Oct. 28 event brings world experts together

By Cecilia Nasmith

In a lifetime of serving the community, Madelaine Currelly calls the Oct. 28 session she organized on Early Brain Development: Powering Creativity and Economic Growth the most important thing she has ever done.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Community Training and Development Centre has built her career on helping members of the community realize their potential, but – in an age of AI and other momentous societal changes – has stepped it up to reach more people.

The free event at the Best Western Plus Cobourg Inn and Convention Centre (from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) is one of the events planned to celebrate the CTDC's 30th anniversary. In this case, it is done in partnership with YMCA Northumberland, Northumberland County and the City of Kingston's economic development division, as well as the Norland University of Early Childhood (the only university in the world dedicated to Early Childhood).

Currelly is recommending the event not only for parents, but grandparents, educators, those within the early-childhood profession, teachers, health-care professionals and social service workers – any and all who deal with children on a regular basis.

She was moved to organize the event after reading Dr. Dan Wuori's book The Day Care Myth and, having worked with children throughout her career, she found it spoke to her.

“I thought, 'this is it. I have to do something with this book, it's so powerful,'” she recalled.

Dr. Wuori's book sets out three truths of childhood, she said:

One, learning begins in utero and never stops.

Two, the period prenatal-to-age-three is a uniquely consequential window of human development, during which the fundamental architecture of the brain is wired.

Three, brain development depends on stable, nurturing relationships with highly engaged adults.

“It's critically important to understand the importance of this phase of life and set them up for success through not only parents but grandparents and extended family,” she stated.

“And our educators have to be the best-trained and most important people, because they really spend so much time with our children. We need to raise the profile of this profession so people understand how critical it is that they are seen and heard as being as important as they are.”

At the Oct. 28 event, six national and international thought leaders will share their knowledge and the latest science.

Dr. Wuori will be present as keynote speaker and moderator.

The other experts are professor Janet Rose (Vice Chancellor of Norland University), Dr. Anabela Bonada (Managing Director of Climate Science at the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo), Dr. Kimberly Squires (Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition at the University of Guelph), Dr. Kathryn Walton (also of the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition at Guelph) and Dr. Frank A. Russo (Department of Psychology and Media Design and Innovation at Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as Director of the Smart Lab and Co-Director of Sing Well).

At the Best Western, the Y will be providing child care for those in attendance.

There are also several hundred people registered for the live-stream across Canada and in other countries.

“And I expect there will be more, because I have told universities and colleges this is going to happen, and some of them are setting up times and spaces for people to join the livestream,” Currelly said.

Having kept up on the research into early childhood, she sees the potential for changing society in so many positive ways.

“We now know through research that the brain is really foundational in terms of its architecture, and that it's affected by the environment and also the people that are in that environment,” she said.

“Children grow up in a community. They have parents, they have grandparents, they have siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins. They have the people they see in their communities and, of course, the people who work with them – the early-childhood community and the teachers. Children are affected by many, many people, and all of these people affect the architecture of the brain.”

Currelly termed the first three years of a child's life “the peak of the optimal period in which the development of the brain happens. And so it's really important people not only understand this but are able to then interact with a child that benefits them in the best way possible.”

Children are innately creative, Currelly pointed out, and giving a child the opportunities to pursue this creativity can create positive results that can not only last a lifetime, but ripple outward to others as well.

The best day care possible is important in that it allows the parents to contribute to economic growth in their own ways while their child is in an environment where they can grow and thrive, she stated.

On the other hand, when the parent is under stress, so is the child. In that connection, she continued, “we will be looking at policies. Policy makers have to know this information as well, because it affects the policies they build. And if they build those policies on the research we now have, this means we will support the child in their development as best we can.

“Children are our future, but especially in today's world of AI, we have to build what I call the human advantage. We have an advantage as humans over AI. AI is built on the total knowledge that exists within the world today. Unfortunately, AI now has become so powerful that once we lost control – and it's very possible that we will lose control, according to researchers, including Professor Hinton, the Canadian researcher in AI.

“We have to make sure children grow up in an environment where their brains are provided the human edge. In other words, we still need to be the ones who are creating, who are thinking, who have those human traits of empathy, kindness, sympathy, problem solving, creativity. Those are all the human advantage. We want to make sure we retain those human advantages, and they are not usurped by AI.”

Which is why she added her final opinion.

“This is the most important thing I have ever done.”

To sign up, visit ctdclearningplace.com\events