By CLINT WOLF, Senior Reporter, Originally featured in the Beloit Daily News, Jun 21, 2023
BELOIT — When a child is born, doctors and nurses will instruct new parents in how to breast-feed the baby and how to bathe the baby properly. But, what about how to help the child’s brain grow?
On Wednesday, Quint Studer told a crowd of about 200 people gathered at the Eclipse Center about his experiences with a program in Pensacola, Florida that focused on early childhood brain development — a program that is serving as a model for a program that has started in Rock County.
Studer, who is the owner of the Beloit Sky Carp and Pensacola Blue Wahoos minor league baseball teams, as well as an author and business entrepreneur, has been a big supporter of early childhood development.
He and his wife, Rishy Studer, founded the Studer Community Foundation, which in 2016 partnered with the University of Chicago to make Pensacola an Early Learning City. The goal was to help parents learn how to talk and interact with their children before they reach the age of 3, to better prepare them for their school career, starting in kindergarten.
The Studer Community Foundation already has donated $500,000 to the Stateline Community Foundation to support the Basics early childhood brain development in Rock County. The foundation has hired Jessica Austin to be the director of early brain development.
The program developed in Pensacola and the local Basics program, starts with showing new mothers a video in the hospital or doctor’s office that explains some “Basics” about childhood brain development. Then, parents are given a survey and some tips on how to track the progress of a child’s development.
Then, parents are asked to sign up for a text message program in which parents will receive tips on ways to help children develop. For example, taking children to a playground that is full of bright colors will allow a child to use all of his or her senses. Also, talking to a child and praising the child for accomplishments will help the child process input and react to stimuli. All of these things are done in a caring way and strengthens the bond between parent and child.
“This is more than kindergarten readiness — This is about letting our children know we love them,” Studer said.
At birth, a baby’s brain is about one quarter the size of an adult brain. It will double in size in the first year and by age 3, the brain will reach 80% of full development. That is why the first few years of a child’s life are so important, Studer said. He said the key goal is to get everyone involved in having young children involved in the Basics program, and that means getting families involved.
“The whole goal is, anytime you see a parent, grandma or grandpa, aunt or uncle who knows a child under age 3, get them signed up for Basics,” Studer.
People can get enrolled in Basics at the following website: https://partners.mybliss.ai/basics-insights/SCF8933