Apparently, yes! Research led by the Yale School of Public Health demonstrates that individuals who hold negative beliefs about aging are more likely to have brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease, a devastating neurodegenerative disorder that causes dementia in more than 5 million Americans. Two Yale studies found a strong correlation between negative feelings about aging and the elderly and an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s later in life. The studies further suggest that altering negative beliefs about aging could potentially offer a way to reduce the rapidly rising rate of Alzheimer’s.

The first study, published in Psychology and Aging, used data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging to determine how 158 participants viewed the aging process. Participants were asked how strongly they agreed or disagreed with statements about aging. They answered survey questions while in their 40s, then 25 years later, and had annual MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) for up to 10 years. Based on MRIs, researchers found that participants who held more negative beliefs about aging showed a “significantly steeper decline” in the volume of the hippocampus than their more positive-thinking peers. The hippocampus is crucial to memory, and its reduced volume is a characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. Using brain autopsies, researchers examined two other indicators of the disease: amyloid plaques (protein clusters that build up between brain cells) and neurofibrillary tangles (twisted strands of protein that build up within brain cells). Participants holding more negative beliefs about aging had a significantly greater number of plaques and tangles. In some cases these views were expressed 28 years before the plaques and tangles were seen.

These studies, led by Becca Levy, associate professor of public health and psychology, are the first to link the brain changes related to Alzheimer’s disease to a cultural-based psychosocial risk factor. Levy sees the link as stress-related: “We believe that stress generated by the negative beliefs about aging that individuals might internalize from society can result in pathological brain changes.” Levy is optimistic, however: “Although the findings are concerning, it is encouraging to realize that these negative beliefs about aging can be mitigated, and positive beliefs about aging can be reinforced, so that the adverse impact is not inevitable.”

Beth Goren of the BodyMind Centering Association agrees: “The outcome of negative views of aging squares with earlier findings about the health risks associated with pessimism. We know that pessimism has been linked to a higher risk of dying before age 65, while positive emotions are associated with lowered production of the stress hormone cortisol, better immune function, and reduced risk of chronic diseases. We also know that optimism is at least partially learned, which suggests that Dr. Levy is right—it is possible to replace negative views with positive ones.”

Surviving the Teenage Brain: What Educators Should Know

For several years, John Snelgrove began his workweek with a lengthy fax from the local police, listing the home addresses where officers had answered domestic violence calls over the weekend.

Snelgrove, head of guidance services for Brockton (Mass.) Public Schools, would check those addresses against the district’s student database. When a match came up, he’d alert the counselor at that child’s school, who, in turn, would take a red envelope and deliver it to the child’s teacher. Inside was a slip of paper with a student’s name and a quick prescription for “TLC.”

A Sunday night, disrupted by violence, panic, and 911 calls, surely will make it difficult for a child to settle down to learn on Monday morning. But, even more than that, researchers have found that exposure to unrelenting stress and repeated traumas can change a child’s brain, making it easier to “fight or flee” from perceived dangers and harder to focus and learn. Understanding this neuroscience makes it possible for educators to create trauma-sensitive classroom.

“It’s more than one or two children in your class of 28, it could be closer to 30 percent or more,” Snelgrove tells his colleagues. But even children who haven’t experienced trauma will benefit from the strategies that Brockton teachers and education support professionals have learned through years of training with the Massachusetts-based Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative, and their partnerships with local police, mental health, and child welfare agencies.

“Be consistent, be kind, focus on connecting with kids,” he urges.

The Traumatized Brain

Back in the 1990s, Dr. Vincent Felitti, working with very obese adults, discovered that a shocking majority of his patients had suffered significant traumas during childhood. Eventually, his work led to a mega-study, involving tens of thousands of patients, which showed the long-lasting effects of “adverse childhood experiences,” or ACEs, such as child neglect or abuse, or a parent with addiction or imprisoned. Those children often grow up to be adults who are more likely to be sick, to be violent, to miss work, and to marry often.

