June 23, 2025 • 45 mins
In this episode of the Young Dad podcast, host Jay Young speaks with Dr. Rebecca Jackson, an expert in brain health and childhood development. They discuss the challenges parents face in understanding their children's behavior, particularly in relation to ADHD and attention issues. Dr. Jackson shares her journey into the field, the importance of brain balance, and practical strategies for parents to support their children's development. The conversation also touches on the rise of ADHD diagnoses, the role of education systems, and the need for self-care among parents.
Takeaways
Parents often feel overwhelmed by their child's behavior and development.
Dr. Jackson emphasizes the importance of understanding neurological development.
Brain Balance focuses on improving brain function through non-medical approaches.
ADHD diagnoses have increased due to changes in awareness and diagnostic criteria.
The pandemic has exacerbated attention issues in children.
Attention development varies significantly between children.
Education systems need to adapt to the changing needs of students.
Practical strategies can help parents support their child's learning at home.
Self-care is essential for parents to effectively support their children.
Empowering parents with knowledge can lead to better outcomes for children.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Parenting Challenges and ADHD
02:40 Dr. Rebecca Jackson's Journey and Insights
05:24 Understanding ADHD and Its Rising Diagnosis
07:51 The Role of Technology in Attention Development
10:50 Exploring Brain Balance and Non-Medical Approaches
13:21 The Complexity of Attention and Learning
15:58 Navigating the Education System and Support for Kids
24:44 Reforming Education: A Call for Change
27:00 Understanding Attention and Learning
30:06 Creating a Brain-Healthy Environment
32:38 Practical Skills vs. Academic Knowledge
34:29 The Pandemic's Impact on Parental Involvement
37:24 Navigating Modern Education Challenges
40:13 Final Thoughts and Advice for Parents
Check out the Website for Interactive Activity Guides, Resources, Full Transcripts, all things YDP- www.youngdadpod.com Clink the Link for YDP Deals (Joon, Forefathers &more)- https://linktr.ee/youngdadpod Want to be a guest on Young Dad Podcast? Send Jey Young a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.joinpodmatch.com/youngdad
Lastly consider a monetary donation to support the Pod, https://buymeacoffee.com/youngdadpod
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Welcome into the Young Dad podcast, whether you're outside
grilling, mow the lawn, changingdirty diapers, or maybe, just
maybe you got a moment to sit back, relax and listen to your
favorite podcast. Whatever you're, wherever you're
at, whatever you're doing, thanks for being here and thanks
for tuning in. I'm your host, Jay, and today we
have an amazing guest, an amazing conversation lined up.
If you're a parent trying to navigate attention issues, ADHD,
(00:31):
mental health, and overall development for your child or
even yourself, this episode is for you.
I'm honored to have Doctor Rebecca Jackson, a leading
expert in brain health, cognitive function, and
childhood development. As the Chief Programs Officer
for Brain Balance. She's dedicated to her career
helping both kids and adults improve attention, cognition and
overall well-being. She she's also the author of the
(00:54):
number one release book Back on Track, a practical guide to help
kids of all ages thrive with a wealth wealth.
A research backed insights and real world solutions.
Doctor Jackson makes understanding neuroscience
accessible and fun, and most importantly, practical for
parents who are looking out looking for real answers.
So make sure you grab a snack, grab a juice box and let's jump
(01:14):
into the conversation. Rebecca, welcome to the show.
Hey, thanks for having me. I have to say, it's been a long
time since I've had a juice box,and now that you said it, that
sounds so good. I know, right?
Well, you know, I like to, you know, kick it back a little bit.
You know you got to have a snack.
You got to have your juice box while you're doing, you know
you're watching your favorite podcast.
Real life. It's a requirement.
It makes podcasts better, I promise.
(01:35):
Well, let's see here. Coffee, they'll have to do.
I got a little a little Chan juice box right now.
I need to crack that crack that open right after this question.
So Rebecca, many parents feel overwhelmed, but when it comes
to understanding their child's behavior and development, well,
I guess well before you jump into that, how did you get
started all this? Kind of what's been your path to
(01:57):
kind of where you're at today? You know, no path I think
happens intentionally, right? We think we've got a vision and
then life often takes us to different directions.
I've always gravitated towards more natural solutions.
And so I started my professionalcareer as a chiropractor.
And what really resonated with me about that was, before I jump
to the medication, what can I doto make a difference?
(02:18):
So there's an absolute time and place and need for for
medication and more traditional medical approaches.
But if there's something that I can do before, so I need less
medication or the medications more effective, Awesome.
But after being a chiropractor for several years, my husband's
job moved us across the country.So I sold my practice.
And at that time I was a brand new mom.
I had a one year old and then eventually had a second child so
(02:43):
I really became fascinated with understanding development and
what I was finding wasn't satisfying my curiosity.
So as a parent Googling and researching, you know, there's
great up information out there of, you know, sing songs, be
engaged, sensory play. But I wanted more than that.
I wanted to understand neurologically what was
happening in the brain that drives development.
So that led me back to school. And the more I learned, the more
(03:07):
excited I got. And mom was an elementary school
psychologist for 20 years. So every day after class, I'd
call her and say, no, Mama, how are the schools incorporating
this information into the schools?
How is this information being used?
And her answer was it. It's not.
And she would tell you as a public educator that if a child
came to their schools as a kindergartner, they would exit
(03:29):
that system, often with the samechallenges.
The challenges might look different at different ages.
And, you know, great modifications and strategies and
work around, but change wasn't happening.
And I don't mean that as a dissenter public education, I've
got huge respect on and love andappreciation for our public
educators. But I think our hands are tied
with with resources. And so I wanted to do more.
(03:50):
What could we do to have an impact on changing development
so that we're not just working on modifications and work around
strategies? Yeah, you, you had on a big one
there, right? Not it's not being implemented.
All these things research like I, I hold my masters in
developmental psychology and yousee all these things and it's
(04:12):
just like, huh, well, that's notbeing done.
That's not being done, that's not being done.
It's very, very even far betweenwhere something actually
happened. Majority of the time, like let's
say 95% of the time requires an outside agency to come in and
get that support that the kidneyright.
Well, and I think two things with that 11 fact and statistic
(04:34):
that just blew my mind. I also went back to school at
another point that I enjoy learning and for clinical
translational research. And one of the first things I
learned in that program was how rare it is that published peer
review well accepted, rigorous research gets implemented into
protocol. And when it does, it takes an
average of 17 years. So think about there's
(04:54):
tremendous advancements happening in research, right.
But if we wait 17 years to change our traditional
protocols, thoughts, a child's life that's growing up, that's
birth to 17. And that's why I really
gravitated towards translationalresearch of I didn't want to be
a part of a system that moved that slow.
I wanted to how do we learn and iterate?
If my child's struggling today, what can I research, learn and
(05:17):
apply tomorrow? And that's really been our
approach at brain balance with the research I need.
There is what is what's working in the programs that we're
doing? What are we seeing changing?
How is cognition, attention, emotional regulation, behavior
improving? Because then as we're learning
that in real time, we get to adapt and change our program to
make things better, to better serve our our population and
(05:38):
audience. A long time to implement one
thing. Those, trust me, I've read
plenty of peer reviewed journals, plenty of peer
reviewed studies in my time in school.
Yeah, those things take time. Those things go a lot of time.
I've had to put in peer review papers as well at times for my
peers to review. And it takes a lot of work that
(05:59):
takes a lot of time period for people to read, review all those
things. It's like, whoa.
But it takes us 17 years to implement these things that are
being researched at a high levelto implement them in any way,
shape or form. Yeah.
And in the meantime, we have parents that, in my experience
and that brain balance, we assess over 11,000 kids a year.
(06:20):
So we were in touch with a lot of kids, a lot of parents.
We also work with teens and adults.
But parents are are hungry for other options of how to make a
difference in their child's life.
And we're well aware of the traditional options.
And the traditional options are valued, valid, important.
But for far too many families, they're not enough.
Far too many families have gone the route of medication and
(06:44):
behavior therapy or cognitive behavior therapy and counseling.
And again, those things are important and valid.
But when you've done all of thatand you're still getting phone
calls from school, you still can't make it through dinner
without a meltdown, You know, far too many families are
feeling stuck. And and then I think as parents,
we eternalize, right? What am I doing wrong?
Is it me? And then we worry, what is this
(07:04):
going to look like five years from now if this doesn't change?
And, and so then we're, you know, laying awake, sleep, you
know, sleepless at night trying to understand, am I blowing this
out of proportion? Was I this way as a child and
turned out fine? And to me, one of the things
that's been really exciting is to learn there's so many
different ways and avenues to positively impact and change the
brain. Medication does change symptoms.
(07:26):
So it can be helpful in the moment with some symptoms.
But there are many avenues and approaches to to make a
difference. And that's really something that
I'm passionate about is providing parents with education
to learn that there's other options out there and not
everything is the right fit for every person.
And that's OK. But I want parents to be more
educated, more empowered, to know OK, what are the different
(07:47):
paths that I could take and to help my child move things
forward. And just knowing that stuff can
be huge for parent and just hugeoverall for, you know, next
step. What do I do to avoid some of
that internalizing of those, those thoughts and those those
feelings behind it, right? When we see our child struggling
and we can't even get through dinner without a meltdown and
(08:09):
and everything seems to be ruined.
We're not going certain places, we're not hanging out with our
friends and things like that. It could be really, really
stressful non parent and really hard for them to overcome and
work through because they I mean, we're not, we just don't
know, right? We just don't know at all.
We have no idea and we don't there's not a lot of resources
out there. And so you mentioned brain
balance. What, how did that all happen
(08:31):
come about? How did you end up there doing
the research and all that? So Brain Balance is a company
that focuses on improving the brain through the networks and
pathways in the brain. So we always say our goal is to
build stronger, faster, more connected brains.
So our goal at Brain Balance is to change the symptoms and
outcomes, but through a completely non medical approach.
(08:51):
So we're not changing symptoms through medication, but by
targeting and exercising different networks and pathways
in the brain. And the more I learn about the
brain, the more I feel like I know nothing and there's so much
more to learn. But one of the things that's
really fascinating to is the overlap and networks and
pathways. So parents tend to focus on what
the outcome is that they want. And so, you know, if I'm getting
(09:13):
constant messages from the teacher that your student, your
child requires more redirection in the classroom.
