have our national organization, and then we
have this really amazing sort of secret sauce of a
national affiliate network of currently twenty four organizations across the country.
And these are organizations that are really kind of the
heartbeat of the organization, and so they do the movement building,
(03:22):
they're doing the on the ground work, which is also
consistent of programs and direct services in addition to advocacy
and policy work. So we really are the sort of
combination of both. And as I said, I think in
a DO tank all all in one, because we really
believe it requires both pulling both of those levers in
(03:46):
order to improve the outcomes that we really seek to
see for black children.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
And are these affiliates born of the national organization, or
were they already existing and they just affiliated with you all.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
So we have some organizations that were born of NBCDI,
and then we have some that were existing organizations and
then they joined the affiliate network.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
And the research that you do is given out primarily
to educators but also to parents.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Absolutely, So we really look at it at our sort
of audience or our community as this combination of people.
So we look at if you're an educator, if you're
a classroom teacher, you're also an advocate. You also have
the opportunity in many ways, you have the responsibility to
advocate for your children if you are your students. If
(04:39):
you are a parent, Similarly, you're also often advocating not
only for your individual child or children, but you're advocating
for the children in your community, or you're advocating for
the children at your church or the neighborhood school. And
so we design our tools in that way so that
you're really able to read them with multiple lenses at play,
(05:03):
the lens of Okay, I'm an educator, I want to
know what I can do in my classroom. I'm a parent,
I want to know what I can do at home,
but I'm also an advocate, and I want to know
how I can really advocate and again sort of set
these conditions outside of my home or my classroom that
will improve the lives of black children.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
And from there, I want to talk about these eight
essential outcomes that you guys envision. And you know, I'm
really focused on the earliest set. I know that the
organization focuses on children age zero to eight. I'm really
focused for this conversation on the teeniese set, the zero
to three, and I love how your eight outcomes really
(05:47):
apply to that youngest set as well as to the
slightly older kids.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
So the first one is health.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
I mean, you want to ensure that children are born
at a healthy waight. What kinds of things do you
what kind of research to, what kind of tools and
information do you provide just to support that?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
So we really understand while we are focused on the
first eight years of a child's life, I always say
to people that does not mean that we are not
concerned with anything beyond those eight years. Right, we know
that the first eight years are a unique time in
a human beings development, and we know even with that
(06:26):
first eight years, the first three years are even more
unique time in a child's development, and so I appreciate
your sort of wanting to even focus a bit more on,
as you said, the teeniest, which I love that language.
When we think about our eight outcomes and we think
about this outcome around a healthy birth weight, we are
(06:49):
thinking about a few things. One, we are thinking about
mental models and really helping to change the mental models
that have been held that tell us that the reasons
why black children in particular are more likely to be
born at an unhealthy birth weight are solely sort of
(07:12):
the fault of their mother or their parents, when we
know that it's actually not that's actually not true. There's
multiple reasons why. Some of those reasons actually include the
experience that birthing parents are having in the birthing institutions,
and so we try to shine on some of some
of that research that tells us that if you're not
(07:33):
having a supportive experience, then it can impact your baby,
it can impact the pregnancy that you have. We also
are looking at the creation of a task force, and
we're working with other partners. So I also want to
pause and say that that we're not an organization that
believes we have all the answers are even are close
(07:56):
to having all the answers. We are really trying to
bring awareness to the challenges and the opportunities that are
out there in terms of improving the chances of black
children thriving. And I bring that up in this question
because there's so many amazing advocates that are out in
(08:20):
the field doing work focused on black maternal health, and
so we are really situating ourselves really in that amazing
field of advocates and saying, how can we be supportive,
how can we use our convening power to bring forward
this black expertise, these black advocates and really work together.
(08:43):
And so we are in the process of creating this
task force that will do just that, and we'll really
look together at the research that exists, knowing that some
of that research is actually not the most accurate research
and in many ways it's deficit based research, and we'll
talk with each other about what research is needed. And
so that's that's one of the ways that we're approaching
(09:05):
that outcome.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
In particular, I want to dive a little bit more
into that, but first I want to back up just
a second.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
What you said really resonated with me.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I know from the research I've done that from zero
to three, so much happens developmentally and impacting it positively
will really help the child.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
But can you can you talk a little.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Bit about that, like the why it's so important from
birth until to say, three years old to really focus
on some of the good things you can do for
your kids.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, I mean, so what we know about the first
three years of life is just the rapid speed at
which the brain is developing, and so a you know,
we consider that infancy and toddler the neurons in their brains.
The circuitry is just I'm doing my hands is when
(09:59):
I when I think about the brain development that's happening
at that age, that's exactly what what happens.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
So everybody at home, snappy fingers, run your head, and
that's the that's the neurons firing.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
As honestly as like fast as you can, and you'll
understand what's happening for an infant and a toddler's brain
development and so everything. I mean, it's it's quite literally
everything they are taking in from the language they're hearing, right,
so hear it an adult a garden talking to them,
(10:32):
or not even talking directly to them, but talking in
the space that they're in. Right, So during the TV
right they're they're they're taking all of this information in
and their their neurons are going and they're trying to
process it and they're making some sense of it. And
if you watch all sorts of amazing videos this is watching.
One of the benefits of social media and technology is
(10:53):
that we can see these great videos of people talking
to these little babies. Right. See, you know, the person
talking to the baby may be doing everything from gibberish
to singing a song. Then you see the baby just.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Like light up and they they may start smiling or
they try to mimic either vocally or even physically what's
being done to them.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
And that's the both the beauty and the vulnerability of
this range is that they are literally like our mirrors.
They're trying to mimic everything that's in their environments because
they are quite literally on a second by second basis,
trying to process and figure out and they're they're developing
just that rapidly. So it's it is a really vulnerable time.
(11:49):
Also a time, if you really think about it, when
a human being is the most dependent on another human
being like or food for or getting transportation to get anywhere,
to understand sort of is this a safe place for
me to be or not to try to even express
(12:10):
how they're feeling. They're really really solely dependent on the
and I keep I'm trying to be careful not how
to say adults, because it's not just it's not like
in their minds they know this is an adult or not.
They are just solely dependent on whomever is around them,
and they're really kind of experiencing the world in this
(12:32):
way of you know, you all out there are caring
for me, and that's how they experience it. And so
it's an awesome responsibility for all of us to really
think about and to consider just how we care for
our own children, but any child especially we've talked about
in this very very unique first three years of life.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Now you mentioned social media, and I agree.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
I've seen so many cute videos of people talking to children, babies, infants,
and you can just see the baby trying to mimic.
But as I think about that, I have to do
a quick commercial for putting the phone down and actually interacting.
Because the beauty of social media is it brings all
this information to you. But we've so acclimated to it
(13:18):
that I worry when I see parents and their young children.
Sometimes if you have the baby in a stroller, or
if the baby is if you're just sitting around with
the baby, your temptation is to go to your device
because there's downtime. But as you were saying, babies respond
to language. They respond to what they hear, and if
(13:38):
you are reading your phone while you're with the baby,
the baby is not hearing anything, and the baby is
not able, you're missing out on opportunities to increase the
baby's vocabulary and fire some of those neurons. So, parents
of young children, when you find yourself sort of silently scrolling,
(13:59):
I mean maybe the baby maybe you know, not crying,
not fussing. Remember, it's really important to talk to them,
even though they're not going to be able to talk back.
But you know, there's a lot of research done about
the number of words that a child hears is really key,
and the more words they hear when they're very little,
the better chances they have to read well and to speak.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So no, and I'm glad you mentioned that because there's
also you know, there's so much research to be done
and being done on the significant impacts that time spent
in front of any sort of device is having on
any of us, but in particular the youngest of us.
So I'm glad that you mentioned that. I'm absolutely not
(14:41):
advocating for Oh no, no.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
No no, I knew that.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
And social media and the internet can be really good
to show parents what can happen when they do these things.
But it just I'm reminded of I've seen so many
people walking down the street with babies and strollers on
their phones, and I just think if you just say.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Like, hey, look at that, that's going blue. I mean,
you can just say things that just.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
And especially some research, and I'm happy to share a
link afterwards that you could share with the audience. There's
a need for young children birth to eight, but in
particular this age range that we're talking about birth to
three here distinctly the voices of their caregivers, and that
(15:26):
it can be confusing for them and confusing in terms
of who they make connections with if they're hearing lots
of different voices, and so if you think about a
baby hearing, you know, voices on social media, it's hard
for them to sort of process whose voice is actually
the voice that I'm really bonding with. And so there
(15:48):
is some research there that speaks to what you're saying.
