January 29, 2025 • 13 mins
The devastating toll of the pandemic has underscored the critical importance of connecting what science is telling us to the lived experiences of people and communities. In March of 2020, we recorded episodes exploring the impact the coronavirus pandemic could have on child development. Now, a year later, we wanted to continue these conversations and discuss what we’ve learned, what needs to change, and where we go from here.
The first guest in this 4-part special series is Center Director Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D. He and host Sally Pfitzer discuss what COVID-19 revealed about the needs of caregivers with young children or during pregnancy, what we learned about the importance of science over the course of the pandemic, and how we can make changes going forward.
Upcoming episodes of this series will feature expert speakers reflecting on the pandemic’s impact on pediatric and mental health systems, and the longstanding social policies and systemic racism that resulted in the pandemic disparately impacting communities of color. The experts will discuss how we can take what we learned over the past year and make meaningful changes that will improve outcomes for children and families.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to The Brain Architects, a podcast from the Center on the Developing Child at
(00:04):
Harvard University. I'm your host, Sally Pfitzer. In March of 2020, we recorded episodes exploring
the impact the coronavirus pandemic could have on child development. You may remember
we discussed the importance of self-care for caregivers and the importance of physical
distancing, not social distancing. And now a year later, we wanted to continue those
conversations and discuss what we've learned, what needs to change, and where we go from
(00:26):
here.
Joining us today is Dr. Jack Schoenhoff, Director of the Center on the Developing Child. Jack,
we really appreciate you being here, and I know we have a lot to cover, so let's jump
right in. Could you tell us what COVID-19 has revealed about the needs of young children,
families, and people who are pregnant?
So immediately, we saw the difference between people who had access to resources that helped
(00:48):
them get through and those who before the pandemic were always at the edge and that
this put families over the edge in terms of needing basic needs, food, clothing, housing.
But then there's the other universal experience of the critical importance of supportive relationships,
the critical importance of extended family, neighbors, friends, and extent to which every
(01:14):
parent regardless of your circumstances cannot parent a child alone and the social isolation
that so many people felt from the poorest to the wealthiest. And so I think if there's
anything good to take out of this past year, it's a recognition of the universal needs
(01:35):
that all families have to provide a healthy environment for their children, but just the
tremendous inequalities and resources and buffers and supports that we can all turn
to when we are faced with really unusual hardships. So it's this balance between kind of universal
(01:57):
experience and highly unequal consequences that I think are the lessons from the past
year.
Could you tell us what we've learned about science over the course of this pandemic and
especially how that science relates to what children need?
Our work has been deeply grounded in the importance and the value of bringing credible, trusted
(02:21):
scientific knowledge to the table in addressing all of the challenges and opportunities that
face families with young children and especially families who are dealing with excessive adversity
or burdens. And the past year has been a real eye-opening experience, I think, for all of
(02:44):
us about both the critical importance of trusted, credible science in the face of threats to
our health and wellbeing and the very significant limitations on how that science can provide
direction or guidance about how to move forward. And we certainly learned this past year not
(03:10):
only that science doesn't always have all of the answers and especially at the beginning
of a problem, but that science doesn't stand still and that we depend upon science to keep
moving forward. And we also have to learn how to make decisions based on incomplete
(03:31):
science and based on the best science we have.
And in many ways, we've always known that. We know that there aren't answers to every
problem. But I think one of the really very complex and sobering lessons we learned this
past year is how science has to be aligned with the lived experiences and the values
(03:55):
and beliefs of the population. Because when it isn't aligned, people can choose to not
only not believe in the science, but to adopt alternative perspectives that try to delegitimize
science. So for me personally, and certainly for the work of our center, this is a real
(04:19):
time to step back and try to figure out how we can maximize the contributions of science,
how we can leverage cutting edge science that has solutions or partial solutions to our
problem without expecting that science will have all the answers. And certainly for those
(04:40):
of us at the center of the developing child, we kind of recognize both the limitations
of the science at any time and the power of the science to guide us in more effective
approaches to deal with any of the challenges we're facing.
Looking forward, what can we do? How can we make changes?
(05:00):
We've all learned a lot about how much the health of any society depends upon a sense
of shared responsibility for each other to get through this together, whether it be people
caring about their communities, decision leaders caring about the well-being of the country.
(05:21):
I think we've learned simultaneously that we are all in this together and we all have
shared vested interests and we are not all in this with equal resources, equal assets.
