{"id":1935,"date":"2013-02-13T16:16:28","date_gmt":"2013-02-13T16:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/?page_id=1935"},"modified":"2025-09-15T11:29:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T10:29:57","slug":"early-intervention","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/research-themes\/early-intervention\/","title":{"rendered":"Neuroparenting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parental determinism has strongly influenced the way \u2018the early years\u2019 have come to be thought about. An uncontentious view that babies and young children need care and attention from families has given way to a conviction that what happens \u2018the first three years\u2019 or \u20181001 Days\u2019\u00a0determines<\/em>\u00a0later development; a view usually justified on the grounds that \u2018science says\u2019 this is the case. In turn the argument that the most effective way to tackle social problems is through \u2018early intervention\u2019 in the lives of babies and young children, and crucially in the \u2018parenting\u2019 done by their parents, has become ubiquitous in policy making in the UK and elsewhere. Poverty, educational inequality, mental health and crime are all said to be best addressed by intervening early. As we have noted in our\u00a0discussion of pregnancy<\/a><\/u> \u00a0this imperative has expanded ever backwards and strongly influences messages to parents-to-be and programmes and policies directed to them.<\/p>\n

Our research is known for its questioning of this version of parental determinism and particularly for our exposure of the scientism (misuse of science) on which it rests. This was the focus for our project\u00a0Biologising Parenting: Neuroscience discourse and English social and public health policy <\/a>\u00a0which led to a range of publications and the book Neuroparenting: The Expert Invasion of Family Life<\/a>\u00a0by Jan Macvarish. We discussed this recourse to scientised claims-making at\u00a0Monitoring Parents: Science, evidence, experts and the new parenting culture<\/a><\/u> and more recently Gabriel Scheidecker has discussed his work on\u00a0\u2018Poor brain development\u2019 in the Global South: Challenging the science of early childhood interventions<\/a><\/u> as part of our Forums<\/a> programme. Our\u00a0other work in this area<\/a>\u00a0has taken up the term, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). We have questioned the way that ordinary parts of growing up have come to be pathologised, and written about how parents, and especially mothers, are often assumed inadequate and demeaned within ACEs discourse and programmes.<\/p>\n

Read on:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Constructions of Parents in Adverse Childhood Experiences Discourse\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing better brains? Pregnancy and neuroscience discourses in English social and welfare policies\u00a0<\/a><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Biologising parenting: neuroscience discourse, English social and public health policy and understandings of the child\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u2018First Three Years\u2019 Movement and the Infant Brain: A Review of Critiques<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Uses and Abuses of Biology: Neuroscience, Parenting and Family Policy in Britain (Key Findings)\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parental determinism has strongly influenced the way \u2018the early years\u2019 have come to be thought about. An uncontentious view that babies and young children need care and attention from families has given way to a conviction that what happens \u2018the first three years\u2019 or \u20181001 Days\u2019\u00a0determines\u00a0later development; a view usually justified on the grounds that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2496,"featured_media":0,"parent":1599,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2496"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1935"}],"version-history":[{"count":49,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4545,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1935\/revisions\/4545"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/parentingculturestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}