That is really really important making a mistake. It's important
that children and that babies, as they're learning their language,
they're learning who their care takers are, they're bonding with
their family and their loved ones. That having that clear
connection to, oh, this is the voice of my mother
(16:11):
or my father is really necessary. And so we don't
want to have them to confuse with too many voices
because they're just in front of a tablet and they're
getting all of the various verbal cues that aren't the
right cues.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
I know that NBCDI is also focused on infant health
and nutrition and that you all are really focused on
educating parents and educators about the importance of good nutrition
not only during pregnancy but also for babies.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
And can you talk a little bit about the advocacy systems.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I mean, a lot of people don't realize if they
live in a neighborhood where healthy food is not available,
that it's not their fault they can't find healthy food,
but they have to know to look for it. But
can you tell me a little bit about that what
you guys do in that area.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yeah, So I love the way you ask the question,
because a lot of times what happens is we society
sort of make the problem parents themselves, and especially when
we're talking about black parents and black children and families,
we will create this sort of again mental model that well,
(17:26):
black children aren't healthy because their parents don't cook or
don't cook the right foods, are always buying fast food
in these very again deficit based notions, when we know
that so much of it is actually what you just said,
which is that we know that many black families, and
this is actually across income, but many black families live
(17:46):
in what's known as food deserts, and so that means
our neighborhoods communities that don't like literally don't have grocery stores,
have corner stores, have bodega, have package stores that might
have a few little items on the shelf, but they
(18:06):
don't have grocery stores, and then don't have access to
farmers' markets and other just healthier sources of shopping. And
we know that there are lots of reasons why that
really absolutely don't have anything to do with you and
the parental choices you make. And so part of the
work we're doing is we have kind of a twofold strategy,
(18:29):
and one of the strategies is around advocacy for an
equitable distribution of healthy food options in all communities. Yes,
we do that. We need to in fact ensure that
farmers and sort of the agricultural community is resourced and
(18:51):
that it's worth the investment for them to actually farm
the crops that are healthier because the way the system
is set up, it's not it's actually it doesn't from
a financial standpoint, actually make much sense for them. The
way the crop subsidies, et cetera are for them are
produce and products that are healthier for people. We're doing
(19:12):
some advocacy around the sorts of advertisement that is found
more so in certain communities, marketing commercials that are around
highly processed junk foods, et cetera, and just trying to
make sense up you know, is that by happenstance or
is this sort of marketing that's a little bit more
(19:32):
intentional in terms of being in these particular in our communities.
So that's one part of our work, is this advocacy
of the food and agricultural system at large, and then
we're also doing programmatic work, and so we have a
curriculum that we've used called Good for Me that's part
(19:56):
of the NBCDI sort of signature of culturally relevant resource
versus for quite some time. And so this Good for
Me program is really a program that is designed to
help families support families in selecting foods that are healthier
choices and are also culturally relevant, because I think there's
(20:17):
also this notion that our foods are like just naturally
unhealthy foods, and it's not true. I'm a fan of
college greedes. We talk about, you know, college grades being
a perfectly wonderful vegetable and ways that we can cook
it and use it to be a healthy option for
(20:39):
us and also an option that we feel good about
and confident in because it is it's a culturally relevant option.
We don't have to feel like our foods are bad,
because you know, sometimes that's what we're told by the
larger culture.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
It might involve a bit of a tweak in terms
of how you prepare it, like you might have to
change your grandmother's rest to be just a little bit,
but you can do it without taking away the taste
and so I love that. So it is we can
we can eat all the foods that we grew up
eating and our our parents grew up eating, but just
tweaked a little so that they're the healthiest they.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Can be for our kids.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yes, I will, I will put some turkey in mind
now instead of I will say I'm not gonna lie,
because sometimes you need the hamhocks, but not every time,
you know, you don't have to do that every time.
That's right, there's sometimes.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Moderation this time. Yes, everything in moderation. That's right.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
You don't have to deprive, just have to sort of
you know, know what you're doing. It's all about education,
which is really important. And when you say where where
could people find.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
These that like the good for Me program?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Is that something that is web based or is that
disseminated through the the affiliate groups.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Yes, so it's disseminated primarily through our affiliates. So you
could visit our website at ww dot NBCDI dot org
and you find an affiliate near you and join that
affiliate and then have access to these resources. Also, we're
really really interested in growing the affiliate network as I me.
(22:20):
We have twenty four across the country. And so if
you're interested in like a good for me program or
just being a part of the village as we call
it broadly speaking, and there's not an affiliate in your
city or state, then you can also inquire about starting
one and then also access to these resources that way.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Oh that's great, and I'll put all the links and
the sites that we talk about in this episode in
the show notes, so everybody can be sure to be
able to find them.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
We'll be right back after these messages. Welcome back to
the show.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
So we've talked about health, I want to talk a
little bit about education, which is near and dear to
my heart. And I love that one of your eight
essential outcomes that in BCD I work to establish is
that to ensure that all black children can attend a
school that affirms.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
And expands them.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
I love that that's what you're focused on in terms
of education, schools that affirm. So you you began this
as a teacher, So can you tell me, I mean,
I know that you know this well, like how important
education as a concept is for the littlest ones. I mean,
how should parents think about education? Some think, Oh, I
(23:33):
don't have to worry about that till kindergarten. But but
what do you say in terms of when parents should
start thinking about educating their their little one.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Gosh, well, you should start thinking about educating them from
the moment you find out, discover that you are present, honestly,
because I think one of the things that's so interesting
is that when we talk about education, and we think
very much about formal schooling, and so we you know,
(24:04):
sort of naturally think, okay, well, when they're in kindergarten,
start that process. And there's obviously the formal schooling process,
but I really like to encourage people to think of
it more so as when do you believe your child
is starting to learn? And that helps you to sort
of have a more it feels probably a bit more organic,
(24:26):
a bit more natural when you're thinking about it in
that way, because again, ba's to sort of the brain circuitry.
They're they are learning. We believe they are learning in
your belly. So you know, when you're singing to them
or playing music or reading books, they're they're soaking it up.
(24:46):
They're the neurons are going and they're processing, and that
is learning. And once they're they're you know, here and
in the world. Literally they're development. It's not interesting to me.
We use these terms that sometimes can feel separate from
each other. But their development is their learning. Like that's
(25:06):
all day, every day. They open up their eyes and
they're starting to learn. And it's like everywhere you take them,
everywhere they go, you just sit them while you're, you know, cooking,
and you're telling them what you're cooking. And you may
feel like this seems silly because as she said earlier, Carol,
like they're not responding. Maybe they're not responding to you,
but they're totally taking it in and they're learning. And
(25:30):
it's that and have fun with it. Like really, that's
why I like to again sort of unpack it from
education to the idea of their development is really quite
literally their way of learning. And so it's it's all day,
every day, it's what they do. It's it's literally their jobs,
that's what they do, and we are facilitating that learning.
(25:54):
And everything we're doing intentionally and unintentionally, we are really
facilitating that learning. And so again it's it's an it's
an awesome responsibility. I think we should have, you know,
as much fun as we can with it. Yeah, just
understand that they are. They're learning from the moment they
open their eyes, and even you know, it's funny when
(26:14):
they close their eyes, they're still learning because the brain
is still kind of going and they're dreaming of all
the things that happened that day, and they're sort of
putting them together. The processing just keeps happening.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, no, I you know, if I answer your question,
I know you.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
No, that was great.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
I got excited too, because I just love this concept
of rethinking about education as a concept of thing you
want your child to learn, but your child's learning if
you're not doing anything you can.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
You can support it, you can encourage.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
It, you can enhance it, and and you can enhance
it by doing really simple things like talking to them
and reading the newspaper to them.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
I mean you can.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Really.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
You said it, even before or you have the baby.
I have actually talked to young mothers and and this season,
I'm also talking to some literary literacy experts and who
advocate reading to your children when they are in your tummy,
like before they're born. Several people have talked about how
they read to their children when they were pregnant, and
(27:22):
I certainly know that I sang all the time. I mean,
I'm by let me just be clear, I am not
a singer, but I love music.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
So my poor, my poor yet to be.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Born children had to hear me sing all the time.
But but I honestly think this is a weird. It's
funny now that I think about it.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
I mean, I really did sing all the time.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
I had favorite songs I would I would sing a
lot in the shower, you know, wherever. I would sing
when I was pregnant, and when my especially my youngest,
I would sing a lot, and when he was born,
and I would sing that same song. He actually responded
to it. I could hell that he looked like he
had heard that song before. Absolutely, and so that was
(28:04):
kind of magical. And actually he happens to be a
very musical kid. He plays a lot of instruments, and
so I do. I'm a firm believer in that it
really that the learning starts from day one. So so
now I want to segue into one of the things
that I've really been excited to talk with you about,
because it's an area that when we talk about our
(28:25):
black children and we talk about parenting issues, it doesn't
come up in our community as often as it does
in others, and that is climate climate focus. And you know,
we chatted before this conversation, and I know that NBCDI
is really focused on climate changing and the impact of
(28:46):
climate changes on the youngest segment of the Black community.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Can you talk a little bit about how how that.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Became one of the eight pillars and what you guys
do in terms of just getting people focused on the
importance of understanding climate shifts and climate change.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Yeah, so I'll tell you how it became one of
the eight outcomes. This is the amazing kind of beauty
of our network is that as we were going through
our strategic planning process, our affiliate network was a part
of the process. They code is OO the plan with us,
and when we were talking about, you know, high priority issues,
(29:29):
issues that they were thinking about that were really showing
up in communities as critical issues for the organization to
focus on, climate came up. And in particular, the way
climate came up for us, as you'll see reflected in
our outcome, was around every Black child having access to
clean air and clean water. So it came up really
(29:51):
in terms of the relationship between environmental injustices and how
environmental injustice is impact climate change, or really how climate
change is making those environmental injustices even worse. That's how
it came up for us, and so we are really
(30:11):
focused heavily again on this, like advocacy play, we have
sat on a few a number of commissions and task forces,
in particular with CAPITA and the Aspen Institute that was
focused on understanding the impact of climate change on young children.