And this is not just been about the pandemic. We have had the converging crises of an infection
(05:47):
out of control, of a massive economic disruption that did not have an equal impact on all parts
of the population. And then of course, we have the dramatically increased consciousness
about something that is not a new problem, but the traumatic increase in understanding
(06:08):
the unbelievable threat and hardship of systemic racism and structural inequities imposes on
families of color and other groups that are disadvantaged in ways that are kind of embedded
in our society.
So going forward, I think the health of our society depends upon the extent to which we
(06:32):
see all of us as having a shared investment in the well-being of each other. So this is
still politically extraordinarily complicated, but I think one lesson we might take from
this is shared interest and everybody doing well.
We do know a lot about the kinds of conditions in which young children grow up that increase
(06:56):
the likelihood of a healthy, productive outcome, supportive relationships, manageable levels
of stress, basic needs met, opportunities for learning and buffering and protection
from excessive stress activation.
So what do we do going forward? We start with the fact that in a society like ours, without
(07:20):
political traditions, there's a mix of self-reliance and kind of shared responsibility and no family
gets by by itself. So the question is, do you pay for it yourself? Or do we share the
responsibility of paying for it for everyone else, whether it be healthcare, whether it
be childcare? Childcare is an interesting tension. Is childcare something we need so
(07:46):
that parents can go to work? Was childcare something we need to make sure that children
have kind of optimal environments for their development while their parents are working?
Because we have learned how the economy cannot move without childcare to take care of children
while their parents work. So we could go down the slippery slope of seeing childcare is
(08:12):
basically something we need to promote parent employment. And it's at very low standards
and just say, make sure kids don't fall out windows or run out in the street and we're
OK. Or we could say we need it for the economy to work, but we also need it to build a strong
foundation for the next generation. We have to just recognize that for the end of the
(08:36):
day, going forward is some combination of making sure that we find some way to support
families to meet their children's needs and promote their children's health and development.
And then thinking about as a country, what kind of resources do we need for population
health? But let's just remember at the end of the day, governments do not raise children.
(09:02):
Parents, families, caregivers raise children. But how they're able to kind of provide for
their children's needs and their own needs depends a lot on communities, depends a lot
on government, depends a lot on resources, a lot. And so I think going forward for the
early childhood system, I would say there are a couple of things that involve more than
(09:26):
just how do we rebuild what's broken down. Because what we learned from this past year
is how fragile the infrastructure is for many essential early childhood services, whether
it be childcare, early education, early intervention programs, family support programs. It's a
(09:49):
fragile infrastructure. It's not permanently supported. And its funding is always up in
the air. So going forward, I think the big challenges for the early childhood field come
in two categories. One is how do we rebuild and re-envision early childhood services so
(10:09):
that they are able to have a more stable infrastructure and more predictable funding so that all
of the energies could go into providing supports for families instead of half of the energy
is going into trying to keep the money flowing. That's a huge problem. But there's another
(10:30):
part of the early childhood world that hasn't traditionally been thought of as the early
childhood world that I think is one of the most important messages coming out of the
past year, which is that for families experiencing structural inequities, the families who are
from generation to generation dealing with the way certain structures and policies in
(10:55):
our country disadvantage some groups over others, with racism being at the top of the
list. The question is, how are we going to deal with that and break down those hardships
and threats that are critical to the early childhood system? So let me be very specific
(11:17):
about this. Right now in the early childhood world, most of our resources, most of our
energy is focused on children, their families, and adults who work in programs that provide
essential services. And there is a lot that can be done to improve life prospects for
(11:38):
children. But at some point, we've got to think about how we go upstream and we prevent
the things that are causing the problems rather than just figuring out how better and better
to kind of treat or to help people cope with things that ultimately have to be prevented.
So this is not just about rebuilding what was lost during the pandemic. It's not just
(12:02):
about trying to reopen childcare centers. It's taking the best of what we have, but
not just trying to kind of rebuild and replenish, but trying to re-envision what an early childhood
photo look like. And it is got to be more of a balanced combination to do what we know
(12:23):
how to do to promote responsive relationships and help promoting environments, but also
start to pay more attention to going upstream and at a macro level, at a societal level,
dealing with what is imposing very unequal hardships and burdens and threats on families
(12:44):
raising their children.
Yeah, that's such an important point. And there's clearly a lot of work that needs to
be done. Thanks so much for your time again today, Jack. I'm your host, Sally Pitzer.