So now as a parent, I'm really worried about my child's
attention. And so then we find ourselves
saying, you know, come on, pay attention, try harder.
And we put reward systems in place.
If you could stay on task, you know, here's the benefit.
But we forget that our attentionsystem is tied to development
(09:34):
and we are not born with the attention we need to thrive in
school. You know, if you look at the
attention of a 2 year old, it's it's, you know, seconds or
minutes. And that should, with natural
development improve over the years.
But if it doesn't, then I might have sitting in the classroom
that has the attention span of a2 year old.
It doesn't mean that that kindergartner isn't brilliant
(09:54):
and awesome and fun and funny, but there might be differences
in the networks and pathways that support attention for that
child. So we want to gravitate
naturally to practice what we'restruggling in.
But if practicing attention was going to do the trick, all kids
would be awesome at attention because they're practicing it
every day in school. Instead of brain balance, we're
really looking at what are otherways that we can strengthen and
(10:15):
access those pathways. And and so we're really going
back and looking at everything through the lens of brain
development. A2 year old is doing movement
and sensory play. You know, if you watch a 2 year
old, they're all over the place.We'd be exhausted if we moved
like a two year other. You know, some 2 year olds are
still putting things in their mouth.
That's an important part of learning.
That's how they learn the difference between themselves
(10:36):
and something else. When I put my hand in my mouth
and I bite it and hurts. If I put a teddy bears foot in
my mouth, I bite it and I don't feel it.
And so there's, you know, that sensory play is what starts to
build those networks and connections and pathways in the
brain. And then things like balance and
coordination, some of those samepathways are also involved in
attention. So at Brain Balance, we're
(10:57):
really focused on what are the physical, active, sensory things
that we can enhance that ultimately contributes to higher
level attention and focus. So I came to Brain Balance from
that perspective of a parent whowanted to learn as much as I
could just set my own kids up for success and and also
somebody that naturally gravitated towards the science
(11:17):
and the neurology. My husband and I own and ran 3
Centers for 10 years in the Southeast.
And then after doing that for 10years, and I'll tell you, I
learned more from the kids and families themselves than I have
from any textbook ever. But then after doing that for a
decade, I was asked to join the Home Office team.
So I'm now chief programs officer there and head of
research program and outcomes. And to just be a part of
(11:39):
something that has the ability to make enough of a difference
in the life in the brain that kids themselves can tell us that
they feel and notice things different.
You know, to hear it in a 10 year old's words of I don't
annoy people anymore. I get invited back for
sleepovers, You know, to hear itin the real words of the kids,
just as amazing. And over the years, we've been
(11:59):
seeing the success that we had with kids.
We then expanded it to college kids and then adults.
And then we keep expanding that that age range because we really
see that the brain can change atany age.
It's just a matter of what are you doing in order to drive
those changes. So ADC diagnosis, they are
skyrocketing, right? They are through the roof more
(12:20):
kids that ever are struggling with focus, impulse control,
emotional regulation. Is there anything that actually
going on leading to the this increased diagnosis that people
need to know about or what are some of the common reasons
behind the the increase? That's a loaded question, right?
There's a lot of different facets to it.
So I'm going to start with the very politically correct answer
(12:42):
is, you know, there's there havebeen changes in the diagnostic
manual. So it used to be that you didn't
diagnose ADHD until a little bitolder.
The system has lowered the age of, of diagnosing ADHD, which
then increases the number slightly.
And there's definitely a different level of awareness.
I mean, ADHD is a hot topic on TikTok of all places, right?
(13:04):
So just we have a different level of understanding and
knowledge and awareness on around ADHD.
But to me that does not tell thefull story.
We absolutely saw a surge in ADHD statistics during the
pandemic and I think there's really important lessons to
unpack there. During the pandemic, the way our
kids functioned day-to-day changed over the years.
(13:24):
The amount of screen time has just gone through the roof.
So there's been building and exploit increases.
I can't talk this morning, that just exploded during the
pandemic and in those rates aren't coming back down to where
they were pre pandemic. And when we look at things
through the lens of what the brain needs for development,
what the two biggest drivers of development in the brain are is
(13:45):
movement and sensory. And when we're spending time on
our devices, that's taking away from multi sensory processing
and from movement. So when I'm on my device, yes,
there's sensory information. I'm moving my thumb to scroll or
tap and I'm getting audio and visual information.
But that's different than it being outside, running around,
throwing a ball. And outside you've got the feel
(14:07):
of the sun on your face, the wind in your hair, you hear the
birds, you're running over uneven surfaces.
You're going from the grass to the concrete up a curb there.
It's just a whole different level of activation and
engagement in the brain. And as you're running over
uneven services and you're having to coordinate your body
in movements, what that does to lighten fire and activate
(14:29):
massive pathways and networks throughout the whole brain is
huge. So there's the element of kids
don't have the same level of sensory engagement and play that
I did growing up where or the generation did before.
I think the advent of computers and then handheld technology, I
think that has just continued toshift.
Then there's a separate side of the conversation of you have
different types of attention. We call everything attention,
(14:51):
but attention really can be broken up into so many different
categories and types that shouldkind of each be called something
different. And the common thing I get from
parents all the time is, you know, why can my kid gain for
two hours but I can't get her tosit down and do 15 minutes of
math, you know, And then parentshad that, you know, she's just
not trying. Is she lazy?
Does she not care? It's because she doesn't like
math. We are talking about two
(15:12):
completely separate systems. The system that helps us pay
attention to something like mathis our sustained attention, our
ability to direct our attention and maintain attention on
something that's not giving us areward versus our attention
system that I use on YouTube or TikTok or gaming.
(15:34):
That's our reward driven attention system.
That's not 15 minutes of attention or two hours of
attention. That is micro bursts of
attention that are only seconds long.
And then you earn a reward in the game that you're playing.
Or you see a funny dog video that makes you laugh and brings
you joy, which gives that dopamine rush to the brain, that
burst of of energy when the brain gets the reward, then it
(15:55):
makes you want to re engage to get that reward.
So if you picture like a mouse and studies like tapping the
button to to get the treat, that's what video games and
social media are for. Our brain is tapping the button
to get the treat and we strengthen what we use.
So when we're spending several hours a day and if you look at
the stats on on high school kids, 6 to 9 hours a day on
(16:17):
their devices is not unheard of.So when we're spending that
amount of time on our devices, tapping that reward button,
we're strengthening our reward driven attention mechanisms that
are just seconds long and that our brain is constantly seeking
that fast reward versus what I need at work.
It is sustained attention. I am not getting rewards
throughout my day at work, you know, not by the hour, let alone
(16:40):
the 2nd. And sitting in math class, not
super rewarding and exciting. And so we really need to be
mindful of finding that balance.If we want our kids to have the
ability to direct and sustain their attention when when we
need them to, they've got to also be practicing that and so
less time. It doesn't mean no social media
or no gaming, but we need to find balance in that in order to
(17:03):
achieve the outcome and goal that you want.
Yeah, most definitely. No, that's, that's so true.
So is it, is it really that all these kids, especially a lot of
little boys that they truly havethis diagnosis of ADHD?
Or is it just they don't have a,a properly trained attention
system to be sustained for long periods of time?
(17:25):
And then they get labeled and they get given a medication and
then that has its impact and side effects and consequences.
Is that more of what's happening?
Or is it that there's something really wrong with our not wrong
with our kids, but that they actually are truly needing this
diagnosis? You know, there's a lot to
(17:46):
unpack in that statement as well.
And so I want to come back to the comment, you know, around
little boys. We've got to talk about
attention development in both girls and boys.
And that's a really important conversation.
So I'm going to set that aside. But don't don't let me forget to
come back to that. You know, I am the big one of
avoiding labels. To me, there is a time and a
place in order to get services in school or you know, there's
(18:08):
there's a time in the label is needed in order to get the
services and support you need. And labels can also give us a
frame of reference. As soon as you say ADHD, as a
parent, as a professional, as a,as a person, it gives us some
knowledge and, and context, whether it's right or wrong
there, there's a frame of reference there.
But that being said, there's, I want to see the child in front
(18:30):
of me first before I see the label, right?
Like if we're talking about Jay,I want to get to know you as a
person. And, and I feel like sometimes
our labels can supersede the individual.
But that being said, what ADHD is, neurologically speaking, is
immaturity in some of the networks and pathways in the
brain. And we can see about a 30%
reduction or 30% gap in certain networks and pathways in the
(18:55):
brain. And it's not just about
attention and behavior. And I think that's a disservice
that we have when we talk about ADHD as we really focus on those
two elements. And you see it, you know, if you
look at what are the, you know, CDC's recommendations for
approaching ADHD is they say thefirst line of defense for young
kids is not medication, but it is behavior support strategies,
(19:15):
parenting support strategies, classroom support strategies,
all focus around behavior. And then second line of defense
being medication. We are really focused on
attention and behavior. However, the networks and
pathways in the brain that are immature in ADHD impact sensory
processing or executive functions, which is our ability
to plan, organize, execute. It's our ability to be flexible
(19:37):
and fluid in our thinking. It's our emotional regulation.
How do I handle myself when I'm frustrated and upset?
So it's separate from intelligence, separate from a
lot of other things. But when we have immature
networks and pathways in the brain, it makes a lot of things
more challenging than what it should be for a child that age.
(19:57):
So I always, again, if we go back to a visual example of
this, if I have a 10 year old sitting in a fifth grade
classroom and that 10 year old has ADHD, whether or not it's
been diagnosed, that means in some aspects of development that
10 year old is going to be more aligned with year old.
So think about it. If I put a second grader in
fifth grade classroom and said, all right, let's do this, what
(20:20):
is that going to look like? Right.
Can that second grader learn? Absolutely.
Can they interact with with their classmates and have fun?
Absolutely. Are they going to have a smaller
window of attention and require more redirection to stay on
task? Are they going to interact and
engage with their peers at the same level?
Or are they going to need more cues and prompts and reminders?
(20:40):
They're going to be more likely to cry when they get frustrated
and upset. And but as a parent and a
teacher, I don't see that. I don't see your development.
I see the 10 year old in my classroom that is disruptive and
frustrating. And I know that you're smart and
I know that you're funny, but boy, you take a lot of extra
energy and work in the classroom.
So attention challenges are realand they make life harder.