(30:34):
And of course we were and continued to be really
focused on and most concerned with the impact of climate change,
or as one of my colleagues recently said, and I thought, oh,
that's that's an interesting way to rephrase it, the impact
of the changing climate on black children. And so one
example that I will use for listeners to help maybe
(30:58):
understand the important of this issue is that there is
actually so there are a couple things, but there's a
shade inequity. Maybe a new term for people, but shade
inequity is a real thing. It's a real thing. I know,
(31:19):
it's far hard to imagine, but it's a real thing
that in certain communities, and in particular in black communities,
there is actually an inequitable distribution of shade. There are
less green spaces, there are more concrete buildings, there may
(31:40):
be less play spaces for children. And so if you
couple that with the last two summers we've had where
we have had record heat. We literally had the hottest
day on Earth last July. You couple that together, then
what you realize is that children are not able to
(32:02):
really be outside in the ways they used to be,
not just because of technology that's in there too somewhere,
but literally focus on the extreme heat that we are experiencing.
There's an impact there on a child's ability to be
out in nature, to be exercising and playing and doing
(32:25):
all of the developmentally appropriate things that happen when you're
able to be outside and play in the summer. That's
one of the ways the change in climate is impacting
Black children.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
I mean fewer trees, fewer places to take cover from
the heat.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean another example, two other quick examples
I'll use or that we've talked a bit about it
in terms of this is primarily probably with older a
little bit older children, but it's still relevant, and that
if you think of outs, many of the schools that
(33:04):
our children attend are schools that don't have proper ventilation.
And so again you have these extreme heat temperatures, hot temperatures,
high temperatures. You have children who, because of these temperatures
may not be able to go outside. Children who you know,
may have walked to school, and because they're in urban areas,
(33:28):
they may be walking past highways. I live in Atlanta.
That could absolutely be true that you are walking past
I twenty and so there's all sorts of pollution and
toxins that you, as a child, are breathing in on
your way to school. So now you may have higher
rates of asthma, which we know higher rates of asthma
exists in our communities. We told that was because we
(33:50):
smoke more, but that's not actually true. It's environmental injustice.
And you get to school, you can't play outside, so
you're you know, you're in the school build bilding that's
hot all day long. You become agitated and behaviorally, you know,
we we know what happens when we're super hot. You
just you don't feel like dealing with people.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Right, No, absolutely, climate and rage, yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
It's a real thing. And so then what we you know,
we see that our children are suspended and expelled at
higher rates, and so you know, our ability to even
make those kinds of connections that people might not see
that being related to climate but it very well could
be when you think about all of the way, like
the cumulative impacts that I just named for you. That's
(34:40):
a lot of the work we're doing is really sort
of pressing on this issue to say, but wait a minute,
what are the ways this is impacting our communities that
we may not even be realizing.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
You know, that's that's really important because I have to
say that then I'm generalizing terribly. But you don't hear
a lot of black people talking about climate change being
very high on their list of things that one can
worry about.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I mean, there's a lot.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Of injustice that you have to sort of get past
before you focused on, you know, the the climate.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
But the way that.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
You're talking about this, it's it's all. It is truly
environmental justice. I mean, if the the term climate change
is kind of a charged one and it sounds like
environmentalists out in places where there's lots of land, you know,
worrying about about us, it's distribution, but truly environmental justice.
(35:36):
I mean, we all we know about the Flint water issue.
I mean, these kinds of issues really do severely impact
communities all over, but have a particularly bad impact on
black communities. So so in terms of parents thinking about
what they can do. You know, when we talked about
this earlier, you talked about sort of the flip side
of this. Now we want people to be concerned about this,
(35:58):
but you have this phrase climate anxiety. I mean we
don't we don't want I mean it doesn't help. Yes,
it's very hot and it's going to get hotter, and
just knowing that can really make people crazy. So so
how do we how do we balance having parents focus
(36:19):
on these things as real things that they should be
focused on for their own children and their community, and
then not sort of spinning out into this sort of
doomsday scenario where we're we're we're just gonna all melt.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
No, it's a really important question because there there are
so many issues for us to be concerned about, and
as black people, as black parents, yes, it can feel like,
oh my gosh, Okay, now I also have to worry
about this. What do you want from me? I get it,
like totally get it. It's actually like when my colleague
(36:58):
changed the language from climate change to a climate that
is changing or a changing. I just thought like, oh wow,
that sounds actually like a a as friendlier a term
as it it can get, because climate change does sound
very like out there. But anyway, so I would say
that I think it's also you know, understanding that there
(37:23):
are questions you can ask. So, No, you may not
as a pair be able to go and change the
temperature outside and we wish we could magically make it cooler. No,
but there are things we can do, like find out,
you know, what does it take to plant more trees
in my community? I mean, is what is my city's
(37:45):
responsibility to ensure that my neighborhood has whatever number of
trees it should have based on our square footage and
the amount of people who live in this community, right,
like being able to do that research. Asking your child's
school about their playground equipment and is you know what
(38:10):
materials are they using for the playground equipment? Is the
playground equipment weather resistance so that if it is warm out,
it's hot out, are the children still able to go
out because the equipment, the playground materials are actually built
in a way that they will be safe and they
can still have their recess, which is so important to
(38:31):
their development. Now, I think they're you know, maybe small
steps that don't have to feel so overwhelming, but that
you know you can take. And I think asking those
kinds of questions are our first steps that you know,
I know how as parents, you know, we take that
first step and then on that rabbit hole. But I
(38:52):
get it. It's just that you do feel so anxious
because there's so much to worry about. But that's what
I would say.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Small absolutely and helping parents.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Get the practical advice, like, for example, just investigating the
number of trees a loted to your neighborhood, you know,
perhaps doing an outdoor garden in an urban environment. I mean,
just things that might not be at the top of
your list, but if you begin to understand how they
could be helpful to the community, to your children, they
may raise up on your list. And do I remember
(39:27):
correctly that there are some webinars that NBCDI has with
Google and YouTube and about this very subject.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
So we actually have what we call our Virtual Learning Series,
which is a webinar series that covers multiple topics. So
we usually will go across each of our eight outcomes
and we will host the webinar with various partners. So
the webinar we did with Google and YouTube was actually
(39:58):
around our safe and Approach Internet outcome. We do have
a webinar that we did around the climate outcome with
our partners at the Children's Environmental Health Network, So they're
featured on that webinar and we had a wonderful conversation
with them about this work. And actually I believe this
(40:19):
in October is the Climate is Climate Week and the
Children's Environmental Health Network hosts this week and partners can join.
We're one of the partners that participates, and so we'll
have activities and things that we will be doing during
that week.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Oh good good, But this will air before that, so
I'll be sure to put that information in the show
notes as well.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
This is great. So one of the things that I
really liked learning is that.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
Your organization is focused on ensuring that we talk about
black children from a strength based, positive approach, using positive language,
and particularly for the youngest set. How important is it
for parents to focus on positivity in their parenting?
Speaker 2 (41:02):
I mean, personally, I.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Am the hugest fan of this, but just but that's
just me generally speaking. Is it important for parents to
sort of be positive with their youngest ones and what
kinds of things can they do to be positive?
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's a few things. One,
the way we talk to each other and the way
we talk about each other says so much about what
we believe and think about each other. And for a child,
it's really part of building their confidence. And so if
(41:42):
a child is hearing you know an adults talk about
them in a negative way, that's what they're going to
believe about themselves. But if I'm talking about you, you know,
a way that is positive is building you up, is
(42:06):
you know, i'd say loving and kind, then you're gonna
feel that way about yourself. And it's not just yes, parents,
it's also something that I say, you know to educators
that your students have to hear because they do hear.
They hear what you're saying about them, whether they're in
front of you or not. They have metrical ear power.
(42:27):
They hear you. And so whatever you intend or do
not intend for them to pick up, they pick it up.
And so why not be intentional in building up their confidence? Right? Like,
I think we have these sort of warped ideas that
you know, will We'll say, we'll talk to them too positively,
(42:48):
and then they'll grow up to be like, you know, egotistical.
