[Bright music] >>One million neural connections per second.

That's the speed at which brain science clocks a child's brain developing between birth and age three.

And science shows that early nurturing from parents and caregivers is vital to boosting those neural connections and budding brains and to equipping babies with the sensory pathways and brainy bedrock they'll need to succeed in life.

Yet, while every child needs early parental involvement, for kids with learning and attention issues, early intervention stands as perhaps the most consequential thing parents can do to ensure their child reaches their full potential.

Early intervention primarily describes services and support children from birth to age 3 with learning and attention issues received that address their individual communication, social, emotional, and learning needs, helps them to reach their peak, and can reduce the likelihood the child will experience more serious mental health problems down the line.

On this episode, we visit a Texas school for neurodivergent students that finds fun ways to tackle the serious task of early intervention.

Next, our panel of national experts discusses how early intervention can enhance children's outcomes.

Later, you'll meet our latest difference maker, a renowned British academic with much to say about equity in higher education who through childhood, negotiated silence in autism.

First, we traveled to the Joy School in Houston where we learned that sometimes the answers to early intervention with the three Rs means getting your hands dirty, literally.

Chief correspondent Cindy Peterson brings us the story.

>>It isn't unusual for parents to burst into the bathroom and find their little ones playing with dad's shaving cream for a bit of mischievous fun.

But at the Joy School in Houston, Texas, elementary students are lathering up the Barbasol for a greater purpose.

>>Reading is a rope and there are lots of different layers and things that the kids need to learn.

And so, focusing on those early foundational skills like the phonics, the phonemic awareness piece, and then getting them to blend and decode and encode to that spelling.

And then, but also we do talk a lot about the comprehension.

So, reading books, doing a think aloud.

So, if I read a story, retelling the story, talking about what I think the characters might be feeling, and then having the kids share their thinking, really lays again, a solid foundation for them as they get older.

>>This is just one of the tools in the toolbox that teachers at this private school for children with learning and attention differences help support and equip their students through early intervention.

>>One of the biggest things that we do is we teach explicitly.

And so, we're not just assuming that a child is going to learn to read by osmosis, we know that they need systematic, detailed instruction, explicit instruction in how to read and what the rules are for reading.

And that makes all the difference in the world.

>>Early intervention programs are designed to enhance the learning abilities and functional skills of these kids, boosting their self-esteem and improving communication, social interaction, self-regulation, problem solving, and other critical skills necessary for success.

>>One of the commonalities is that these are the kiddos who don't necessarily pick up on things intuitively.

So, what might come naturally to other kids has to be more directly taught with our kids.

So, the earlier we can teach them how to learn, how their brain works, how to know if they're paying attention, how to know if they are on task, how to know when they do need help, and how to specifically hone in on where they need help, the more beneficial that's going to be in the long run.

>>There's some statistics that say, if you don't provide intervention before the age of eight, they're likely to struggle with reading through high school like, it's a 75% chance.

So, when you can help remediate those, specifically in the phonological component of the brain when you can remediate and teach them in kindergarten, then their likelihood of not having significant struggles throughout is much higher.

>>Oftentimes, a low self-esteem or self-image clouds a child's mind when they struggle with basic learning.

That's why the Joy School aims to not only provide strategies for success, but promote an environment of positivity, celebrating each child's individual growth.

>>The longer kids struggle in school, whether that's academically or socially, the more their self-esteem is impacted and that's what takes longer to fix.

There are all kinds of scientifically backed methods for teaching reading or teaching math for kids who struggle in those areas, but reclaiming a child's self-worth and helping them realize that they are capable, despite whatever learning differences they may have, that takes a lot longer.

>>Adults like to say that kids are resilient but they're also very observant and they're often big feelers and school is like their occupation.

And so, when they feel like they're not good at it, the impact that it can have on how they feel as a person can be huge.

>>As a transitional program, the Joy School has seen great success in acclimating kids back into public or private schools after equipping them with the tools they need to succeed.

>>On average, our kids are here three to four years and so, we've shown repeatedly that this little detour where we can, you know, give kids some breathing room and take a detour off the standardized path of what they're supposed to be able to do just because they're in X grade level is really, really effective.

>>Max, who had no self-confidence, didn't wanna leave the house, didn't wanna go on play dates, didn't want to try new things, stuck to himself to now outgoing, willing to do new things, willing to try different things that are outside of his comfort zone, and then excited, more importantly.