(21:04):
And it's not about not being accepting and loving of the
child that you have in front of you and their their strengths
and their challenges. But I always want to say, how
can I set my kid up for success?And so if we've got an
opportunity to mature those networks and pathways so that
they do have more age appropriate development with
that 5th grade classroom is going to be a more effective and
(21:26):
more rewarding and more confidence building experience
for that individual. So yes, I believe ADHD is
absolutely real. I don't think you need a label
to have the challenger struggle be real.
Labeling it is not an automatic solution to the problem.
And but it can give us a frame of context.
But you know, then it's understanding what kind you,
(21:47):
what's the path forward that's the right the right fit for the
family. No, I, I agree, right?
I think it's, it can be individualized.
I really just, I think the biggest issue here is just our,
the systems that we, we have in place, right?
The systems that you and I have to work around to help these
kids and help these families, right?
(22:09):
Because there's, there's so manysystems in place.
There's a lot of, I'm not sure if this is the right word, but I
feel like it is bureaucracy in these systems at play in
schools. You know, it, there's things
that are just, they're, they're very, it's very politicized in
our schools. And you know, our, our schools
aren't there to, to really help and teach our kids out the way
they need it, right? And all of our kids learn a
(22:31):
little bit differently, but it'sreally hard.
And then we'll, we'll go back tothe little boys and the
differences in how they learn and attention things like that
here in a moment. But just, you know, it's hard
for our kids now if we see theseissues on the rise, but we're
stuck in the same system that we've had for public schools
forever, right? The system hasn't changed.
Our kids have very much changed.The world around schools has
(22:54):
very much changed. I mean, heck, our little
kindergarteners walk the halls with Chromebooks, right?
That are half that are the size of their torso.
They're so little. But these they're walking the
halls like in these Chromebooks.And it's like, OK, how have we
not adapted to this, right? Like we're human, Like we've
adapted to the technology. We've adapted to all these
(23:17):
things, but we haven't adapted to the the development, the
system, the the schedule, the way things are learning and
things like that. Like what?
We wonder why so many states like mine included like I live
here in Washington state, 70% ofour 8th graders are failing math
and 69% are failing reading. Right.
We, we need to do something different.
And it's like, Can you imagine being a teacher today?
(23:40):
A teacher is such a hard job. And, and most of the teachers I
know have are, are teachers because they are deeply
passionate about kids and helping kids thrive and setting
them up for success and connecting with them and giving
them a path forward and inspiring them for the future.
And, you know, helping them be the best versions of themselves,
But you've got a teacher in a classroom.
When you look at the overwhelm of the number of chopped
(24:02):
behaviors and with the escalation of neurodevelopmental
and mental health and behavioralchallenges, teachers aren't
getting more classroom support and resources and help, but
they've got more challenges sitting in front of them.
And then they're navigating and,you know, so we've got a
classroom full of 10 year old 5th graders whose development
actually might be ranging from from 5:00 to 12:00, all of the
(24:24):
same classroom, who all are about the same size.
And you know, the job our teachers have in front of them
is enormous. And we really need to do better
with our supports and resources to set our teachers and students
up for success. And the statistics are telling
us we're not, we're not hitting the mark.
So how do we pivot and change? Yeah, and it, it, it takes a
(24:45):
major, major reform, you know, top to bottom.
That's really the only way to kind of right, right.
Break the shit is you have to tear it all down.
You have to tear it completely down.
And you have to just start over.You have to just start
completely over and make it moreadaptive, not start over.
They're you think to keep a lot of the things in place, right?
(25:05):
You can keep a lot of the current pressures in place, but
you have to think like, OK, the longest, most kids can really
study or learn something really people in general, 20 minutes.
So we need 20 minute blocks of stuff and then we need some kind
of sensory, you know, especiallyfor elementary aged kids.
And then middle school students,you know, they need that too.
But as soon as they get to middle school, then it's, you
(25:28):
know, 3540 minute class, 5 minute break, 3540 minute class,
5 minute break in this classic, classic, classic, classic,
classic class, right? And then the work demand is
dramatically increases from, well, at least middle school
here starts getting such great. So from 5th to 6th grade, it's a
dramatic increase, right? And then from 8th grade to 9th
grade, it's another dramatic increase in work demand, right?
(25:49):
And expectation. And, you know, but the our kids
don't get help along the way. They just, you know, continue to
just OK, well, you did enough togo on to the next grade, so
we'll let you go kind of thing. It's like we don't hold our kid
back, which could sometimes be good for them.
Like it's just push, push, push.Keep going on.
Well, you know, good enough, go ahead and move on to the next
(26:11):
kind of thing. And teachers like you're mixing
here, it's such a hard job, but they're also very powerless.
And a lot of it like I don't hear in Washington, I speak for
Washington state a lot. I know this.
I don't know, I'm outside of Washington, but we have crazy
high teacher turnover and teachers that we do have in
place, you know, there are hope are hopes for they can measure
(26:32):
hope somehow by just answering questions.
Do you feel like hopeful kind ofthing?
6070% still no hope Our teacher turnover in so high.
Like it's more than half that are considering leaving teaching
at this point. Do something else.
You see what happened during COVID?
How many? Yeah.
There were so many teachers on TikTok that, you know, started a
(26:55):
social media career versus keeping on what they were doing.
So. Yeah.
Well, you know, to me that let'sbring it back to the research,
right? We just talked about, you know,
17 years to implement the research.
We're seeing the same thing in education, right?
We, we know what the brain needs.
This is this is not a mystery. There's still a lot more to
learn. But you're exactly right in
(27:15):
terms of we are not setting our education curriculum
expectations and standards on based on actual development.
When we look at what is the attentional window of a student,
and you talked about that 20 minute window, but then there's
things that we can do to re engage attention, re engage
memory. And so and it can take just one
to three minutes of physical activity that doesn't require
(27:35):
gear and equipment. If we, if we structured our day
in shorter increments that then had a sensory movement break for
one to three minutes of get up and do squat jumps, engage your
muscles, spike your heart rate. And guess what?
I just earned you a few more minutes productive attention and
memory and you know, it's and and guess what?
(27:55):
The first time you do it in a classroom, the kids go nuts.
It's chaos. It's not like controlled human,
you know, they get up, they jumparound and then it's like, but,
but how quickly kids can learn and adapt and that just becomes
a part of their routine and structure.
And think of the message that gives them for light, right?
I know when I'm working and I start to notice my attention
wandering. I know that's my brain telling
(28:16):
me I've run out of resources. So I need to do something to
replenish my resources. I need to move, I need sensory
input or I need fuel. I know those things because I,
I've, I've been read, I've, I'vebeen taught that those are the
signs and symptoms that tell me,you know, my sustained attention
has run out. I'm now an environmental
attention where my mind is wandering.
(28:37):
So an environmental attention with the wandering mind.
I'm not forming memories, I'm not learning.
And so if we are able to teach our kids that self-awareness
just through repetition and modeling and, and conversation,
and then here's what we do to change that.
So I can redirect and sustain myattention.
Those are strategies for life that's really focused on brain
(29:00):
health. And that, you know, to me, my,
my dream education curriculum would be a curriculum founded
in, in brain health, looking at everything through the lens of
does the brain need to be healthy, happy and productive?
And there's things that we can implement again, without
expensive technology, without expensive gear, you know,
something as simple as our eye movements.
(29:21):
Our visual system is so highly complex and we take our eye
movements for granted. We never think about how
effectively efficiently our eyesmove.
But if we don't have mature control of our eye movements,
that's going to complicate reading where your eyes are now
jumping and skipping. They're moving too many times
and when they skip now I'm missing words and content, which
(29:43):
is going to hurt my comprehension.
So if I'm reading directions andI miss a step in the direction,
I fatigued my brain because my eyes were working harder.
And then I frustrated myself because I'm missing information
and the teacher's going to yell at me for asking again.
And our visual system isn't fast, accurate and efficient.
It drains my attention resources.
(30:05):
So just simply doing eye exercises before each English
class, you know, and doing physical like push ups and squat
jumps before each math class. There's there's little things
like that that we can implement in one to three minutes that
support mental health, that support cognitive health, that
support overall well-being, thatalso creates a brain that's in
(30:26):
state more ready and able to learn.
I think a lot of parents can take this, take this on too,
right? To where this this very simple
concept of creating a brain healthy environment, right?
You could do that same thing. You can take this right now, you
can do it at home where if you're struggling with homework,
let's say you have a middle schooler, you have hour and a
half of homework every night, which you probably do.
Break that up 15 minutes go 15 or two minutes, stop, do
(30:50):
something, walk around, do a lap, run the stairs, whatever it
is, whatever you have available to you, you know, back at it 15
minutes, set a timer, boom, another break kind of thing.
Just go on and on and on and off.
I guarantee that hour and a halfof homework will probably get
done and maybe an hour, hour 15,but it won't actually be the
full hour and a half because of the brain how that sustained
(31:10):
energy like you're staying here.We have.
To That's exactly why I wrote the book.
Back on track is, you know, because I'm so immersed in this
and I say the same things over and over.
I forget that not everybody knows this information.
During the pandemic, the escalation and parent concerns
and questions just went through the route and I just, I felt
like a broken record and I was like, how do we make sure that
(31:32):
more people know this information and, and get to
utilize it? And so, you know, if you're not
brain bounces, an incredible program that that drives really,
truly incredible change. It's also things that you can do
at home as a starting point withno gear, no technology.
It's just starting by being empowered with the knowledge and
the strategies. And the knowledge and strategies
(31:52):
look different depending on yourchild's age and development.
So the book is just all about, you know, when we talk about
that window of attention for homework, we've got to think
about my actual child, not the assignment.
So maybe the assignment is goingto take 40 minutes, but my
child's attentional window is 15and that that window of its
tension isn't the same day-to-day.
(32:12):
If I'm exhausted, it's it's going to be a shorter window of
attention today. If I'm stressed, if I'm hungry,
we're not looking at a 15 window.
We're looking at a 10 minute window.
And so teaching parents what to watch for, to know a, how do we
do better at getting started on something that task initiation
and then what to watch for when my child's focused and now
(32:33):
they're starting to get antsy, How can I re engage that window
of attention? And then how do I, and then each
time we reengage it, it's going to be for a shorter and shorter
and shorter amount of time. We don't get to just repeat 20
minutes over and over and over productively.
But and then as a parent, sometimes we need to make the
choice. Do I push through the attention
window because we got to get to bed or and if that's the case,
that's OK, but then you need to know now you need to be the
(32:55):
support. You've got to step in.