That's not gonna happen. No, like just we have to
we have to talk to them and help them really
who they truly are in the most i'd say accurate
and holistic ways. And so in NBCITI has been built
(43:12):
on that set of values way before me. As we've
talked about, there are lots of challenges right in our communities,
and those challenges are not a reflection of us as
a people. There are a reflection of systems and conditions
that we have been quite literally brought and born into.
(43:37):
But we as a people, including our children, are you know,
we have just all the skills and assets and creativity
and brilliance that we need. And so we are. Our
work at NBCDI is, and we talk about it is
(43:59):
to harness that black expertise, to leverage it, to find
and build the solutions that will continue to increase the
likelihood that our children will thrive and ways it we
may not even be thriving.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
I mean, on the one hand, you don't want to
say it's not your father at all. Don't worry about it.
You know there's nothing you can do, it's out of
your control. But you're not saying that. You're saying, let's
walk away, let's move away from pointing fingers and focus
more on how we work together to make it better
for children. Is that is that a fair assessment?
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Subtracting the cause from the people doesn't necessarily subtract our
need to do something about it. And actually, what it
does is I believe it can empower us to say, Okay,
I don't have to just feel like a victim. I
(45:03):
don't have to just feel like this is out of
my control. What I can actually feel like is there's
a world I can create, right, And so, like, how
do we help each other to really think about the
ways in which we have survived so much? I was
(45:24):
saying this to somebody the other day, that we, as
black parents in particular, should be less humble because we
have somehow found a way, like generation after generation of
us find a way to keep smiling and being joyful
(45:46):
and balancing all of these things and raising children, And like,
how can we and I'm being very like seriously, like,
how can we almost like systematically pay attention to our
strengths and say, wait, there's nothing wrong with us as
(46:06):
a people, So what do we need to take away
from our own strength and our own intelligence and say, well,
then this is this is how we can recreate. This
is how we can create the future, the world that
we want for ourselves, for our children, and with the
understanding that when we're able to do that everyone, you know,
(46:28):
people will say everyone wins. So I think that that
that's what we're really aiming to put out into the world.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
Oh that's so well said, and how fortunate we are
that you guys are doing this. So, as I said before,
I'm going to put all the contact information in the
show notes so that people can be sure to go
to the website and figure out if they're near an
affiliate or create one if they're not. Because you guys
are doing great work, and more people need to be
(46:57):
able to know about it and be able to take
advantage of it. So I thank you so much. I'm
going to wrap it up here, but first of course,
I want to thank you. I know that everyone listening
has really benefited, especially the parents of the youngest ones,
but everybody who cares about children, and particularly the little children,
really learned a lot. So before you go, I just
(47:19):
want you to I'm going to ask you as I
ask all my guests to play the GCP Lightning Round.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
I have four questions, four quick questions. So are you ready?
Speaker 3 (47:26):
I'm ready?
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Yes, Okay, good. Here we go. First, your favorite poem
or saying.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
Favorite saying would be this too shall pass?
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (47:36):
I like that one. I use that a lot. That's
a good one.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
So give me two favorite children's books. And they can
be ones you remember from your childhood or ones you
read to your son.
Speaker 3 (47:48):
Oh goodness. So there's one that my son and.
Speaker 4 (47:52):
I read.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
By one of Bob Marley's daughters. I think it's called
Every Little Thing His Song, and we would just he
in particular, would just sing because the book it's the
lyrics of the song Three Little Birds, and so he
would just sing and I would just smile. And he's
(48:16):
ten now, but there are times when I'm totally gonna
embarrass him where my mom will call and say, will
Blake sing and then he'll bring the book. So that's one,
and I think we're also he and he's in particular,
I guess I'm sort of naming books that he's into
(48:37):
right now, like he's into a lot of goosebumps and like, oh.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Yeah on a series books. Those are good, these books.
Speaker 3 (48:47):
So we're having I'm having a lot of fun kind
of watching him advance in some of the number of
pages that he's reading.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
No, that's a great okay.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
So give me a mom moment that you would love
to redo so that you would do it differently the
second time.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
A mom moment that I would redo. You know, it's interesting,
I would say that so many of us who are
moms during this high technology time, I would redo I'd
be totally vulnerable here, and I would redo the amount
of time that we allowed our son to start to
(49:30):
be on technology, because we're quite frankly starting to undo
that and it's a lot harder to undo it. So
if you have not gone down the technology rabbit hole
with your kids, don't do it, because it's much harder
when you're trying to you know, as they get older,
when you're trying to take them, when you're trying to
decrease the amount of time they spend, it's a bit harder.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Okay, So tell me a mom moment when you knew
you nailed it. You nailed it as a mom.
Speaker 3 (49:56):
You know, it's so funny. So what I would say
is I have many in the spirit of black parents
not being humble.
Speaker 4 (50:06):
I have.
Speaker 3 (50:08):
The overarching theme I will give you though, is that
I have consistently talked to my son like since literally
I was pregnant with him. And so to this day
now as a ten year old, people are like astonished
(50:29):
by our relationship and our communication and his ability to
share with me and share with his dad, but share
with me like his feelings and how he's doing. And
so we have this practice. And it's a great day
for you to ask me this question because he just
went back to school today, first day of fifth grade.
(50:52):
But we've had this practice that I totally recommend to parents,
a practice that I actually learned from his early learning
center where they said to us, you know, if you
can't do anything else, basically ask them the how, the what,
the when, the where, the why, just go through that
sequence and if you do anything else, you can do that.
And I was like, Okay, I can do that, And
(51:13):
so we still do that, and so when I picked
him up from school, we run through his day and
I will ask him those questions. We've started to get
a little bit more sophisticated in it where I will
even ask him what went well today? And he'll tell me,
what did you learn? And I asked him what didn't
go well or what did you dislike about today? And
(51:34):
he'll tell me, and we just have this, you know,
we have a conversation, and I think we have I
have have really figured out how to create an open
line of communication with him. And sometimes it's sometimes it's scary,
and sometimes it's just absolutely hilarious to hear to hear
(51:56):
the things he says, to hear his opinions on things.
So yes, I would I would say that that's definitely.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
A And So what you've done is is made him
confident that he's being heard, that you listened to him,
and that he can say things to you that you
will listen to and not judge.
Speaker 3 (52:13):
Is that absolutely? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (52:15):
No, that that's great. Wow, those are great answers. And
and I'm going to work on that.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
But how the what?
Speaker 1 (52:22):
What are the five things you have to maybe I
can try with my adult children?
Speaker 2 (52:25):
What is this?
Speaker 3 (52:27):
It's how? What's where? When? And why?
Speaker 2 (52:31):
Okay? How?
Speaker 3 (52:32):
What?
Speaker 2 (52:32):
Where?
Speaker 3 (52:32):
When?
Speaker 2 (52:32):
And why? Okay? Gonna I'm gonna work on that.
Speaker 3 (52:35):
In every situation children. Everybody.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
Okay, we've just been handed a golden key, so let's figure.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
Out how to use it.
Speaker 1 (52:48):
Absolutely, Doctor Leah Austin, thank you so much, and and
thank you for bringing nbcd I to our attention and
for helping us know more about it.
Speaker 2 (52:57):
And thank you for a great conversation.
Speaker 3 (52:59):
Thanks, thank you for having me. This is great.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
I hope everyone listening enjoyed this conversation that you'll come
back for more. Please subscribe, rate and review where you
find your podcasts, and tell your friends. For more parenting
info and advice, please check out the Ground Control Parenting
website at wwwgroundcontrol Parenting dot com. You can also find
us on Facebook and Instagram at ground Control Parenting and
on LinkedIn under Carol Sutton Lewis. Until the next time,
(53:26):
take care and thanks for listening.
Hello, and welcome to Ground Controlled Parenting, a blog and
now a podcast created for parents raising black and brown children.
I'm the creator and your host, Carol Sutton Lewis. In
this podcast series, I talk with some really interesting people
about the job and the joy of parenting. Today, I
am so happy to be joined by doctor Leah Austen,
President and CEO of the National Black Child Development Institute,
(00:27):
otherwise known as NBCDI.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
NBCDI is a fifty three year.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Old national organization focused on the healthy child development of
Black children. Under doctor Austin's leadership, NBCDI provides educators and
parents with culturally relevant resources that respond to the unique
strengths and needs of Black children from birth through age eight,
around issues including early child education, health, child welfare, literacy.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
And family engagement.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
NBCDI believes that the first eight years of a child's
life set the foundation for their.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Health, safety, and overall well being.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
They have established eight essential outcomes from Black children aged
zero to eight that they work hard to achieve, which
include working to ensure children are born at a healthy birthwate,
have nutritious meals, have clean air to breathe and water
to drink, and have supporting and nurturing learning environments. Doctor
Austin began her career as a public school teacher in Washington, DC,
(01:23):
and she worked in leadership positions with a number of
nonprofit organizations, including the United Way of Grad Atlanta, the
Ani Cacy Foundation, and the Shot Foundation for Public Education.