The Brain Architects is a product of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.
You can find us at developingchild.harvard.edu. We're also on Twitter at Harvard Center, Facebook
(13:04):
at Center Developing Child, Instagram at Developing Child Harvard, and LinkedIn Center on the
Developing Child at Harvard University. Brandy Thomas is our producer. Our music is Brain
Power by Mila from freemusicarchive.org. This podcast was recorded at my dining room table.
Welcome to The Brain Architects, a podcast from the Center on the Developing Child at
(00:04):
Harvard University. I'm your host, Sally Pfitzer. In March of 2020, we recorded episodes exploring
the impact the coronavirus pandemic could have on child development. You may remember
we discussed the importance of self-care for caregivers and the importance of physical
distancing, not social distancing. And now a year later, we wanted to continue those
conversations and discuss what we've learned, what needs to change, and where we go from
(00:26):
here.
Joining us today is Dr. Jack Schoenhoff, Director of the Center on the Developing Child. Jack,
we really appreciate you being here, and I know we have a lot to cover, so let's jump
right in. Could you tell us what COVID-19 has revealed about the needs of young children,
families, and people who are pregnant?
So immediately, we saw the difference between people who had access to resources that helped
(00:48):
them get through and those who before the pandemic were always at the edge and that
this put families over the edge in terms of needing basic needs, food, clothing, housing.
But then there's the other universal experience of the critical importance of supportive relationships,
the critical importance of extended family, neighbors, friends, and extent to which every
(01:14):
parent regardless of your circumstances cannot parent a child alone and the social isolation
that so many people felt from the poorest to the wealthiest. And so I think if there's
anything good to take out of this past year, it's a recognition of the universal needs
(01:35):
that all families have to provide a healthy environment for their children, but just the
tremendous inequalities and resources and buffers and supports that we can all turn
to when we are faced with really unusual hardships. So it's this balance between kind of universal
(01:57):
experience and highly unequal consequences that I think are the lessons from the past
year.
Could you tell us what we've learned about science over the course of this pandemic and
especially how that science relates to what children need?
Our work has been deeply grounded in the importance and the value of bringing credible, trusted
(02:21):
scientific knowledge to the table in addressing all of the challenges and opportunities that
face families with young children and especially families who are dealing with excessive adversity
or burdens. And the past year has been a real eye-opening experience, I think, for all of
(02:44):
us about both the critical importance of trusted, credible science in the face of threats to
our health and wellbeing and the very significant limitations on how that science can provide
direction or guidance about how to move forward. And we certainly learned this past year not
(03:10):
only that science doesn't always have all of the answers and especially at the beginning
of a problem, but that science doesn't stand still and that we depend upon science to keep
moving forward. And we also have to learn how to make decisions based on incomplete
(03:31):
science and based on the best science we have.
And in many ways, we've always known that. We know that there aren't answers to every
problem. But I think one of the really very complex and sobering lessons we learned this
past year is how science has to be aligned with the lived experiences and the values
(03:55):
and beliefs of the population. Because when it isn't aligned, people can choose to not
only not believe in the science, but to adopt alternative perspectives that try to delegitimize
science. So for me personally, and certainly for the work of our center, this is a real
(04:19):
time to step back and try to figure out how we can maximize the contributions of science,
how we can leverage cutting edge science that has solutions or partial solutions to our
problem without expecting that science will have all the answers. And certainly for those
(04:40):
of us at the center of the developing child, we kind of recognize both the limitations
of the science at any time and the power of the science to guide us in more effective
approaches to deal with any of the challenges we're facing.
Looking forward, what can we do? How can we make changes?
(05:00):
We've all learned a lot about how much the health of any society depends upon a sense
of shared responsibility for each other to get through this together, whether it be people
caring about their communities, decision leaders caring about the well-being of the country.
(05:21):
I think we've learned simultaneously that we are all in this together and we all have
shared vested interests and we are not all in this with equal resources, equal assets.
And this is not just been about the pandemic. We have had the converging crises of an infection
(05:47):
out of control, of a massive economic disruption that did not have an equal impact on all parts
of the population. And then of course, we have the dramatically increased consciousness
about something that is not a new problem, but the traumatic increase in understanding
(06:08):
the unbelievable threat and hardship of systemic racism and structural inequities imposes on
families of color and other groups that are disadvantaged in ways that are kind of embedded
in our society.