It's not going to be realistic for your child to be productive
and effective once we've gone outside their window of
attention. And so it's not fair to get
frustrated and angry when we're asking them to do something
they're not put to do. And so how do we support that?
But it it's knowledge and power and practical strategies and to
be able to use. Huge.
(33:16):
That's a big education reform that needs to happen is we seem
to be teaching our kids practical stuff.
Just teach them practical stuff.They don't need to know the
square root of X on a triangle. They're never gonna use that,
right? They're never gonna use that.
But they do need to know how to master calculator, right?
They do know how to master it todo all the things so that it's
efficient, so that they can do any math problem anytime, right?
If they know how to do all the you know, on a typical
(33:38):
scientific calculator, the TI30Xlittle A, there's only about 17
functions that you actually needto know.
Only 17. And I probably don't even use
17. No, but the ones that they teach
in school are none of those 17 that you actually need to know,
right? Like our kids need to need to
know, OK, if I, if something cost this much, taxes this much,
how much do I actually have to spend?
(33:59):
Like that kind of stuff. They don't know that stuff off
the top of the head. How to do those things on their
phone calculator kind of thing. The struggle, it's practical.
It's practical. And you mentioned again, and I
had this thought, you know, justa moment ago as you mentioned
that there was a huge fight during the pandemic, right, of
parents, you know, kind of speaking up and wanting to know
more, right? Well, you got to think for some
(34:21):
of those parents, probably a good majority of them, I would
think that's probably the most involved.
They've been in their child's education probably since
kindergarten if they're, if theyhad 5th graders, right?
That's probably the first time in 5-6 years that they were
actually involved in their education and the first time
they're actually seeing, my gosh, I think a lot of parents
had the opportunity to wake up and, you know, I, I am into
(34:46):
conspiracy theories and whatnot.I think there was part of the
pandemic that was meant for control of the people.
And you know, I think that's where they, they kind of messed
up because they, a lot of parents were they're now
involved. It's like, OK, parents now have
time to read the curriculum and understand the curriculum and
no, whoa, hold on. Or my child has just what has
been happening kind of thing. Now you get start to ask all
(35:07):
these questions and talk to people like yourself and
research and be like, whoa, this, this, there's something
not right here. And those red flags come up for
hate. And so people really got to be
involved with their kids and their education again, which I
think was the first snowball rolling down the hill to help us
start for some kind of reform. Yeah, it was.
(35:31):
I will describe it as an awakening where the questions
parents were asking shifted, which was really interesting.
And again, I get to sit back andobserve this at a high level,
right? This is not just one school, one
family. This is international.
We work with a lot of families international as well.
We've got an at home program that's still live coached.
And so this wasn't just happening in the US.
(35:52):
This was this was happening around the world.
And all of a sudden parents weresaying, you know, my child
cannot focus. I'm sitting there with them all
day long and I'm watching their movement, their engagement
there. And and so suddenly they were
seeing things first hand in a different way.
And, and it became pre pandemic,a lot of the let me back up.
(36:14):
Often times people reach out forhelp when a pain point has hit a
certain threshold, right. So if I'm a single mom, it's
like I can't get one more phone call from school to come get
you, I'm going to lose my job. Or if you know, it's like, how
many times do I have to go in and meet with the teacher for
another parent conference? Because you, you know, and as
parents, I always tell people it's a red flag.
(36:35):
If you find yourself saying all the time, why can't you just,
you already did your homework. Why can't you just turn it in?
What? What's so hard about that?
You already did the hard part. So if there's a why can't you
just like your child's not meeting an expectation?
If there's a reason they're not,they're not meeting that
expectation. But we're like, you're 10, come
on. But you know our brain can do
it. So why?
Why can't yours? So the parents pain point during
(36:57):
the pandemic shifted. It shifted from the discomfort
and the inconvenience and frustration of teachers calling
and having the parent teacher conferences and needing to to
leave work for behavior issues. And then it became their pain
point became I can't teach and do education all day at the same
time as working. And I can see that my child
(37:19):
can't do it independently. And so the pain point became a
different level of awareness of what does it look like when when
they're doing an assignment. There was also another
concurrent shift that happened at the same time out of
necessity was there was our whole education system had to
shift to remote in a matter of two weeks and we did not have a
system set up for that. Like minute felt like it did a
(37:41):
matter of minutes. And the fact that they pulled it
off in some way, shape or form is, is really incredible in a
lot of ways. But what I watched, so my kids
and in in 2020 were, what were they?
4th grade and 6th grade, 5th grade and 7th grade, somewhere
in there. And they're now 10 or 15 and 17.
So they were 10 and 12 at the time.
(38:01):
So I can't do that. That was wrong.
Yeah. You're good.
You're right. I think you're right.
I think you're right. I can't do math and talk at the
same time. But what happened for them was
all of a sudden there was a hugeincrease in the level of
executive function demand placedon them overnight.
Because think about this, you and I growing up when I had a
(38:22):
math homework assignment, it wasa physical assignment on paper
and then my teacher in a basket on the desk and walk up to the
desk. You would physically turn it in.
It doesn't happen that way anymore.
We don't have those physical cues and reminders.
So you do the assignment on the Chromebook.
When you finish it, you hit submit or sometimes you have to
take a picture of the assignmentand then upload it.
(38:44):
And the issues and challenges I watched my kids struggle with is
they thought it uploaded and submitted and it didn't or they
didn't have that visual reminder.
Or, you know, every time you'd walk into math class, you would,
you'd walk in, you drop your paper in the basket, you'd go
sit down and then they'd hand the paper back out to check it.
That has all shifted and changed.
(39:05):
So there's, there's differences in the visual cues.
And then we're asking our kids, kindergarteners with
Chromebooks, there's a level of executive function demand of
knowing how to navigate those things, knowing how it's just,
it's a different system. And then as parents, because
that's not the system we grew upwith, you have a harder time
supporting that because we're less familiar.
(39:26):
And then you've got the challenge of everybody, all the
teachers inputting their grades at different times.
And so you log into one of your 32 parent portals and you're
like, well, I don't know what's caught up and what's not, but
I'm seeing missing assignment. So now I'm not at you and
frustrated and we're not having a positive, productive
conversation. There's just there's a lot of
complexity to navigate and is a different level of demand that I
(39:51):
think is sometimes more than what our kids are
developmentally prepared to navigate.
And I think the biggest thing you hit on there, then they'll
transition us here to start wrapping up is the biggest thing
you hit on here is obviously allof all of that, the executive
function demand, that's a huge one, right?
But also you mentioned two key things.
If you find yourself saying, whycan't you just?
(40:13):
But then also that I caught thatyou said is that.
Parents, we, we know that we're adults, we can do these things.
Then we have these expectations on our kids to also do the same
thing. But we forget all the kind of
you, they're just the kid. Our, you know, brains are fully
developed for at least for boys until 25 years old.
And so if they're 15, they stillgot 10 years of development.
Yet if they're ten, they still got 15 years of development.
(40:36):
And more than that, we, we talk about our attention capacities
really start to peak mid 20s, our executive function
capacities peak in our 40s. And so the brain continues to,
you know, development doesn't stop when your body stops
growing. Development is the brain forming
new connections and refining existing connections to get
better, to have better control, better endurance.
And so just because you can do it does not mean your child is
(40:58):
equipped to do it. And so then how do we support
them or how do we mature those functions so that they are more
able to do these things at an age appropriate level?
Let's jump into the dad zone here and then wrap up.
So the dad zone here is kind of to bring us down from the
conversation a little bit because we can get really into
it roof fired up. So we kind of mellow out at the
end here. First question on the end of the
(41:20):
In the Dad zone here. So since you stepped into it
with me, does pineapple go on pizza?
Absolutely. You know, balance the like,
sweet and savory. Love it.
Okay, interesting take there, but I'll I'll accept it.
To each their own. This is a straight now, I'm not
going to lie, a. Little bit, a little bit, but
that's okay. It's okay, we'll work through
it, but I'm not a pineapple on pizza fan at all.
(41:42):
Who are three people, dead or alive, that you would invite to
a dinner party with you? Number one, my grandma, you
know, just just to get that, that perspective years from now
and #2 Holocaust, Holocaust survivor, I just saw in the news
the other day that the last Holocaust survivor just passed
away. You know, boy, there's just so
(42:04):
much to unpack there and the stories they have to tell.
I think, you know, we could watch you.
Have ancestry going back to the Holocaust.
No. OK.
Just being a human. Yeah.
No, 100%. I hear you.
Yeah, yeah. And then then I would want
somebody really, really funny, like, to have dinner with Will
Ferrell. Like just not that he's
(42:25):
necessarily my favorite comedian, but like, just to sit
back and watch how the night would unfold and the
conversation would happen. I think our Steve Martin.
I mean, I, I think that could bejust so highly entertaining.
Yeah, no, I've never thought about having a comedian there
because it would keep everythingfun, lighthearted and just be
entertainment for the night. Do you have a guilty pleasure
(42:49):
food or? Well, yes to both.
All of the above and I really enjoy a glass of red wine.
I really enjoy 2 glasses of red wine.
And the more you learn about brain health, alcohol is just no
good that comes from it. And so I do have I live so much
of my life focused on brain health and that's one thing that
(43:10):
is counter to optimizing brain health.
And then song I really love justlike a cheesy happy song and
like the cheesier the better wave.
I can't think of the but the song wave on wave.
I'm blanking on the artist, but doing a half marathon in San
Francisco, that's my hill running song and it's like the
cheesiest song ever. But that's my motivation.
(43:32):
Like get up that hill. OK, humble brag.
You do marathons and half marathons and stuff.
It's fun and. It just goes I sign up and did
it doesn't mean it goes well but.
OK, Fair, fair, fair, fair, fair.
Very last question here. What is one piece of advice that
you would offer to a young mom who's like 18 to 22 years old
and just starting out on her parenting journey, Or you can
offer to a young dad at the sameage?
(43:52):
Self-care and learn about what your brain needs to be healthy.
Sleep, stress management becauseyou cannot be the parent you
want to be if you are stressed and exhausted.
And so know what you need to do to take care of your brain
health because brain health is your mental health.
It's your cognitive health, it'syour abilities and productivity.
(44:12):
So focus on your brain health and then that will also triple
down to raising a brain healthy child as well.