She holds degrees from Fisk University, Howard University, and the
University of Pennsylvania Mayama Mana.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
She has a son, Blate, who is ten. Welcome to
Ground Control Parenting, Doctor Leah Austen.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Thank you. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I'm so happy to have you with us. So tell
us all more about MBCDI and the great work that
it's doing to help our black children thrive. I want
to hear about it all and especially focus on your
work with children ages zero to three. So let's get started,
and I want to start by asking you to please
tell us what NBCDI does.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Is it primarily a research organization or a think tank?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah? Absolutely, so we're both. We really describe ourselves as
both a think tank and a do tank. So what
does that mean. The think tank side of the organization
is really the institute side of the organization. So this
is where we are engaged in research, We are engaged
in policy analysis, policy making, and then the DO side
(02:37):
is really our work that looks like advocacy and movement
building and so really doing work nationally and in communities
to ensure that the conditions are set such that black
children I really have better opportunities to thrive. And those
conditions can be policy conditions, they can be programmatic conditions.
(02:58):
And then I would also just add in terms of
our structures, we have our national organization, and then we
have this really amazing sort of secret sauce of a
national affiliate network of currently twenty four organizations across the country.
And these are organizations that are really kind of the
heartbeat of the organization, and so they do the movement building,
(03:22):
they're doing the on the ground work, which is also
consistent of programs and direct services in addition to advocacy
and policy work. So we really are the sort of
combination of both. And as I said, I think in
a DO tank all all in one, because we really
believe it requires both pulling both of those levers in
(03:46):
order to improve the outcomes that we really seek to
see for black children.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
And are these affiliates born of the national organization, or
were they already existing and they just affiliated with you all.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
So we have some organizations that were born of NBCDI,
and then we have some that were existing organizations and
then they joined the affiliate network.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
And the research that you do is given out primarily
to educators but also to parents.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Absolutely, So we really look at it at our sort
of audience or our community as this combination of people.
So we look at if you're an educator, if you're
a classroom teacher, you're also an advocate. You also have
the opportunity in many ways, you have the responsibility to
advocate for your children if you are your students. If
(04:39):
you are a parent, Similarly, you're also often advocating not
only for your individual child or children, but you're advocating
for the children in your community, or you're advocating for
the children at your church or the neighborhood school. And
so we design our tools in that way so that
you're really able to read them with multiple lenses at play,
(05:03):
the lens of Okay, I'm an educator, I want to
know what I can do in my classroom. I'm a parent,
I want to know what I can do at home,
but I'm also an advocate, and I want to know
how I can really advocate and again sort of set
these conditions outside of my home or my classroom that
will improve the lives of black children.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
And from there, I want to talk about these eight
essential outcomes that you guys envision. And you know, I'm
really focused on the earliest set. I know that the
organization focuses on children age zero to eight. I'm really
focused for this conversation on the teeniese set, the zero
to three, and I love how your eight outcomes really
(05:47):
apply to that youngest set as well as to the
slightly older kids.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
So the first one is health.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
I mean, you want to ensure that children are born
at a healthy waight. What kinds of things do you
what kind of research to, what kind of tools and
information do you provide just to support that?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
So we really understand while we are focused on the
first eight years of a child's life, I always say
to people that does not mean that we are not
concerned with anything beyond those eight years. Right, we know
that the first eight years are a unique time in
a human beings development, and we know even with that
(06:26):
first eight years, the first three years are even more
unique time in a child's development, and so I appreciate
your sort of wanting to even focus a bit more on,
as you said, the teeniest, which I love that language.
When we think about our eight outcomes and we think
about this outcome around a healthy birth weight, we are
(06:49):
thinking about a few things. One, we are thinking about
mental models and really helping to change the mental models
that have been held that tell us that the reasons
why black children in particular are more likely to be
born at an unhealthy birth weight are solely sort of
(07:12):
the fault of their mother or their parents, when we
know that it's actually not that's actually not true. There's
multiple reasons why. Some of those reasons actually include the
experience that birthing parents are having in the birthing institutions,
and so we try to shine on some of some
of that research that tells us that if you're not
(07:33):
having a supportive experience, then it can impact your baby,
it can impact the pregnancy that you have. We also
are looking at the creation of a task force, and
we're working with other partners. So I also want to
pause and say that that we're not an organization that
believes we have all the answers are even are close
(07:56):
to having all the answers. We are really trying to
bring awareness to the challenges and the opportunities that are
out there in terms of improving the chances of black
children thriving. And I bring that up in this question
because there's so many amazing advocates that are out in
(08:20):
the field doing work focused on black maternal health, and
so we are really situating ourselves really in that amazing
field of advocates and saying, how can we be supportive,
how can we use our convening power to bring forward
this black expertise, these black advocates and really work together.
(08:43):
And so we are in the process of creating this
task force that will do just that, and we'll really
look together at the research that exists, knowing that some
of that research is actually not the most accurate research
and in many ways it's deficit based research, and we'll
talk with each other about what research is needed. And
so that's that's one of the ways that we're approaching
(09:05):
that outcome.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
In particular, I want to dive a little bit more
into that, but first I want to back up just
a second.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
What you said really resonated with me.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I know from the research I've done that from zero
to three, so much happens developmentally and impacting it positively
will really help the child.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
But can you can you talk a little.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Bit about that, like the why it's so important from
birth until to say, three years old to really focus
on some of the good things you can do for
your kids.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, I mean, so what we know about the first
three years of life is just the rapid speed at
which the brain is developing, and so a you know,
we consider that infancy and toddler the neurons in their brains.
The circuitry is just I'm doing my hands is when
(09:59):
I when I think about the brain development that's happening
at that age, that's exactly what what happens.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
So everybody at home, snappy fingers, run your head, and
that's the that's the neurons firing.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
As honestly as like fast as you can, and you'll
understand what's happening for an infant and a toddler's brain
development and so everything. I mean, it's it's quite literally
everything they are taking in from the language they're hearing, right,
so hear it an adult a garden talking to them,
(10:32):
or not even talking directly to them, but talking in
the space that they're in. Right, So during the TV
right they're they're they're taking all of this information in
and their their neurons are going and they're trying to
process it and they're making some sense of it. And
if you watch all sorts of amazing videos this is watching.
One of the benefits of social media and technology is
(10:53):
that we can see these great videos of people talking
to these little babies. Right. See, you know, the person
talking to the baby may be doing everything from gibberish
to singing a song. Then you see the baby just.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Like light up and they they may start smiling or
they try to mimic either vocally or even physically what's
being done to them.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
And that's the both the beauty and the vulnerability of
this range is that they are literally like our mirrors.
They're trying to mimic everything that's in their environments because
they are quite literally on a second by second basis,
trying to process and figure out and they're they're developing
just that rapidly. So it's it is a really vulnerable time.
(11:49):
Also a time, if you really think about it, when
a human being is the most dependent on another human
being like or food for or getting transportation to get anywhere,
to understand sort of is this a safe place for
me to be or not to try to even express
(12:10):
how they're feeling. They're really really solely dependent on the
and I keep I'm trying to be careful not how
to say adults, because it's not just it's not like
in their minds they know this is an adult or not.
They are just solely dependent on whomever is around them,
and they're really kind of experiencing the world in this
(12:32):
way of you know, you all out there are caring
for me, and that's how they experience it. And so
it's an awesome responsibility for all of us to really
think about and to consider just how we care for
our own children, but any child especially we've talked about
in this very very unique first three years of life.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Now you mentioned social media, and I agree.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
I've seen so many cute videos of people talking to children, babies, infants,
and you can just see the baby trying to mimic.
But as I think about that, I have to do
a quick commercial for putting the phone down and actually interacting.
Because the beauty of social media is it brings all
this information to you. But we've so acclimated to it
(13:18):
that I worry when I see parents and their young children.
Sometimes if you have the baby in a stroller, or
if the baby is if you're just sitting around with
the baby, your temptation is to go to your device
because there's downtime. But as you were saying, babies respond
to language. They respond to what they hear, and if
(13:38):
you are reading your phone while you're with the baby,
the baby is not hearing anything, and the baby is
not able, you're missing out on opportunities to increase the
baby's vocabulary and fire some of those neurons. So, parents
of young children, when you find yourself sort of silently scrolling,
(13:59):
I mean maybe the baby maybe you know, not crying,
not fussing. Remember, it's really important to talk to them,
even though they're not going to be able to talk back.
But you know, there's a lot of research done about
the number of words that a child hears is really key,
and the more words they hear when they're very little,
the better chances they have to read well and to speak.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So no, and I'm glad you mentioned that because there's
also you know, there's so much research to be done
and being done on the significant impacts that time spent
in front of any sort of device is having on
any of us, but in particular the youngest of us.