Just the overall excitement about coming to school and sharing his experiences at school and showing what he's learning, showing that he can do the math that he can read.

Where before everything was a struggle.

>>More than anything with both of my kids, the skills that they were taught here, they know how to advocate for themselves.

They appreciate who they are, they have a ton of self-confidence, and I think that that gift that they both learned at an early age is gonna serve them well, not only in school, but I think it's gonna serve them throughout their careers.

>>For A World of Difference, I'm Cindy Peterson.

>>Next, our expert panel takes a closer look at early intervention and offers a game plan for parents to follow.

Dr. Oksana Hagerty is an educational and developmental psychologist who serves as a learning specialist and the dean of the Center for Student Success at Beacon College in Leesburg, Florida, the nation's first accredited college or university dedicated to educating neurodiverse students with learning disabilities, ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning differences.

Hagerty specializes in academic support, cognitive abilities, learning disability interventions, and educational and developmental psychology.

Dr. Emily Knight, MD and PhD is an assistant professor of developmental behavioral pediatrics and neuroscience at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York.

Dr. Knight's clinical focus is providing patient-centered subspecialty care for children and adolescents with a wide range of neurodevelopmental disabilities.

She also conducts research that aims to understand neuro mechanisms of sensory perception in individuals on the autism spectrum.

Dr. Kimberly Mosca is head of school at Tribeca Preparatory School, a 12 month independent special education early childhood and elementary school in New York that prepares their students for a less restrictive environment by developing their academic and social skills.

Mosca is a licensed behavior analyst, a board certified behavior analyst doctoral, and a certified special education and general education teacher.

And we're gonna start our conversation with Dr. Hagerty.

What is early intervention and how can it benefit neurodivergent children?

>>In this strictest sense of this word, early interventions are support and services that are provided to children under the age of three and this can be speech therapy or physical therapy or any other supports that are needed to the children and families with neurodevelopmental disabilities.

However, and I work for college and it may be a very interesting combination that I'm here to talk about early interventions but I wanted to expand the knowledge of, the concept of early interventions to just say that early intervention would be any intervention that is done during the critical or sensitive period of time.

Because when we talk about, for example, college students, we do see that those students who didn't have reading interventions during their first or second grade in elementary school are lagging behind.

So, to me, if we're talking about the stricter sense of the word early interventions or interventions done before the age of three.

In the broadest sense of this word, these are any interventions that are done during sensitive or critical periods of time of the development and it can be reading interventions or social skills interventions, can be any interventions done between the birth of the child to the probably late adolescence, if we're talking about executive functions.

>>Thank you, Dr. Hagerty.

So, Dr. Knight, what is the most recent research showing about the efficacy of early intervention for neuro divergent students?

>>Yeah, so we know from research that early childhood is a period where the brain is growing and has really enormous capacity for change.

And so, what we have is a wonderful opportunity to support that brain development with early interventions.

And what our research is showing is that targeted early interventions are associated with improvements in some really key areas for neurodivergent children.

For example, we may see improvements in language, play, joint attention, and daily living function.

And as Dr. Hagerty referenced, even beyond the child themselves, early intervention plays an important role in helping support the whole family and parents.

And so, when families are connected to interventions and feel empowered to advocate for services, they report that they feel less stress and they feel better equipped to support their child's development.

>>Thank you.

So, Dr. Mosca, what are some of the learning and attention issues that these neurodivergent children are facing that would require early intervention?

>>That's a really great question.

A lot of the early signs are things that we might not really think of.

So, a lot of times there are, you know, in the past couple years, there's been things you might think of, lack of eye contact or maybe repetitive movements such as hand flapping.

But there's really three areas that are very common in developmental delays that signal us that a child likely needs some intervention.

So, the first area is in the area of communication.

So, that can really span from receptive language of not being able to respond to one's name to even further on in development in the lack of ability to read social cues and be able to change topics.

So, some of our families have a hard time thinking that there is a communication issue because they'll say, well, Billy can speak about dinosaurs for hours but that is an issue in pragmatic language development.

And some of these children actually are speaking before the age of three.

And that is an area that is very difficult for families to often identify because they might actually have a pretty robust vocabulary.

The children that have a little bit more obvious signs of not being able to respond to their name, follow directions, or say their wants and needs, those are signs that parents typically see a little bit earlier.

Another area is with frustration tolerance.

So, children tend to have a harder time soothing themselves.