Well, Rebecca, Doctor Jackson, people can work in people
connect with you, learn more about your work, keep track,
keep tabs on you. To learn more about brain
balance, brainbalance.com. Again, we work with kids, teens
and adults. You can find me on Instagram at
(44:33):
Doctor Rebecca Jackson. Same thing with LinkedIn, my
book Back on Track. It is written, it talks about
development from birth to 18. But if you have a brain, that
information applies to you, evenif you're not in those ages.
And again, it's the practical tips and tricks that you can
implement for free at book. You could really jump around by
development category by age, andyou can get it Amazon Barnes.
(44:56):
And those are my parting words of of how to learn more.
Amazing. Well, make sure you guys grab
Doctor Jackson's book Back on Track like she said, for
practical strategies that you can start using today to help
your child thrive. And again, to our listeners, I
hope you enjoyed your snack. Thanks again for tuning in.
If you enjoyed this conversation, make sure to rate,
review, and share the episodes with a fellow parent who needs
to hear it. Until next time, stay present,
stay engaged, and keep striving to be the best parent you can.
Welcome into the Young Dad podcast, whether you're outside
grilling, mow the lawn, changingdirty diapers, or maybe, just
maybe you got a moment to sit back, relax and listen to your
favorite podcast. Whatever you're, wherever you're
at, whatever you're doing, thanks for being here and thanks
for tuning in. I'm your host, Jay, and today we
have an amazing guest, an amazing conversation lined up.
If you're a parent trying to navigate attention issues, ADHD,
(00:31):
mental health, and overall development for your child or
even yourself, this episode is for you.
I'm honored to have Doctor Rebecca Jackson, a leading
expert in brain health, cognitive function, and
childhood development. As the Chief Programs Officer
for Brain Balance. She's dedicated to her career
helping both kids and adults improve attention, cognition and
overall well-being. She she's also the author of the
(00:54):
number one release book Back on Track, a practical guide to help
kids of all ages thrive with a wealth wealth.
A research backed insights and real world solutions.
Doctor Jackson makes understanding neuroscience
accessible and fun, and most importantly, practical for
parents who are looking out looking for real answers.
So make sure you grab a snack, grab a juice box and let's jump
(01:14):
into the conversation. Rebecca, welcome to the show.
Hey, thanks for having me. I have to say, it's been a long
time since I've had a juice box,and now that you said it, that
sounds so good. I know, right?
Well, you know, I like to, you know, kick it back a little bit.
You know you got to have a snack.
You got to have your juice box while you're doing, you know
you're watching your favorite podcast.
Real life. It's a requirement.
It makes podcasts better, I promise.
(01:35):
Well, let's see here. Coffee, they'll have to do.
I got a little a little Chan juice box right now.
I need to crack that crack that open right after this question.
So Rebecca, many parents feel overwhelmed, but when it comes
to understanding their child's behavior and development, well,
I guess well before you jump into that, how did you get
started all this? Kind of what's been your path to
(01:57):
kind of where you're at today? You know, no path I think
happens intentionally, right? We think we've got a vision and
then life often takes us to different directions.
I've always gravitated towards more natural solutions.
And so I started my professionalcareer as a chiropractor.
And what really resonated with me about that was, before I jump
to the medication, what can I doto make a difference?
(02:18):
So there's an absolute time and place and need for for
medication and more traditional medical approaches.
But if there's something that I can do before, so I need less
medication or the medications more effective, Awesome.
But after being a chiropractor for several years, my husband's
job moved us across the country.So I sold my practice.
And at that time I was a brand new mom.
I had a one year old and then eventually had a second child so
(02:43):
I really became fascinated with understanding development and
what I was finding wasn't satisfying my curiosity.
So as a parent Googling and researching, you know, there's
great up information out there of, you know, sing songs, be
engaged, sensory play. But I wanted more than that.
I wanted to understand neurologically what was
happening in the brain that drives development.
So that led me back to school. And the more I learned, the more
(03:07):
excited I got. And mom was an elementary school
psychologist for 20 years. So every day after class, I'd
call her and say, no, Mama, how are the schools incorporating
this information into the schools?
How is this information being used?
And her answer was it. It's not.
And she would tell you as a public educator that if a child
came to their schools as a kindergartner, they would exit
(03:29):
that system, often with the samechallenges.
The challenges might look different at different ages.
And, you know, great modifications and strategies and
work around, but change wasn't happening.
And I don't mean that as a dissenter public education, I've
got huge respect on and love andappreciation for our public
educators. But I think our hands are tied
with with resources. And so I wanted to do more.
(03:50):
What could we do to have an impact on changing development
so that we're not just working on modifications and work around
strategies? Yeah, you, you had on a big one
there, right? Not it's not being implemented.
All these things research like I, I hold my masters in
developmental psychology and yousee all these things and it's
(04:12):
just like, huh, well, that's notbeing done.
That's not being done, that's not being done.
It's very, very even far betweenwhere something actually
happened. Majority of the time, like let's
say 95% of the time requires an outside agency to come in and
get that support that the kidneyright.
Well, and I think two things with that 11 fact and statistic
(04:34):
that just blew my mind. I also went back to school at
another point that I enjoy learning and for clinical
translational research. And one of the first things I
learned in that program was how rare it is that published peer
review well accepted, rigorous research gets implemented into
protocol. And when it does, it takes an
average of 17 years. So think about there's
(04:54):
tremendous advancements happening in research, right.
But if we wait 17 years to change our traditional
protocols, thoughts, a child's life that's growing up, that's
birth to 17. And that's why I really
gravitated towards translationalresearch of I didn't want to be
a part of a system that moved that slow.
I wanted to how do we learn and iterate?
If my child's struggling today, what can I research, learn and
(05:17):
apply tomorrow? And that's really been our
approach at brain balance with the research I need.
There is what is what's working in the programs that we're
doing? What are we seeing changing?
How is cognition, attention, emotional regulation, behavior
improving? Because then as we're learning
that in real time, we get to adapt and change our program to
make things better, to better serve our our population and
(05:38):
audience. A long time to implement one
thing. Those, trust me, I've read
plenty of peer reviewed journals, plenty of peer
reviewed studies in my time in school.
Yeah, those things take time. Those things go a lot of time.
I've had to put in peer review papers as well at times for my
peers to review. And it takes a lot of work that
(05:59):
takes a lot of time period for people to read, review all those
things. It's like, whoa.
But it takes us 17 years to implement these things that are
being researched at a high levelto implement them in any way,
shape or form. Yeah.
And in the meantime, we have parents that, in my experience
and that brain balance, we assess over 11,000 kids a year.
(06:20):
So we were in touch with a lot of kids, a lot of parents.
We also work with teens and adults.
But parents are are hungry for other options of how to make a
difference in their child's life.
And we're well aware of the traditional options.
And the traditional options are valued, valid, important.
But for far too many families, they're not enough.
Far too many families have gone the route of medication and
(06:44):
behavior therapy or cognitive behavior therapy and counseling.
And again, those things are important and valid.
But when you've done all of thatand you're still getting phone
calls from school, you still can't make it through dinner
without a meltdown, You know, far too many families are
feeling stuck. And and then I think as parents,
we eternalize, right? What am I doing wrong?
Is it me? And then we worry, what is this
(07:04):
going to look like five years from now if this doesn't change?
And, and so then we're, you know, laying awake, sleep, you
know, sleepless at night trying to understand, am I blowing this
out of proportion? Was I this way as a child and
turned out fine? And to me, one of the things
that's been really exciting is to learn there's so many
different ways and avenues to positively impact and change the
brain. Medication does change symptoms.
(07:26):
So it can be helpful in the moment with some symptoms.
But there are many avenues and approaches to to make a
difference. And that's really something that
I'm passionate about is providing parents with education
to learn that there's other options out there and not
everything is the right fit for every person.
And that's OK. But I want parents to be more
educated, more empowered, to know OK, what are the different
(07:47):
paths that I could take and to help my child move things
forward. And just knowing that stuff can
be huge for parent and just hugeoverall for, you know, next
step. What do I do to avoid some of
that internalizing of those, those thoughts and those those
feelings behind it, right? When we see our child struggling
and we can't even get through dinner without a meltdown and
(08:09):
and everything seems to be ruined.
We're not going certain places, we're not hanging out with our
friends and things like that. It could be really, really
stressful non parent and really hard for them to overcome and
work through because they I mean, we're not, we just don't
know, right? We just don't know at all.
We have no idea and we don't there's not a lot of resources
out there. And so you mentioned brain
balance. What, how did that all happen
(08:31):
come about? How did you end up there doing
the research and all that? So Brain Balance is a company
that focuses on improving the brain through the networks and
pathways in the brain. So we always say our goal is to
build stronger, faster, more connected brains.
So our goal at Brain Balance is to change the symptoms and
outcomes, but through a completely non medical approach.
(08:51):
So we're not changing symptoms through medication, but by
targeting and exercising different networks and pathways
in the brain. And the more I learn about the
brain, the more I feel like I know nothing and there's so much
more to learn. But one of the things that's
really fascinating to is the overlap and networks and
pathways. So parents tend to focus on what
the outcome is that they want. And so, you know, if I'm getting
(09:13):
constant messages from the teacher that your student, your
child requires more redirection in the classroom.
So now as a parent, I'm really worried about my child's
attention. And so then we find ourselves
saying, you know, come on, pay attention, try harder.
And we put reward systems in place.
If you could stay on task, you know, here's the benefit.
But we forget that our attentionsystem is tied to development
(09:34):
and we are not born with the attention we need to thrive in
school. You know, if you look at the
attention of a 2 year old, it's it's, you know, seconds or
minutes. And that should, with natural
development improve over the years.
But if it doesn't, then I might have sitting in the classroom
that has the attention span of a2 year old.
It doesn't mean that that kindergartner isn't brilliant
(09:54):
and awesome and fun and funny, but there might be differences
in the networks and pathways that support attention for that
child. So we want to gravitate
naturally to practice what we'restruggling in.
But if practicing attention was going to do the trick, all kids
would be awesome at attention because they're practicing it
every day in school. Instead of brain balance, we're
really looking at what are otherways that we can strengthen and
(10:15):
access those pathways. And and so we're really going
back and looking at everything through the lens of brain
development. A2 year old is doing movement
and sensory play. You know, if you watch a 2 year
old, they're all over the place.We'd be exhausted if we moved
like a two year other. You know, some 2 year olds are
still putting things in their mouth.