So I'm glad that you mentioned that. I'm absolutely not
(14:41):
advocating for Oh no, no.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
No no, I knew that.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
And social media and the internet can be really good
to show parents what can happen when they do these things.
But it just I'm reminded of I've seen so many
people walking down the street with babies and strollers on
their phones, and I just think if you just say.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Like, hey, look at that, that's going blue. I mean,
you can just say things that just.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
And especially some research, and I'm happy to share a
link afterwards that you could share with the audience. There's
a need for young children birth to eight, but in
particular this age range that we're talking about birth to
three here distinctly the voices of their caregivers, and that
(15:26):
it can be confusing for them and confusing in terms
of who they make connections with if they're hearing lots
of different voices, and so if you think about a
baby hearing, you know, voices on social media, it's hard
for them to sort of process whose voice is actually
the voice that I'm really bonding with. And so there
(15:48):
is some research there that speaks to what you're saying.
That is really really important making a mistake. It's important
that children and that babies, as they're learning their language,
they're learning who their care takers are, they're bonding with
their family and their loved ones. That having that clear
connection to, oh, this is the voice of my mother
(16:11):
or my father is really necessary. And so we don't
want to have them to confuse with too many voices
because they're just in front of a tablet and they're
getting all of the various verbal cues that aren't the
right cues.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
I know that NBCDI is also focused on infant health
and nutrition and that you all are really focused on
educating parents and educators about the importance of good nutrition
not only during pregnancy but also for babies.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
And can you talk a little bit about the advocacy systems.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I mean, a lot of people don't realize if they
live in a neighborhood where healthy food is not available,
that it's not their fault they can't find healthy food,
but they have to know to look for it. But
can you tell me a little bit about that what
you guys do in that area.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yeah, So I love the way you ask the question,
because a lot of times what happens is we society
sort of make the problem parents themselves, and especially when
we're talking about black parents and black children and families,
we will create this sort of again mental model that well,
(17:26):
black children aren't healthy because their parents don't cook or
don't cook the right foods, are always buying fast food
in these very again deficit based notions, when we know
that so much of it is actually what you just said,
which is that we know that many black families, and
this is actually across income, but many black families live
(17:46):
in what's known as food deserts, and so that means
our neighborhoods communities that don't like literally don't have grocery stores,
have corner stores, have bodega, have package stores that might
have a few little items on the shelf, but they
(18:06):
don't have grocery stores, and then don't have access to
farmers' markets and other just healthier sources of shopping. And
we know that there are lots of reasons why that
really absolutely don't have anything to do with you and
the parental choices you make. And so part of the
work we're doing is we have kind of a twofold strategy,
(18:29):
and one of the strategies is around advocacy for an
equitable distribution of healthy food options in all communities. Yes,
we do that. We need to in fact ensure that
farmers and sort of the agricultural community is resourced and
(18:51):
that it's worth the investment for them to actually farm
the crops that are healthier because the way the system
is set up, it's not it's actually it doesn't from
a financial standpoint, actually make much sense for them. The
way the crop subsidies, et cetera are for them are
produce and products that are healthier for people. We're doing
(19:12):
some advocacy around the sorts of advertisement that is found
more so in certain communities, marketing commercials that are around
highly processed junk foods, et cetera, and just trying to
make sense up you know, is that by happenstance or
is this sort of marketing that's a little bit more
(19:32):
intentional in terms of being in these particular in our communities.
So that's one part of our work, is this advocacy
of the food and agricultural system at large, and then
we're also doing programmatic work, and so we have a
curriculum that we've used called Good for Me that's part
(19:56):
of the NBCDI sort of signature of culturally relevant resource
versus for quite some time. And so this Good for
Me program is really a program that is designed to
help families support families in selecting foods that are healthier
choices and are also culturally relevant, because I think there's
(20:17):
also this notion that our foods are like just naturally
unhealthy foods, and it's not true. I'm a fan of
college greedes. We talk about, you know, college grades being
a perfectly wonderful vegetable and ways that we can cook
it and use it to be a healthy option for
(20:39):
us and also an option that we feel good about
and confident in because it is it's a culturally relevant option.
We don't have to feel like our foods are bad,
because you know, sometimes that's what we're told by the
larger culture.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
It might involve a bit of a tweak in terms
of how you prepare it, like you might have to
change your grandmother's rest to be just a little bit,
but you can do it without taking away the taste
and so I love that. So it is we can
we can eat all the foods that we grew up
eating and our our parents grew up eating, but just
tweaked a little so that they're the healthiest they.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Can be for our kids.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yes, I will, I will put some turkey in mind
now instead of I will say I'm not gonna lie,
because sometimes you need the hamhocks, but not every time,
you know, you don't have to do that every time.
That's right, there's sometimes.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Moderation this time. Yes, everything in moderation. That's right.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
You don't have to deprive, just have to sort of
you know, know what you're doing. It's all about education,
which is really important. And when you say where where
could people find.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
These that like the good for Me program?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Is that something that is web based or is that
disseminated through the the affiliate groups.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Yes, so it's disseminated primarily through our affiliates. So you
could visit our website at ww dot NBCDI dot org
and you find an affiliate near you and join that
affiliate and then have access to these resources. Also, we're
really really interested in growing the affiliate network as I me.
(22:20):
We have twenty four across the country. And so if
you're interested in like a good for me program or
just being a part of the village as we call
it broadly speaking, and there's not an affiliate in your
city or state, then you can also inquire about starting
one and then also access to these resources that way.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Oh that's great, and I'll put all the links and
the sites that we talk about in this episode in
the show notes, so everybody can be sure to be
able to find them.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
We'll be right back after these messages. Welcome back to
the show.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
So we've talked about health, I want to talk a
little bit about education, which is near and dear to
my heart. And I love that one of your eight
essential outcomes that in BCD I work to establish is
that to ensure that all black children can attend a
school that affirms.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
And expands them.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
I love that that's what you're focused on in terms
of education, schools that affirm. So you you began this
as a teacher, So can you tell me, I mean,
I know that you know this well, like how important
education as a concept is for the littlest ones. I mean,
how should parents think about education? Some think, Oh, I
(23:33):
don't have to worry about that till kindergarten. But but
what do you say in terms of when parents should
start thinking about educating their their little one.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Gosh, well, you should start thinking about educating them from
the moment you find out, discover that you are present, honestly,
because I think one of the things that's so interesting
is that when we talk about education, and we think
very much about formal schooling, and so we you know,
(24:04):
sort of naturally think, okay, well, when they're in kindergarten,
start that process. And there's obviously the formal schooling process,
but I really like to encourage people to think of
it more so as when do you believe your child
is starting to learn? And that helps you to sort
of have a more it feels probably a bit more organic,
(24:26):
a bit more natural when you're thinking about it in
that way, because again, ba's to sort of the brain circuitry.
They're they are learning. We believe they are learning in
your belly. So you know, when you're singing to them
or playing music or reading books, they're they're soaking it up.
(24:46):
They're the neurons are going and they're processing, and that
is learning. And once they're they're you know, here and
in the world. Literally they're development. It's not interesting to me.
We use these terms that sometimes can feel separate from
each other. But their development is their learning. Like that's
(25:06):
all day, every day. They open up their eyes and
they're starting to learn. And it's like everywhere you take them,
everywhere they go, you just sit them while you're, you know, cooking,
and you're telling them what you're cooking. And you may
feel like this seems silly because as she said earlier, Carol,
like they're not responding. Maybe they're not responding to you,
but they're totally taking it in and they're learning. And
(25:30):
it's that and have fun with it. Like really, that's
why I like to again sort of unpack it from
education to the idea of their development is really quite
literally their way of learning. And so it's it's all day,
every day, it's what they do. It's it's literally their jobs,
that's what they do, and we are facilitating that learning.
(25:54):
And everything we're doing intentionally and unintentionally, we are really
facilitating that learning. And so again it's it's an it's
an awesome responsibility. I think we should have, you know,
as much fun as we can with it. Yeah, just
understand that they are. They're learning from the moment they
open their eyes, and even you know, it's funny when
(26:14):
they close their eyes, they're still learning because the brain
is still kind of going and they're dreaming of all
the things that happened that day, and they're sort of
putting them together. The processing just keeps happening.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, no, I you know, if I answer your question,
I know you.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
No, that was great.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
I got excited too, because I just love this concept
of rethinking about education as a concept of thing you
want your child to learn, but your child's learning if
you're not doing anything you can.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
You can support it, you can encourage.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
It, you can enhance it, and and you can enhance
it by doing really simple things like talking to them
and reading the newspaper to them.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
I mean you can.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Really.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
You said it, even before or you have the baby.
I have actually talked to young mothers and and this season,
I'm also talking to some literary literacy experts and who
advocate reading to your children when they are in your tummy,
like before they're born. Several people have talked about how
they read to their children when they were pregnant, and
(27:22):
I certainly know that I sang all the time. I mean,
I'm by let me just be clear, I am not
a singer, but I love music.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
So my poor, my poor yet to be.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Born children had to hear me sing all the time.