And parents notice that the tantrums might last longer if the child doesn't get something just the way they want it.

And oftentimes it seems kind of like, a strange reason.

So, it might be, parents are asking themselves I just don't understand, why is my child upset?

With that being said, they might also have difficulties being soothed by themselves, so self soothing or by a caretaker.

So, a lot of times as parents were taught, you know, to rub the back or a coup or do things to make them or children calm.

But a lot of times these children aren't able to calm themselves with those typical kind of ways of calming a child.

And the last area, which is really is a sign that children do need help is the delayed acquisition of daily living skills.

So, that can include toileting, brushing, teeth, eating, dressing.

So, these skills are typically skills that children learn through imitation, imitating their caretakers.

At a certain age you hear that a child wants to do something on their own.

So, a lot of times our children might have delays in those areas and those skills have to be directly taught to them and then repeated.

So, those would be, I would say the three big areas that family should be looking at.

>>Thank you.

So, Dr. Hagerty, can you give us some examples then how early intervention can help to mitigate and remediate some of these issues that children who are neuro divergent might experience during this particular developmental time?

>>In these recent years and since we are college specializing on working with students with learning intentional issues, there has been research that supports the point of view that specific learning disabilities can develop in response to an extreme lack of environmental stimulation early on.

So, any kind of deprivation early on will eventually lead, will eventually lead to a specific learning disability or may lead to a specific learning disability, especially if other factors are in place.

For example, if I were to talk about the reading disability, specific reading disability, I would say that interventions study during the first or the second grade are most effective.

And what they do, they improve the efficiency and automaticity of reading skills that really create the reading experience for the students that prepare them later on in their life during their teenage or adolescent years for reading comprehension.

Because what we are very often seeing students who were not taught to read properly during the elementary school years, then develop reading comprehension difficulties, not necessarily because they lack fluency, but because they lack vocabulary or background knowledge.

And if there are no early, and again, I use the word early very broadly because when we talk about reading comprehension in teenager or adolescent years, we're talking about strategies which is executive function.

So, if there are no executive function interventions for students who are reading during ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th grade, they do not develop the strategist that they need.

So, in this sense of the word, we need to really know the sensitive periods for the development of each ability, in this sense, in this case, academic ability and provide interventions that will create brain structures to support the acquisition of the skill and the practice of the skill.

And this will create a loner who is capable of performing tasks at an expert level.

>>All right.

So, Dr. Knight, can you give us a look at what early intervention looks like as far as helping kids develop social skills and be able to develop relationships?

How does that look, the kinds of processes involved with that?

>>Yeah, so, social interactions and forming relationships are actually some of the most complex and nuance things that we do as humans, even if we aren't really thinking about it.

And so, because of that, early in life, it is important to establish a strong social skill foundation that we can continue to build on.

And what early intervention will do is meet the child where they're at and help build from there.

These foundational social skills.

>>Watch the full Ask the Expert segment on our website at AWODTV.org if you wanna learn more about this topic.

You can also watch or listen on Facebook, YouTube, or on your favorite podcasting platform.

[Gentle music] Next, let's reveal our latest difference maker.

As the well worn proverb says, "Silence is golden."

That is, unless you're a loving mother, desperate to hear your child speak your name or whisper that precious trio of words, "I love you."

Unable to speak or write, Jason Arday for years bore silent witness to the world as he navigated his autism journey, always observing, thinking, and learning.

When he eventually found his words as a tweenager, Arday was finally free to share with the world the intellect that had been percolating in silence.

In the spring of 2023, Dr. Jason Arday became the youngest black professor ever appointed to the University of Cambridge in England.

Now, the once silent youngster speaks volumes about democratizing higher education with his work as a sociologist that seeks to illuminate the gaps of underrepresented groups pursuing and delivering it.

Chief correspondent Cindy Peterson and London based videographer, Elijah Grant brings us his story.

[Gentle music] >>In a world where barriers often obstruct the path to success, there are individuals who rise above adversity, defying expectations, and redefining what is possible.

Meet Professor Jason Arday, a remarkable sociologist whose journey to success has been nothing short of extraordinary.

Diagnosed at an early age with autism, he faced significant challenges including the inability to speak until he was 11 and the struggle to read and write until he was 18.

>>So, after hundreds and thousands of hours of speech therapy, I was very fortunate and I guess I look at it as fortunate 'cause people persevere with you, including my mom who accompanied me to all of those sessions and other people.