That's an important part of learning.
That's how they learn the difference between themselves
(10:36):
and something else. When I put my hand in my mouth
and I bite it and hurts. If I put a teddy bears foot in
my mouth, I bite it and I don't feel it.
And so there's, you know, that sensory play is what starts to
build those networks and connections and pathways in the
brain. And then things like balance and
coordination, some of those samepathways are also involved in
attention. So at Brain Balance, we're
(10:57):
really focused on what are the physical, active, sensory things
that we can enhance that ultimately contributes to higher
level attention and focus. So I came to Brain Balance from
that perspective of a parent whowanted to learn as much as I
could just set my own kids up for success and and also
somebody that naturally gravitated towards the science
(11:17):
and the neurology. My husband and I own and ran 3
Centers for 10 years in the Southeast.
And then after doing that for 10years, and I'll tell you, I
learned more from the kids and families themselves than I have
from any textbook ever. But then after doing that for a
decade, I was asked to join the Home Office team.
So I'm now chief programs officer there and head of
research program and outcomes. And to just be a part of
(11:39):
something that has the ability to make enough of a difference
in the life in the brain that kids themselves can tell us that
they feel and notice things different.
You know, to hear it in a 10 year old's words of I don't
annoy people anymore. I get invited back for
sleepovers, You know, to hear itin the real words of the kids,
just as amazing. And over the years, we've been
(11:59):
seeing the success that we had with kids.
We then expanded it to college kids and then adults.
And then we keep expanding that that age range because we really
see that the brain can change atany age.
It's just a matter of what are you doing in order to drive
those changes. So ADC diagnosis, they are
skyrocketing, right? They are through the roof more
(12:20):
kids that ever are struggling with focus, impulse control,
emotional regulation. Is there anything that actually
going on leading to the this increased diagnosis that people
need to know about or what are some of the common reasons
behind the the increase? That's a loaded question, right?
There's a lot of different facets to it.
So I'm going to start with the very politically correct answer
(12:42):
is, you know, there's there havebeen changes in the diagnostic
manual. So it used to be that you didn't
diagnose ADHD until a little bitolder.
The system has lowered the age of, of diagnosing ADHD, which
then increases the number slightly.
And there's definitely a different level of awareness.
I mean, ADHD is a hot topic on TikTok of all places, right?
(13:04):
So just we have a different level of understanding and
knowledge and awareness on around ADHD.
But to me that does not tell thefull story.
We absolutely saw a surge in ADHD statistics during the
pandemic and I think there's really important lessons to
unpack there. During the pandemic, the way our
kids functioned day-to-day changed over the years.
(13:24):
The amount of screen time has just gone through the roof.
So there's been building and exploit increases.
I can't talk this morning, that just exploded during the
pandemic and in those rates aren't coming back down to where
they were pre pandemic. And when we look at things
through the lens of what the brain needs for development,
what the two biggest drivers of development in the brain are is
(13:45):
movement and sensory. And when we're spending time on
our devices, that's taking away from multi sensory processing
and from movement. So when I'm on my device, yes,
there's sensory information. I'm moving my thumb to scroll or
tap and I'm getting audio and visual information.
But that's different than it being outside, running around,
throwing a ball. And outside you've got the feel
(14:07):
of the sun on your face, the wind in your hair, you hear the
birds, you're running over uneven surfaces.
You're going from the grass to the concrete up a curb there.
It's just a whole different level of activation and
engagement in the brain. And as you're running over
uneven services and you're having to coordinate your body
in movements, what that does to lighten fire and activate
(14:29):
massive pathways and networks throughout the whole brain is
huge. So there's the element of kids
don't have the same level of sensory engagement and play that
I did growing up where or the generation did before.
I think the advent of computers and then handheld technology, I
think that has just continued toshift.
Then there's a separate side of the conversation of you have
different types of attention. We call everything attention,
(14:51):
but attention really can be broken up into so many different
categories and types that shouldkind of each be called something
different. And the common thing I get from
parents all the time is, you know, why can my kid gain for
two hours but I can't get her tosit down and do 15 minutes of
math, you know, And then parentshad that, you know, she's just
not trying. Is she lazy?
Does she not care? It's because she doesn't like
math. We are talking about two
(15:12):
completely separate systems. The system that helps us pay
attention to something like mathis our sustained attention, our
ability to direct our attention and maintain attention on
something that's not giving us areward versus our attention
system that I use on YouTube or TikTok or gaming.
(15:34):
That's our reward driven attention system.
That's not 15 minutes of attention or two hours of
attention. That is micro bursts of
attention that are only seconds long.
And then you earn a reward in the game that you're playing.
Or you see a funny dog video that makes you laugh and brings
you joy, which gives that dopamine rush to the brain, that
burst of of energy when the brain gets the reward, then it
(15:55):
makes you want to re engage to get that reward.
So if you picture like a mouse and studies like tapping the
button to to get the treat, that's what video games and
social media are for. Our brain is tapping the button
to get the treat and we strengthen what we use.
So when we're spending several hours a day and if you look at
the stats on on high school kids, 6 to 9 hours a day on
(16:17):
their devices is not unheard of.So when we're spending that
amount of time on our devices, tapping that reward button,
we're strengthening our reward driven attention mechanisms that
are just seconds long and that our brain is constantly seeking
that fast reward versus what I need at work.
It is sustained attention. I am not getting rewards
throughout my day at work, you know, not by the hour, let alone
(16:40):
the 2nd. And sitting in math class, not
super rewarding and exciting. And so we really need to be
mindful of finding that balance.If we want our kids to have the
ability to direct and sustain their attention when when we
need them to, they've got to also be practicing that and so
less time. It doesn't mean no social media
or no gaming, but we need to find balance in that in order to
(17:03):
achieve the outcome and goal that you want.
Yeah, most definitely. No, that's, that's so true.
So is it, is it really that all these kids, especially a lot of
little boys that they truly havethis diagnosis of ADHD?
Or is it just they don't have a,a properly trained attention
system to be sustained for long periods of time?
(17:25):
And then they get labeled and they get given a medication and
then that has its impact and side effects and consequences.
Is that more of what's happening?
Or is it that there's something really wrong with our not wrong
with our kids, but that they actually are truly needing this
diagnosis? You know, there's a lot to
(17:46):
unpack in that statement as well.
And so I want to come back to the comment, you know, around
little boys. We've got to talk about
attention development in both girls and boys.
And that's a really important conversation.
So I'm going to set that aside. But don't don't let me forget to
come back to that. You know, I am the big one of
avoiding labels. To me, there is a time and a
place in order to get services in school or you know, there's
(18:08):
there's a time in the label is needed in order to get the
services and support you need. And labels can also give us a
frame of reference. As soon as you say ADHD, as a
parent, as a professional, as a,as a person, it gives us some
knowledge and, and context, whether it's right or wrong
there, there's a frame of reference there.
But that being said, there's, I want to see the child in front
(18:30):
of me first before I see the label, right?
Like if we're talking about Jay,I want to get to know you as a
person. And, and I feel like sometimes
our labels can supersede the individual.
But that being said, what ADHD is, neurologically speaking, is
immaturity in some of the networks and pathways in the
brain. And we can see about a 30%
reduction or 30% gap in certain networks and pathways in the
(18:55):
brain. And it's not just about
attention and behavior. And I think that's a disservice
that we have when we talk about ADHD as we really focus on those
two elements. And you see it, you know, if you
look at what are the, you know, CDC's recommendations for
approaching ADHD is they say thefirst line of defense for young
kids is not medication, but it is behavior support strategies,
(19:15):
parenting support strategies, classroom support strategies,
all focus around behavior. And then second line of defense
being medication. We are really focused on
attention and behavior. However, the networks and
pathways in the brain that are immature in ADHD impact sensory
processing or executive functions, which is our ability
to plan, organize, execute. It's our ability to be flexible
(19:37):
and fluid in our thinking. It's our emotional regulation.
How do I handle myself when I'm frustrated and upset?
So it's separate from intelligence, separate from a
lot of other things. But when we have immature
networks and pathways in the brain, it makes a lot of things
more challenging than what it should be for a child that age.
(19:57):
So I always, again, if we go back to a visual example of
this, if I have a 10 year old sitting in a fifth grade
classroom and that 10 year old has ADHD, whether or not it's
been diagnosed, that means in some aspects of development that
10 year old is going to be more aligned with year old.
So think about it. If I put a second grader in
fifth grade classroom and said, all right, let's do this, what
(20:20):
is that going to look like? Right.
Can that second grader learn? Absolutely.
Can they interact with with their classmates and have fun?
Absolutely. Are they going to have a smaller
window of attention and require more redirection to stay on
task? Are they going to interact and
engage with their peers at the same level?
Or are they going to need more cues and prompts and reminders?
(20:40):
They're going to be more likely to cry when they get frustrated
and upset. And but as a parent and a
teacher, I don't see that. I don't see your development.
I see the 10 year old in my classroom that is disruptive and
frustrating. And I know that you're smart and
I know that you're funny, but boy, you take a lot of extra
energy and work in the classroom.
So attention challenges are realand they make life harder.
(21:04):
And it's not about not being accepting and loving of the
child that you have in front of you and their their strengths
and their challenges. But I always want to say, how
can I set my kid up for success?And so if we've got an
opportunity to mature those networks and pathways so that
they do have more age appropriate development with
that 5th grade classroom is going to be a more effective and
(21:26):
more rewarding and more confidence building experience
for that individual. So yes, I believe ADHD is
absolutely real. I don't think you need a label
to have the challenger struggle be real.
Labeling it is not an automatic solution to the problem.
And but it can give us a frame of context.
But you know, then it's understanding what kind you,
(21:47):
what's the path forward that's the right the right fit for the
family. No, I, I agree, right?
I think it's, it can be individualized.
I really just, I think the biggest issue here is just our,
the systems that we, we have in place, right?
The systems that you and I have to work around to help these
kids and help these families, right?
(22:09):
Because there's, there's so manysystems in place.
There's a lot of, I'm not sure if this is the right word, but I
feel like it is bureaucracy in these systems at play in
schools. You know, it, there's things
that are just, they're, they're very, it's very politicized in
our schools. And you know, our, our schools
aren't there to, to really help and teach our kids out the way
they need it, right? And all of our kids learn a
(22:31):
little bit differently, but it'sreally hard.