So going forward, I think the health of our society depends upon the extent to which we
(06:32):
see all of us as having a shared investment in the well-being of each other. So this is
still politically extraordinarily complicated, but I think one lesson we might take from
this is shared interest and everybody doing well.
We do know a lot about the kinds of conditions in which young children grow up that increase
(06:56):
the likelihood of a healthy, productive outcome, supportive relationships, manageable levels
of stress, basic needs met, opportunities for learning and buffering and protection
from excessive stress activation.
So what do we do going forward? We start with the fact that in a society like ours, without
(07:20):
political traditions, there's a mix of self-reliance and kind of shared responsibility and no family
gets by by itself. So the question is, do you pay for it yourself? Or do we share the
responsibility of paying for it for everyone else, whether it be healthcare, whether it
be childcare? Childcare is an interesting tension. Is childcare something we need so
(07:46):
that parents can go to work? Was childcare something we need to make sure that children
have kind of optimal environments for their development while their parents are working?
Because we have learned how the economy cannot move without childcare to take care of children
while their parents work. So we could go down the slippery slope of seeing childcare is
(08:12):
basically something we need to promote parent employment. And it's at very low standards
and just say, make sure kids don't fall out windows or run out in the street and we're
OK. Or we could say we need it for the economy to work, but we also need it to build a strong
foundation for the next generation. We have to just recognize that for the end of the
(08:36):
day, going forward is some combination of making sure that we find some way to support
families to meet their children's needs and promote their children's health and development.
And then thinking about as a country, what kind of resources do we need for population
health? But let's just remember at the end of the day, governments do not raise children.
(09:02):
Parents, families, caregivers raise children. But how they're able to kind of provide for
their children's needs and their own needs depends a lot on communities, depends a lot
on government, depends a lot on resources, a lot. And so I think going forward for the
early childhood system, I would say there are a couple of things that involve more than
(09:26):
just how do we rebuild what's broken down. Because what we learned from this past year
is how fragile the infrastructure is for many essential early childhood services, whether
it be childcare, early education, early intervention programs, family support programs. It's a
(09:49):
fragile infrastructure. It's not permanently supported. And its funding is always up in
the air. So going forward, I think the big challenges for the early childhood field come
in two categories. One is how do we rebuild and re-envision early childhood services so
(10:09):
that they are able to have a more stable infrastructure and more predictable funding so that all
of the energies could go into providing supports for families instead of half of the energy
is going into trying to keep the money flowing. That's a huge problem. But there's another
(10:30):
part of the early childhood world that hasn't traditionally been thought of as the early
childhood world that I think is one of the most important messages coming out of the
past year, which is that for families experiencing structural inequities, the families who are
from generation to generation dealing with the way certain structures and policies in
(10:55):
our country disadvantage some groups over others, with racism being at the top of the
list. The question is, how are we going to deal with that and break down those hardships
and threats that are critical to the early childhood system? So let me be very specific
(11:17):
about this. Right now in the early childhood world, most of our resources, most of our
energy is focused on children, their families, and adults who work in programs that provide
essential services. And there is a lot that can be done to improve life prospects for
(11:38):
children. But at some point, we've got to think about how we go upstream and we prevent
the things that are causing the problems rather than just figuring out how better and better
to kind of treat or to help people cope with things that ultimately have to be prevented.
So this is not just about rebuilding what was lost during the pandemic. It's not just
(12:02):
about trying to reopen childcare centers. It's taking the best of what we have, but
not just trying to kind of rebuild and replenish, but trying to re-envision what an early childhood
photo look like. And it is got to be more of a balanced combination to do what we know
(12:23):
how to do to promote responsive relationships and help promoting environments, but also
start to pay more attention to going upstream and at a macro level, at a societal level,
dealing with what is imposing very unequal hardships and burdens and threats on families
(12:44):
raising their children.
Yeah, that's such an important point. And there's clearly a lot of work that needs to
be done. Thanks so much for your time again today, Jack. I'm your host, Sally Pitzer.
The Brain Architects is a product of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.
You can find us at developingchild.harvard.edu. We're also on Twitter at Harvard Center, Facebook
(13:04):
at Center Developing Child, Instagram at Developing Child Harvard, and LinkedIn Center on the
Developing Child at Harvard University. Brandy Thomas is our producer. Our music is Brain
Power by Mila from freemusicarchive.org. This podcast was recorded at my dining room table.
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