But but I honestly think this is a weird. It's
funny now that I think about it.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
I mean, I really did sing all the time.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
I had favorite songs I would I would sing a
lot in the shower, you know, wherever. I would sing
when I was pregnant, and when my especially my youngest,
I would sing a lot, and when he was born,
and I would sing that same song. He actually responded
to it. I could hell that he looked like he
had heard that song before. Absolutely, and so that was
(28:04):
kind of magical. And actually he happens to be a
very musical kid. He plays a lot of instruments, and
so I do. I'm a firm believer in that it
really that the learning starts from day one. So so
now I want to segue into one of the things
that I've really been excited to talk with you about,
because it's an area that when we talk about our
(28:25):
black children and we talk about parenting issues, it doesn't
come up in our community as often as it does
in others, and that is climate climate focus. And you know,
we chatted before this conversation, and I know that NBCDI
is really focused on climate changing and the impact of
(28:46):
climate changes on the youngest segment of the Black community.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Can you talk a little bit about how how that.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Became one of the eight pillars and what you guys
do in terms of just getting people focused on the
importance of understanding climate shifts and climate change.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Yeah, so I'll tell you how it became one of
the eight outcomes. This is the amazing kind of beauty
of our network is that as we were going through
our strategic planning process, our affiliate network was a part
of the process. They code is OO the plan with us,
and when we were talking about, you know, high priority issues,
(29:29):
issues that they were thinking about that were really showing
up in communities as critical issues for the organization to
focus on, climate came up. And in particular, the way
climate came up for us, as you'll see reflected in
our outcome, was around every Black child having access to
clean air and clean water. So it came up really
(29:51):
in terms of the relationship between environmental injustices and how
environmental injustice is impact climate change, or really how climate
change is making those environmental injustices even worse. That's how
it came up for us, and so we are really
(30:11):
focused heavily again on this, like advocacy play, we have
sat on a few a number of commissions and task forces,
in particular with CAPITA and the Aspen Institute that was
focused on understanding the impact of climate change on young children.
(30:34):
And of course we were and continued to be really
focused on and most concerned with the impact of climate change,
or as one of my colleagues recently said, and I thought, oh,
that's that's an interesting way to rephrase it, the impact
of the changing climate on black children. And so one
example that I will use for listeners to help maybe
(30:58):
understand the important of this issue is that there is
actually so there are a couple things, but there's a
shade inequity. Maybe a new term for people, but shade
inequity is a real thing. It's a real thing. I know,
(31:19):
it's far hard to imagine, but it's a real thing
that in certain communities, and in particular in black communities,
there is actually an inequitable distribution of shade. There are
less green spaces, there are more concrete buildings, there may
(31:40):
be less play spaces for children. And so if you
couple that with the last two summers we've had where
we have had record heat. We literally had the hottest
day on Earth last July. You couple that together, then
what you realize is that children are not able to
(32:02):
really be outside in the ways they used to be,
not just because of technology that's in there too somewhere,
but literally focus on the extreme heat that we are experiencing.
There's an impact there on a child's ability to be
out in nature, to be exercising and playing and doing
(32:25):
all of the developmentally appropriate things that happen when you're
able to be outside and play in the summer. That's
one of the ways the change in climate is impacting
Black children.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
I mean fewer trees, fewer places to take cover from
the heat.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean another example, two other quick examples
I'll use or that we've talked a bit about it
in terms of this is primarily probably with older a
little bit older children, but it's still relevant, and that
if you think of outs, many of the schools that
(33:04):
our children attend are schools that don't have proper ventilation.
And so again you have these extreme heat temperatures, hot temperatures,
high temperatures. You have children who, because of these temperatures
may not be able to go outside. Children who you know,
may have walked to school, and because they're in urban areas,
(33:28):
they may be walking past highways. I live in Atlanta.
That could absolutely be true that you are walking past
I twenty and so there's all sorts of pollution and
toxins that you, as a child, are breathing in on
your way to school. So now you may have higher
rates of asthma, which we know higher rates of asthma
exists in our communities. We told that was because we
(33:50):
smoke more, but that's not actually true. It's environmental injustice.
And you get to school, you can't play outside, so
you're you know, you're in the school build bilding that's
hot all day long. You become agitated and behaviorally, you know,
we we know what happens when we're super hot. You
just you don't feel like dealing with people.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Right, No, absolutely, climate and rage, yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
It's a real thing. And so then what we you know,
we see that our children are suspended and expelled at
higher rates, and so you know, our ability to even
make those kinds of connections that people might not see
that being related to climate but it very well could
be when you think about all of the way, like
the cumulative impacts that I just named for you. That's
(34:40):
a lot of the work we're doing is really sort
of pressing on this issue to say, but wait a minute,
what are the ways this is impacting our communities that
we may not even be realizing.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
You know, that's that's really important because I have to
say that then I'm generalizing terribly. But you don't hear
a lot of black people talking about climate change being
very high on their list of things that one can
worry about.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I mean, there's a lot.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Of injustice that you have to sort of get past
before you focused on, you know, the the climate.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
But the way that.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
You're talking about this, it's it's all. It is truly
environmental justice. I mean, if the the term climate change
is kind of a charged one and it sounds like
environmentalists out in places where there's lots of land, you know,
worrying about about us, it's distribution, but truly environmental justice.
(35:36):
I mean, we all we know about the Flint water issue.
I mean, these kinds of issues really do severely impact
communities all over, but have a particularly bad impact on
black communities. So so in terms of parents thinking about
what they can do. You know, when we talked about
this earlier, you talked about sort of the flip side
of this. Now we want people to be concerned about this,
(35:58):
but you have this phrase climate anxiety. I mean we
don't we don't want I mean it doesn't help. Yes,
it's very hot and it's going to get hotter, and
just knowing that can really make people crazy. So so
how do we how do we balance having parents focus
(36:19):
on these things as real things that they should be
focused on for their own children and their community, and
then not sort of spinning out into this sort of
doomsday scenario where we're we're we're just gonna all melt.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
No, it's a really important question because there there are
so many issues for us to be concerned about, and
as black people, as black parents, yes, it can feel like,
oh my gosh, Okay, now I also have to worry
about this. What do you want from me? I get it,
like totally get it. It's actually like when my colleague
(36:58):
changed the language from climate change to a climate that
is changing or a changing. I just thought like, oh wow,
that sounds actually like a a as friendlier a term
as it it can get, because climate change does sound
very like out there. But anyway, so I would say
that I think it's also you know, understanding that there
(37:23):
are questions you can ask. So, No, you may not
as a pair be able to go and change the
temperature outside and we wish we could magically make it cooler. No,
but there are things we can do, like find out,
you know, what does it take to plant more trees
in my community? I mean, is what is my city's
(37:45):
responsibility to ensure that my neighborhood has whatever number of
trees it should have based on our square footage and
the amount of people who live in this community, right,
like being able to do that research. Asking your child's
school about their playground equipment and is you know what
(38:10):
materials are they using for the playground equipment? Is the
playground equipment weather resistance so that if it is warm out,
it's hot out, are the children still able to go
out because the equipment, the playground materials are actually built
in a way that they will be safe and they
can still have their recess, which is so important to
(38:31):
their development. Now, I think they're you know, maybe small
steps that don't have to feel so overwhelming, but that
you know you can take. And I think asking those
kinds of questions are our first steps that you know,
I know how as parents, you know, we take that
first step and then on that rabbit hole. But I
(38:52):
get it. It's just that you do feel so anxious
because there's so much to worry about. But that's what
I would say.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Small absolutely and helping parents.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Get the practical advice, like, for example, just investigating the
number of trees a loted to your neighborhood, you know,
perhaps doing an outdoor garden in an urban environment. I mean,
just things that might not be at the top of
your list, but if you begin to understand how they
could be helpful to the community, to your children, they
may raise up on your list. And do I remember
(39:27):
correctly that there are some webinars that NBCDI has with
Google and YouTube and about this very subject.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
So we actually have what we call our Virtual Learning Series,
which is a webinar series that covers multiple topics. So
we usually will go across each of our eight outcomes
and we will host the webinar with various partners. So
the webinar we did with Google and YouTube was actually
(39:58):
around our safe and Approach Internet outcome. We do have
a webinar that we did around the climate outcome with
our partners at the Children's Environmental Health Network, So they're
featured on that webinar and we had a wonderful conversation
with them about this work. And actually I believe this
(40:19):
in October is the Climate is Climate Week and the
Children's Environmental Health Network hosts this week and partners can join.
We're one of the partners that participates, and so we'll
have activities and things that we will be doing during
that week.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Oh good good, But this will air before that, so
I'll be sure to put that information in the show
notes as well.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
This is great. So one of the things that I
really liked learning is that.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
Your organization is focused on ensuring that we talk about
black children from a strength based, positive approach, using positive language,
and particularly for the youngest set. How important is it
for parents to focus on positivity in their parenting?