Since then, it’s become clear that the damaging effects of trauma are not saved until adulthood. It starts early and it affects students and teachers: in fact, kindergartners who have had tough experiences score below-average in reading and math, even when other factors like household income and parental education are considered, a study published this year found. Those traumatized 5-year-olds also are three times more likely to have problems with paying attention, and two times more likely to show aggression.

What neuropsychologists have found is that traumatic experiences actually can alter children’s brains. In times of great stress, or trauma, the brain activates its deeply instinctive, “fight, flight, or freeze” responses, while dialing down the areas of the brain where learning, especially around language, takes place. When this happens over and again, especially in children under age 5, the brain is fundamentally changed. Basically, it adapts for survival under the worst conditions.

“It’s an appropriate adaptation to their circumstances,” says Amanda Moreno, professor of early-child development at the Erikson Institute in Chicago. “But it comes at enormous cost to schooling, especially with the way we do schooling in this country, which is very standardized.”

Traumatized 5-year-olds are three times more likely to have problems with paying attention, and two times more likely to show aggression.

Veteran Illinois special education teacher Kathi Ritchie knows what this looks like in a classroom: “You will see kids struggling with all areas of language, word retrieval, writing … memory suffers hugely. They tend to be forgetful. They don’t remember content-area ideas that have been taught to them; the next day it’s like they never were taught,” she says. “The other thing that is huge is the behavior.”

Living in a constant, fear-activated state of hyper-awareness means these children can be quick to rage, Ritchie has seen. In their subconscious efforts to self-protect, they often can be perceived as defiant, disrespectful or overly aggressive. Others may look like they’re zoning out or drifting off, she says. “It can look like kids are shutting down, but their brain is telling them, ‘You need to be safe.’ ”

Calming Colors, Safe Spaces, Mindfulness

So what’s an educator to do? First, here’s what not to do: Punish a child for showing the symptoms of a medical disorder. Trauma and stressor disorders can be found in the most up-to-date Bible of mental health disorders and diagnoses, the DSM-V, which means they are a real medical issue. Out-of-school suspensions are an inappropriate response and likely feed the school-to-prison pipeline.

Instead, what helps is to create a trauma-sensitive classroom where kids can feel safe and build resilience. Although Snelgrove no longer receives faxes from the local police because of revised confidentiality requirements, he hopes the “universal precautions” that Brockton teachers and education support professionals have embraced will catch any student who has experienced trauma.

Trauma-sensitive teachers often offer a “comfort zone” to their students, a safe space where kids can retreat and calm down. Sometimes it’s as simple as a beanbag chair. Their classrooms also are neat and uncluttered. Think about how you feel coming home to a messy house, Snelgrove says. A little overwhelmed, right? It’s worse for hyper-aroused children. Cool colors reign on the walls.

Ritchie also recommends teaching strategies that include predictable classroom routines with advance warning to students of any changes; asking students to repeat verbal instructions, using more written instructions, and also using visual prompts for multi-step directions, like a sticky post-it note on a desk. All students can benefit from short “movement breaks” every 30 minutes to “reframe the brain,” she says.

Moreno’s research currently involves the effects of mindfulness exercises on students in some of Chicago’s roughest neighborhoods. Although her study is not yet complete, teachers and principals have told her that the time they are spending on mindfulness actually is leading to more time for instruction. Students refocus more quickly after transitions, and calm down after upsets. This makes classrooms more efficient, but it also helps with an even bigger goal: Helping children grow up to be healthy adults.

You will see kids struggling with all areas of language, word retrieval, writing … memory suffers hugely.

– Kathi Ritchie, special education teacher.

Apart from employing a mindfulness curricula, or classroom yoga practices, which also are gaining popularity, simply greeting students at the start of the day and “acknowledging their humanity” before diving into tasks will help, Moreno says. With all the demands placed on teachers, it can be difficult, even “radical,” for teachers to slow down the pace of their classes and to take time with every student, but it will pay dividends, she says.