And then we'll, we'll go back tothe little boys and the
differences in how they learn and attention things like that
here in a moment. But just, you know, it's hard
for our kids now if we see theseissues on the rise, but we're
stuck in the same system that we've had for public schools
forever, right? The system hasn't changed.
Our kids have very much changed.The world around schools has
(22:54):
very much changed. I mean, heck, our little
kindergarteners walk the halls with Chromebooks, right?
That are half that are the size of their torso.
They're so little. But these they're walking the
halls like in these Chromebooks.And it's like, OK, how have we
not adapted to this, right? Like we're human, Like we've
adapted to the technology. We've adapted to all these
(23:17):
things, but we haven't adapted to the the development, the
system, the the schedule, the way things are learning and
things like that. Like what?
We wonder why so many states like mine included like I live
here in Washington state, 70% ofour 8th graders are failing math
and 69% are failing reading. Right.
We, we need to do something different.
And it's like, Can you imagine being a teacher today?
(23:40):
A teacher is such a hard job. And, and most of the teachers I
know have are, are teachers because they are deeply
passionate about kids and helping kids thrive and setting
them up for success and connecting with them and giving
them a path forward and inspiring them for the future.
And, you know, helping them be the best versions of themselves,
But you've got a teacher in a classroom.
When you look at the overwhelm of the number of chopped
(24:02):
behaviors and with the escalation of neurodevelopmental
and mental health and behavioralchallenges, teachers aren't
getting more classroom support and resources and help, but
they've got more challenges sitting in front of them.
And then they're navigating and,you know, so we've got a
classroom full of 10 year old 5th graders whose development
actually might be ranging from from 5:00 to 12:00, all of the
(24:24):
same classroom, who all are about the same size.
And you know, the job our teachers have in front of them
is enormous. And we really need to do better
with our supports and resources to set our teachers and students
up for success. And the statistics are telling
us we're not, we're not hitting the mark.
So how do we pivot and change? Yeah, and it, it, it takes a
(24:45):
major, major reform, you know, top to bottom.
That's really the only way to kind of right, right.
Break the shit is you have to tear it all down.
You have to tear it completely down.
And you have to just start over.You have to just start
completely over and make it moreadaptive, not start over.
They're you think to keep a lot of the things in place, right?
(25:05):
You can keep a lot of the current pressures in place, but
you have to think like, OK, the longest, most kids can really
study or learn something really people in general, 20 minutes.
So we need 20 minute blocks of stuff and then we need some kind
of sensory, you know, especiallyfor elementary aged kids.
And then middle school students,you know, they need that too.
But as soon as they get to middle school, then it's, you
(25:28):
know, 3540 minute class, 5 minute break, 3540 minute class,
5 minute break in this classic, classic, classic, classic,
classic class, right? And then the work demand is
dramatically increases from, well, at least middle school
here starts getting such great. So from 5th to 6th grade, it's a
dramatic increase, right? And then from 8th grade to 9th
grade, it's another dramatic increase in work demand, right?
(25:49):
And expectation. And, you know, but the our kids
don't get help along the way. They just, you know, continue to
just OK, well, you did enough togo on to the next grade, so
we'll let you go kind of thing. It's like we don't hold our kid
back, which could sometimes be good for them.
Like it's just push, push, push.Keep going on.
Well, you know, good enough, go ahead and move on to the next
(26:11):
kind of thing. And teachers like you're mixing
here, it's such a hard job, but they're also very powerless.
And a lot of it like I don't hear in Washington, I speak for
Washington state a lot. I know this.
I don't know, I'm outside of Washington, but we have crazy
high teacher turnover and teachers that we do have in
place, you know, there are hope are hopes for they can measure
(26:32):
hope somehow by just answering questions.
Do you feel like hopeful kind ofthing?
6070% still no hope Our teacher turnover in so high.
Like it's more than half that are considering leaving teaching
at this point. Do something else.
You see what happened during COVID?
How many? Yeah.
There were so many teachers on TikTok that, you know, started a
(26:55):
social media career versus keeping on what they were doing.
So. Yeah.
Well, you know, to me that let'sbring it back to the research,
right? We just talked about, you know,
17 years to implement the research.
We're seeing the same thing in education, right?
We, we know what the brain needs.
This is this is not a mystery. There's still a lot more to
learn. But you're exactly right in
(27:15):
terms of we are not setting our education curriculum
expectations and standards on based on actual development.
When we look at what is the attentional window of a student,
and you talked about that 20 minute window, but then there's
things that we can do to re engage attention, re engage
memory. And so and it can take just one
to three minutes of physical activity that doesn't require
(27:35):
gear and equipment. If we, if we structured our day
in shorter increments that then had a sensory movement break for
one to three minutes of get up and do squat jumps, engage your
muscles, spike your heart rate. And guess what?
I just earned you a few more minutes productive attention and
memory and you know, it's and and guess what?
(27:55):
The first time you do it in a classroom, the kids go nuts.
It's chaos. It's not like controlled human,
you know, they get up, they jumparound and then it's like, but,
but how quickly kids can learn and adapt and that just becomes
a part of their routine and structure.
And think of the message that gives them for light, right?
I know when I'm working and I start to notice my attention
wandering. I know that's my brain telling
(28:16):
me I've run out of resources. So I need to do something to
replenish my resources. I need to move, I need sensory
input or I need fuel. I know those things because I,
I've, I've been read, I've, I'vebeen taught that those are the
signs and symptoms that tell me,you know, my sustained attention
has run out. I'm now an environmental
attention where my mind is wandering.
(28:37):
So an environmental attention with the wandering mind.
I'm not forming memories, I'm not learning.
And so if we are able to teach our kids that self-awareness
just through repetition and modeling and, and conversation,
and then here's what we do to change that.
So I can redirect and sustain myattention.
Those are strategies for life that's really focused on brain
(29:00):
health. And that, you know, to me, my,
my dream education curriculum would be a curriculum founded
in, in brain health, looking at everything through the lens of
does the brain need to be healthy, happy and productive?
And there's things that we can implement again, without
expensive technology, without expensive gear, you know,
something as simple as our eye movements.
(29:21):
Our visual system is so highly complex and we take our eye
movements for granted. We never think about how
effectively efficiently our eyesmove.
But if we don't have mature control of our eye movements,
that's going to complicate reading where your eyes are now
jumping and skipping. They're moving too many times
and when they skip now I'm missing words and content, which
(29:43):
is going to hurt my comprehension.
So if I'm reading directions andI miss a step in the direction,
I fatigued my brain because my eyes were working harder.
And then I frustrated myself because I'm missing information
and the teacher's going to yell at me for asking again.
And our visual system isn't fast, accurate and efficient.
It drains my attention resources.
(30:05):
So just simply doing eye exercises before each English
class, you know, and doing physical like push ups and squat
jumps before each math class. There's there's little things
like that that we can implement in one to three minutes that
support mental health, that support cognitive health, that
support overall well-being, thatalso creates a brain that's in
(30:26):
state more ready and able to learn.
I think a lot of parents can take this, take this on too,
right? To where this this very simple
concept of creating a brain healthy environment, right?
You could do that same thing. You can take this right now, you
can do it at home where if you're struggling with homework,
let's say you have a middle schooler, you have hour and a
half of homework every night, which you probably do.
Break that up 15 minutes go 15 or two minutes, stop, do
(30:50):
something, walk around, do a lap, run the stairs, whatever it
is, whatever you have available to you, you know, back at it 15
minutes, set a timer, boom, another break kind of thing.
Just go on and on and on and off.
I guarantee that hour and a halfof homework will probably get
done and maybe an hour, hour 15,but it won't actually be the
full hour and a half because of the brain how that sustained
(31:10):
energy like you're staying here.We have.
To That's exactly why I wrote the book.
Back on track is, you know, because I'm so immersed in this
and I say the same things over and over.
I forget that not everybody knows this information.
During the pandemic, the escalation and parent concerns
and questions just went through the route and I just, I felt
like a broken record and I was like, how do we make sure that
(31:32):
more people know this information and, and get to
utilize it? And so, you know, if you're not
brain bounces, an incredible program that that drives really,
truly incredible change. It's also things that you can do
at home as a starting point withno gear, no technology.
It's just starting by being empowered with the knowledge and
the strategies. And the knowledge and strategies
(31:52):
look different depending on yourchild's age and development.
So the book is just all about, you know, when we talk about
that window of attention for homework, we've got to think
about my actual child, not the assignment.
So maybe the assignment is goingto take 40 minutes, but my
child's attentional window is 15and that that window of its
tension isn't the same day-to-day.
(32:12):
If I'm exhausted, it's it's going to be a shorter window of
attention today. If I'm stressed, if I'm hungry,
we're not looking at a 15 window.
We're looking at a 10 minute window.
And so teaching parents what to watch for, to know a, how do we
do better at getting started on something that task initiation
and then what to watch for when my child's focused and now
(32:33):
they're starting to get antsy, How can I re engage that window
of attention? And then how do I, and then each
time we reengage it, it's going to be for a shorter and shorter
and shorter amount of time. We don't get to just repeat 20
minutes over and over and over productively.
But and then as a parent, sometimes we need to make the
choice. Do I push through the attention
window because we got to get to bed or and if that's the case,
that's OK, but then you need to know now you need to be the
(32:55):
support. You've got to step in.
It's not going to be realistic for your child to be productive
and effective once we've gone outside their window of
attention. And so it's not fair to get
frustrated and angry when we're asking them to do something
they're not put to do. And so how do we support that?
But it it's knowledge and power and practical strategies and to
be able to use. Huge.
(33:16):
That's a big education reform that needs to happen is we seem
to be teaching our kids practical stuff.
Just teach them practical stuff.They don't need to know the
square root of X on a triangle. They're never gonna use that,
right? They're never gonna use that.
But they do need to know how to master calculator, right?
They do know how to master it todo all the things so that it's
efficient, so that they can do any math problem anytime, right?
If they know how to do all the you know, on a typical
(33:38):
scientific calculator, the TI30Xlittle A, there's only about 17
functions that you actually needto know.
Only 17. And I probably don't even use
17. No, but the ones that they teach
in school are none of those 17 that you actually need to know,
right? Like our kids need to need to
know, OK, if I, if something cost this much, taxes this much,
how much do I actually have to spend?