Speaker 2 (41:02):
I mean, personally, I.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Am the hugest fan of this, but just but that's
just me generally speaking. Is it important for parents to
sort of be positive with their youngest ones and what
kinds of things can they do to be positive?
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's a few things. One,
the way we talk to each other and the way
we talk about each other says so much about what
we believe and think about each other. And for a child,
it's really part of building their confidence. And so if
(41:42):
a child is hearing you know an adults talk about
them in a negative way, that's what they're going to
believe about themselves. But if I'm talking about you, you know,
a way that is positive is building you up, is
(42:06):
you know, i'd say loving and kind, then you're gonna
feel that way about yourself. And it's not just yes, parents,
it's also something that I say, you know to educators
that your students have to hear because they do hear.
They hear what you're saying about them, whether they're in
front of you or not. They have metrical ear power.
(42:27):
They hear you. And so whatever you intend or do
not intend for them to pick up, they pick it up.
And so why not be intentional in building up their confidence? Right? Like,
I think we have these sort of warped ideas that
you know, will We'll say, we'll talk to them too positively,
(42:48):
and then they'll grow up to be like, you know, egotistical.
That's not gonna happen. No, like just we have to
we have to talk to them and help them really
who they truly are in the most i'd say accurate
and holistic ways. And so in NBCITI has been built
(43:12):
on that set of values way before me. As we've
talked about, there are lots of challenges right in our communities,
and those challenges are not a reflection of us as
a people. There are a reflection of systems and conditions
that we have been quite literally brought and born into.
(43:37):
But we as a people, including our children, are you know,
we have just all the skills and assets and creativity
and brilliance that we need. And so we are. Our
work at NBCDI is, and we talk about it is
(43:59):
to harness that black expertise, to leverage it, to find
and build the solutions that will continue to increase the
likelihood that our children will thrive and ways it we
may not even be thriving.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
I mean, on the one hand, you don't want to
say it's not your father at all. Don't worry about it.
You know there's nothing you can do, it's out of
your control. But you're not saying that. You're saying, let's
walk away, let's move away from pointing fingers and focus
more on how we work together to make it better
for children. Is that is that a fair assessment?
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Subtracting the cause from the people doesn't necessarily subtract our
need to do something about it. And actually, what it
does is I believe it can empower us to say, Okay,
I don't have to just feel like a victim. I
(45:03):
don't have to just feel like this is out of
my control. What I can actually feel like is there's
a world I can create, right, And so, like, how
do we help each other to really think about the
ways in which we have survived so much? I was
(45:24):
saying this to somebody the other day, that we, as
black parents in particular, should be less humble because we
have somehow found a way, like generation after generation of
us find a way to keep smiling and being joyful
(45:46):
and balancing all of these things and raising children, And like,
how can we and I'm being very like seriously, like,
how can we almost like systematically pay attention to our
strengths and say, wait, there's nothing wrong with us as
(46:06):
a people, So what do we need to take away
from our own strength and our own intelligence and say, well,
then this is this is how we can recreate. This
is how we can create the future, the world that
we want for ourselves, for our children, and with the
understanding that when we're able to do that everyone, you know,
(46:28):
people will say everyone wins. So I think that that
that's what we're really aiming to put out into the world.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
Oh that's so well said, and how fortunate we are
that you guys are doing this. So, as I said before,
I'm going to put all the contact information in the
show notes so that people can be sure to go
to the website and figure out if they're near an
affiliate or create one if they're not. Because you guys
are doing great work, and more people need to be
(46:57):
able to know about it and be able to take
advantage of it. So I thank you so much. I'm
going to wrap it up here, but first of course,
I want to thank you. I know that everyone listening
has really benefited, especially the parents of the youngest ones,
but everybody who cares about children, and particularly the little children,
really learned a lot. So before you go, I just
(47:19):
want you to I'm going to ask you as I
ask all my guests to play the GCP Lightning Round.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
I have four questions, four quick questions. So are you ready?
Speaker 3 (47:26):
I'm ready?
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Yes, Okay, good. Here we go. First, your favorite poem
or saying.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
Favorite saying would be this too shall pass?
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (47:36):
I like that one. I use that a lot. That's
a good one.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
So give me two favorite children's books. And they can
be ones you remember from your childhood or ones you
read to your son.
Speaker 3 (47:48):
Oh goodness. So there's one that my son and.
Speaker 4 (47:52):
I read.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
By one of Bob Marley's daughters. I think it's called
Every Little Thing His Song, and we would just he
in particular, would just sing because the book it's the
lyrics of the song Three Little Birds, and so he
would just sing and I would just smile. And he's
(48:16):
ten now, but there are times when I'm totally gonna
embarrass him where my mom will call and say, will
Blake sing and then he'll bring the book. So that's one,
and I think we're also he and he's in particular,
I guess I'm sort of naming books that he's into
(48:37):
right now, like he's into a lot of goosebumps and like, oh.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Yeah on a series books. Those are good, these books.
Speaker 3 (48:47):
So we're having I'm having a lot of fun kind
of watching him advance in some of the number of
pages that he's reading.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
No, that's a great okay.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
So give me a mom moment that you would love
to redo so that you would do it differently the
second time.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
A mom moment that I would redo. You know, it's interesting,
I would say that so many of us who are
moms during this high technology time, I would redo I'd
be totally vulnerable here, and I would redo the amount
of time that we allowed our son to start to
(49:30):
be on technology, because we're quite frankly starting to undo
that and it's a lot harder to undo it. So
if you have not gone down the technology rabbit hole
with your kids, don't do it, because it's much harder
when you're trying to you know, as they get older,
when you're trying to take them, when you're trying to
decrease the amount of time they spend, it's a bit harder.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Okay, So tell me a mom moment when you knew
you nailed it. You nailed it as a mom.
Speaker 3 (49:56):
You know, it's so funny. So what I would say
is I have many in the spirit of black parents
not being humble.
Speaker 4 (50:06):
I have.
Speaker 3 (50:08):
The overarching theme I will give you though, is that
I have consistently talked to my son like since literally
I was pregnant with him. And so to this day
now as a ten year old, people are like astonished
(50:29):
by our relationship and our communication and his ability to
share with me and share with his dad, but share
with me like his feelings and how he's doing. And
so we have this practice. And it's a great day
for you to ask me this question because he just
went back to school today, first day of fifth grade.
(50:52):
But we've had this practice that I totally recommend to parents,
a practice that I actually learned from his early learning
center where they said to us, you know, if you
can't do anything else, basically ask them the how, the what,
the when, the where, the why, just go through that
sequence and if you do anything else, you can do that.
And I was like, Okay, I can do that, And
(51:13):
so we still do that, and so when I picked
him up from school, we run through his day and
I will ask him those questions. We've started to get
a little bit more sophisticated in it where I will
even ask him what went well today? And he'll tell me,
what did you learn? And I asked him what didn't
go well or what did you dislike about today? And
(51:34):
he'll tell me, and we just have this, you know,
we have a conversation, and I think we have I
have have really figured out how to create an open
line of communication with him. And sometimes it's sometimes it's scary,
and sometimes it's just absolutely hilarious to hear to hear
(51:56):
the things he says, to hear his opinions on things.
So yes, I would I would say that that's definitely.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
A And So what you've done is is made him
confident that he's being heard, that you listened to him,
and that he can say things to you that you
will listen to and not judge.
Speaker 3 (52:13):
Is that absolutely? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (52:15):
No, that that's great. Wow, those are great answers. And
and I'm going to work on that.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
But how the what?
Speaker 1 (52:22):
What are the five things you have to maybe I
can try with my adult children?
Speaker 2 (52:25):
What is this?
Speaker 3 (52:27):
It's how? What's where? When? And why?
Speaker 2 (52:31):
Okay? How?
Speaker 3 (52:32):
What?
Speaker 2 (52:32):
Where?
Speaker 3 (52:32):
When?
Speaker 2 (52:32):
And why? Okay? Gonna I'm gonna work on that.
Speaker 3 (52:35):
In every situation children. Everybody.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
Okay, we've just been handed a golden key, so let's figure.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
Out how to use it.
Speaker 1 (52:48):
Absolutely, Doctor Leah Austin, thank you so much, and and
thank you for bringing nbcd I to our attention and
for helping us know more about it.
Speaker 2 (52:57):
And thank you for a great conversation.
Speaker 3 (52:59):
Thanks, thank you for having me. This is great.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
I hope everyone listening enjoyed this conversation that you'll come
back for more. Please subscribe, rate and review where you
find your podcasts, and tell your friends. For more parenting
info and advice, please check out the Ground Control Parenting
website at wwwgroundcontrol Parenting dot com. You can also find
us on Facebook and Instagram at ground Control Parenting and
on LinkedIn under Carol Sutton Lewis. Until the next time,
(53:26):
take care and thanks for listening.
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