In Brockton, Snelgrove appreciates his district’s leaders for investing in years of trauma-related training for teachers and education support professionals, and developing partnerships with police, mental health, and child welfare agencies. This isn’t the stuff that appears on state-mandated standardized tests, he acknowledges. But it is the stuff that engages the “hearts and minds” of teachers and education support professionals, he says.

“We’re not perfect, and I know we have a way to go, but when we talk about the whole child, we mean it.”

Apr_2016.pdf

Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association

Volume 10, Issue 3 , Pages 328-335, May 2014

• Vincentius J.A. Verlinden, Jos N. van der Geest, Albert Hofman, M. Arfan Ikram

Background

With brain aging, cognition and gait deteriorate in several domains. However, the interrelationship between cognitive and gait domains remains unclear. We investigated the independent associations between cognitive and gait domains in a community-dwelling population.

Methods

In the Rotterdam Study, 1232 participants underwent cognitive and gait assessment. Cognitive assessment included memory, information processing speed, fine motor speed, and executive function. Gait was summarized into seven independent domains: Rhythm, Variability, Phases, Pace, Tandem, Turning, and Base of Support. With multivariate linear regression, independent associations between cognitive and gait domains were investigated.

Results

Information processing speed associated with Rhythm, fine motor speed with Tandem, and executive function with Pace. The effect sizes corresponded to a 5- to 10-year deterioration in gait.

Conclusions

Cognition and gait show a distinct pattern of association. These data accentuate the close, but complicated, relation between cognition and gait, and they may aid in unraveling the broader spectrum of the effects of brain aging.

The Rotterdam Study is sponsored by the Erasmus Medical Center and Erasmus University Rotterdam; the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO); the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMW); the Research Institute for Diseases in the Elderly (RIDE); the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science; the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sports; the European Commission (DG XII); and the Municipality of Rotterdam. J. N. van der Geest was supported by the Prinses Beatrix Fonds. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

When it Comes to Language Skills, the Early Years are Crucial

Children’s core language skills are more malleable during the early stages of development. As children reach adolescence, their language skills appear to be more fixed; therefore, improving older children’s core language skills becomes increasingly difficult.

The results, published in Child Development, further highlight the importance of early intervention to improve children’s language skills. The longer parents wait to seek help for their child’s language skills the more challenging it becomes to alter lower language proficiency.

In the current long-term study, researchers examined a child’s core language skills at 20 months then at 4, 10, and 14 years. In doing so, this helped researchers to better understand the issue of stability in language development from early childhood to adolescence.

Researchers obtained video-recorded speech samples of the 324 participants at ages 20 months and 4 years. Additionally, at all four points in time, researchers assessed children’s language abilities from reports given by their mothers and standardized language assessments.

The findings revealed differences in children’s core language skill from the end of infancy to adolescence. As children reached the ages of 10 and 14 their language skills were more stable and less likely to change; however, children’s language abilities did shift between the age of 20 months and 4 years.

Based on these results, researchers suggest children’s early years are crucial to language skills development. Language skills are essential for learning, communicating, and building relationships with others.

Here are some activities for encouraging speech and language development in young children:

• Read aloud to your children.
• Use gestures such as waving goodbye to help convey meaning.
• Expand upon the words your child uses.
• Use good speech that is clear and simple for your child to model.
• Ask your child questions that require a choice. “Do you want apple juice or orange juice with your breakfast?”
• Sing simple songs and recite nursery rhythms to show the rhythm and pattern of speech.

NeuroNet note: NeuroNet programs consist of movement exercises that incorporate rhythmic movement, listening, and talking. As children progress through the program levels they improve their ability to learn and automate new exercises, a key step in the process of developing learning readiness.

Peer-reviewed journal reference:
Bornstein, Marc H., Chun-Shin Hahn, Diane L. Putnick, and Joan T. D. Suwalsky. 2013. “Stability of Core Language Skill from Early Childhood to Adolescence: A Latent Variable Approach.” Child Development (early release).

Photo credit: Tom Carmony via Flickr CC