(33:59):
Like that kind of stuff. They don't know that stuff off
the top of the head. How to do those things on their
phone calculator kind of thing. The struggle, it's practical.
It's practical. And you mentioned again, and I
had this thought, you know, justa moment ago as you mentioned
that there was a huge fight during the pandemic, right, of
parents, you know, kind of speaking up and wanting to know
more, right? Well, you got to think for some
(34:21):
of those parents, probably a good majority of them, I would
think that's probably the most involved.
They've been in their child's education probably since
kindergarten if they're, if theyhad 5th graders, right?
That's probably the first time in 5-6 years that they were
actually involved in their education and the first time
they're actually seeing, my gosh, I think a lot of parents
had the opportunity to wake up and, you know, I, I am into
(34:46):
conspiracy theories and whatnot.I think there was part of the
pandemic that was meant for control of the people.
And you know, I think that's where they, they kind of messed
up because they, a lot of parents were they're now
involved. It's like, OK, parents now have
time to read the curriculum and understand the curriculum and
no, whoa, hold on. Or my child has just what has
been happening kind of thing. Now you get start to ask all
(35:07):
these questions and talk to people like yourself and
research and be like, whoa, this, this, there's something
not right here. And those red flags come up for
hate. And so people really got to be
involved with their kids and their education again, which I
think was the first snowball rolling down the hill to help us
start for some kind of reform. Yeah, it was.
(35:31):
I will describe it as an awakening where the questions
parents were asking shifted, which was really interesting.
And again, I get to sit back andobserve this at a high level,
right? This is not just one school, one
family. This is international.
We work with a lot of families international as well.
We've got an at home program that's still live coached.
And so this wasn't just happening in the US.
(35:52):
This was this was happening around the world.
And all of a sudden parents weresaying, you know, my child
cannot focus. I'm sitting there with them all
day long and I'm watching their movement, their engagement
there. And and so suddenly they were
seeing things first hand in a different way.
And, and it became pre pandemic,a lot of the let me back up.
(36:14):
Often times people reach out forhelp when a pain point has hit a
certain threshold, right. So if I'm a single mom, it's
like I can't get one more phone call from school to come get
you, I'm going to lose my job. Or if you know, it's like, how
many times do I have to go in and meet with the teacher for
another parent conference? Because you, you know, and as
parents, I always tell people it's a red flag.
(36:35):
If you find yourself saying all the time, why can't you just,
you already did your homework. Why can't you just turn it in?
What? What's so hard about that?
You already did the hard part. So if there's a why can't you
just like your child's not meeting an expectation?
If there's a reason they're not,they're not meeting that
expectation. But we're like, you're 10, come
on. But you know our brain can do
it. So why?
Why can't yours? So the parents pain point during
(36:57):
the pandemic shifted. It shifted from the discomfort
and the inconvenience and frustration of teachers calling
and having the parent teacher conferences and needing to to
leave work for behavior issues. And then it became their pain
point became I can't teach and do education all day at the same
time as working. And I can see that my child
(37:19):
can't do it independently. And so the pain point became a
different level of awareness of what does it look like when when
they're doing an assignment. There was also another
concurrent shift that happened at the same time out of
necessity was there was our whole education system had to
shift to remote in a matter of two weeks and we did not have a
system set up for that. Like minute felt like it did a
(37:41):
matter of minutes. And the fact that they pulled it
off in some way, shape or form is, is really incredible in a
lot of ways. But what I watched, so my kids
and in in 2020 were, what were they?
4th grade and 6th grade, 5th grade and 7th grade, somewhere
in there. And they're now 10 or 15 and 17.
So they were 10 and 12 at the time.
(38:01):
So I can't do that. That was wrong.
Yeah. You're good.
You're right. I think you're right.
I think you're right. I can't do math and talk at the
same time. But what happened for them was
all of a sudden there was a hugeincrease in the level of
executive function demand placedon them overnight.
Because think about this, you and I growing up when I had a
(38:22):
math homework assignment, it wasa physical assignment on paper
and then my teacher in a basket on the desk and walk up to the
desk. You would physically turn it in.
It doesn't happen that way anymore.
We don't have those physical cues and reminders.
So you do the assignment on the Chromebook.
When you finish it, you hit submit or sometimes you have to
take a picture of the assignmentand then upload it.
(38:44):
And the issues and challenges I watched my kids struggle with is
they thought it uploaded and submitted and it didn't or they
didn't have that visual reminder.
Or, you know, every time you'd walk into math class, you would,
you'd walk in, you drop your paper in the basket, you'd go
sit down and then they'd hand the paper back out to check it.
That has all shifted and changed.
(39:05):
So there's, there's differences in the visual cues.
And then we're asking our kids, kindergarteners with
Chromebooks, there's a level of executive function demand of
knowing how to navigate those things, knowing how it's just,
it's a different system. And then as parents, because
that's not the system we grew upwith, you have a harder time
supporting that because we're less familiar.
(39:26):
And then you've got the challenge of everybody, all the
teachers inputting their grades at different times.
And so you log into one of your 32 parent portals and you're
like, well, I don't know what's caught up and what's not, but
I'm seeing missing assignment. So now I'm not at you and
frustrated and we're not having a positive, productive
conversation. There's just there's a lot of
complexity to navigate and is a different level of demand that I
(39:51):
think is sometimes more than what our kids are
developmentally prepared to navigate.
And I think the biggest thing you hit on there, then they'll
transition us here to start wrapping up is the biggest thing
you hit on here is obviously allof all of that, the executive
function demand, that's a huge one, right?
But also you mentioned two key things.
If you find yourself saying, whycan't you just?
(40:13):
But then also that I caught thatyou said is that.
Parents, we, we know that we're adults, we can do these things.
Then we have these expectations on our kids to also do the same
thing. But we forget all the kind of
you, they're just the kid. Our, you know, brains are fully
developed for at least for boys until 25 years old.
And so if they're 15, they stillgot 10 years of development.
Yet if they're ten, they still got 15 years of development.
(40:36):
And more than that, we, we talk about our attention capacities
really start to peak mid 20s, our executive function
capacities peak in our 40s. And so the brain continues to,
you know, development doesn't stop when your body stops
growing. Development is the brain forming
new connections and refining existing connections to get
better, to have better control, better endurance.
And so just because you can do it does not mean your child is
(40:58):
equipped to do it. And so then how do we support
them or how do we mature those functions so that they are more
able to do these things at an age appropriate level?
Let's jump into the dad zone here and then wrap up.
So the dad zone here is kind of to bring us down from the
conversation a little bit because we can get really into
it roof fired up. So we kind of mellow out at the
end here. First question on the end of the
(41:20):
In the Dad zone here. So since you stepped into it
with me, does pineapple go on pizza?
Absolutely. You know, balance the like,
sweet and savory. Love it.
Okay, interesting take there, but I'll I'll accept it.
To each their own. This is a straight now, I'm not
going to lie, a. Little bit, a little bit, but
that's okay. It's okay, we'll work through
it, but I'm not a pineapple on pizza fan at all.
(41:42):
Who are three people, dead or alive, that you would invite to
a dinner party with you? Number one, my grandma, you
know, just just to get that, that perspective years from now
and #2 Holocaust, Holocaust survivor, I just saw in the news
the other day that the last Holocaust survivor just passed
away. You know, boy, there's just so
(42:04):
much to unpack there and the stories they have to tell.
I think, you know, we could watch you.
Have ancestry going back to the Holocaust.
No. OK.
Just being a human. Yeah.
No, 100%. I hear you.
Yeah, yeah. And then then I would want
somebody really, really funny, like, to have dinner with Will
Ferrell. Like just not that he's
(42:25):
necessarily my favorite comedian, but like, just to sit
back and watch how the night would unfold and the
conversation would happen. I think our Steve Martin.
I mean, I, I think that could bejust so highly entertaining.
Yeah, no, I've never thought about having a comedian there
because it would keep everythingfun, lighthearted and just be
entertainment for the night. Do you have a guilty pleasure
(42:49):
food or? Well, yes to both.
All of the above and I really enjoy a glass of red wine.
I really enjoy 2 glasses of red wine.
And the more you learn about brain health, alcohol is just no
good that comes from it. And so I do have I live so much
of my life focused on brain health and that's one thing that
(43:10):
is counter to optimizing brain health.
And then song I really love justlike a cheesy happy song and
like the cheesier the better wave.
I can't think of the but the song wave on wave.
I'm blanking on the artist, but doing a half marathon in San
Francisco, that's my hill running song and it's like the
cheesiest song ever. But that's my motivation.
(43:32):
Like get up that hill. OK, humble brag.
You do marathons and half marathons and stuff.
It's fun and. It just goes I sign up and did
it doesn't mean it goes well but.
OK, Fair, fair, fair, fair, fair.
Very last question here. What is one piece of advice that
you would offer to a young mom who's like 18 to 22 years old
and just starting out on her parenting journey, Or you can
offer to a young dad at the sameage?
(43:52):
Self-care and learn about what your brain needs to be healthy.
Sleep, stress management becauseyou cannot be the parent you
want to be if you are stressed and exhausted.
And so know what you need to do to take care of your brain
health because brain health is your mental health.
It's your cognitive health, it'syour abilities and productivity.
(44:12):
So focus on your brain health and then that will also triple
down to raising a brain healthy child as well.
Well, Rebecca, Doctor Jackson, people can work in people
connect with you, learn more about your work, keep track,
keep tabs on you. To learn more about brain
balance, brainbalance.com. Again, we work with kids, teens
and adults. You can find me on Instagram at
(44:33):
Doctor Rebecca Jackson. Same thing with LinkedIn, my
book Back on Track. It is written, it talks about
development from birth to 18. But if you have a brain, that
information applies to you, evenif you're not in those ages.
And again, it's the practical tips and tricks that you can
implement for free at book. You could really jump around by
development category by age, andyou can get it Amazon Barnes.
(44:56):
And those are my parting words of of how to learn more.
Amazing. Well, make sure you guys grab
Doctor Jackson's book Back on Track like she said, for
practical strategies that you can start using today to help
your child thrive. And again, to our listeners, I
hope you enjoyed your snack. Thanks again for tuning in.
If you enjoyed this conversation, make sure to rate,
review, and share the episodes with a fellow parent who needs
to hear it. Until next time, stay present,
stay engaged, and keep striving to be the best parent you can.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.