At the age of 11, I then said my first word, which was, hello.

So, that was quite a surreal moment because as my mom always recalls, I used it in the right context.

What people don't always realize is that subsequently from the age of 11 to 16, there was still a lot of learning to do in terms of kind of phonic exercises, soundings, making sense of when to use the right kind of words, tenses and phrases in just spoken dialogue.

It was really when I got to like 16 that I felt more comfortable with kind of the English vernacular in terms of how to use the right types of language and how to engage with people.

The period of kind of living non-verbally to be quite honest, was a privilege.

I got to observe and absorb the world in a really unique way that most people don't get to.

So, I got to observe human interaction.

And what I became obsessed with was how human beings interacted with one another.

Little did I know in the kind of paralysis of speech that I would be observing ways in which I could engage with human beings when I was older.

>>Jason then decided to further his education and studied to become a teacher of physical education at the University of Surrey.

>>I didn't, no clue what I was doing to be quite frank.

I didn't know what I was doing.

Like, you do what you think is your best.

You know, I didn't understand the language people use when they were lecturing.

I didn't understand texts.

And you gotta remember that when I went to university, I was 20, but I had the reading age of a 12 year old.

And I guess a lot of what I did was repetition and practice, repetition and practice.

So what I used to do was write 500 words a day every single day for basically 15 years.

And I practiced and I practiced.

So, at university, this was even more exaggerated.

I practiced and I practiced and I practiced and I practiced.

And the thing that kind of was the, you know, that propelled that way of thinking was really my mum's kind of endeavors around kind of saying to me, look, Jason, I think you could do something great but you're going to have to do it in a different way.

You're going to have to do it in an unconventional way.

>>While studying at the university, Jason became fixated on higher education.

He attributes much of his success to the encouragement he received from his mentor and close friend Sandro Sandri.

>>I had a lecturer who just got a PhD and I'd asked them, what's a PhD?

And they said that it means I'm a doctor now and you just need to concentrate on studying 'cause you won't have one of these.

And I didn't take any I offense, that I thought, yeah, they were right.

I mean, why would I think that?

And so, that evening, for some reason, I met Sandro and I explained Sandro what this was, and I said to him, can you imagine if we did one, whatever that means?

And Sandro kind of started laughing.

I said, what are you laughing about?

You know, and he said, he said, Jason, you know, he paused after this kind of laugh and was straight face and said to me, how crazy would it be if you managed to get a PhD?

So, at the time I was 22.

He said if you got a PhD in eight years time, you would've been reading and writing for less than 12 years.

Can you imagine if we did that?

>>Jason went on to acquire two master degrees and a PhD in educational studies.

Last March, Jason became the youngest Black professional ever appointed to a professorship at the prestigious University of Cambridge.

>>We are incredibly proud that Dr. Arday has joined us here in the faculty of education.

Clearly we are very proud because he's the youngest ever professor to be appointed in Oxford or Cambridge, Black professor.

And also, because of the contribution that he makes here to the faculty, the quality of his ideas, the quality of his research.

>>Jason's goal is to utilize this platform to affect real change.

He aims to open doors for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, democratize higher education, and lead the way toward a more inclusive academic landscape.

>>I think there's such a breadth of research in the faculty of education and I feel really fortunate to be a small part of that.

But I feel even more fortunate because I think there's an opportunity to learn some really good practice, you know, world leading research and some other methods and methodological ways of kind of constructing knowledge that I'm really, really excited about.

And probably the thing that trumps that is just kind of seeing hopefully the number of Black students that will continue to come through these doors.

And if my appointment has inspired that in some small way, then that's great and I think the privilege will be to be able to work with them and to be able to harness their dreams and to show them everything that I know so they can go on and be as great as they were destined to be.

>>For A World of Difference, I'm Cindy Peterson.

>>Thanks Cindy and Elijah.

And congratulations Dr. Jason Arday for making a difference.

And that does it for this edition of A World of Difference embracing neurodiversity.

I'm Darryl Owens.

I'll see you back here next time.

You can watch episodes of A World of Difference on the Beacon College Facebook and YouTube channels and on the show's website, AWODTV.org.

The website also provides tip sheets and other resources for your parenting journey.

You can watch the show from the PBS app available on your favorite streaming device and you can listen on your favorite podcasting platform.

Thank you for watching and supporting A World of Difference.

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