Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett
Speaking of Faith is a public radio program about “religion, spirituality, and large questions of meaning in every aspect of life”. This program regularly interviews writers, researchers, and scholars whose work focuses on enriching the human experience.
Back in November, Dr. Adele Diamond, our lab director and the organizer of the BDL conference was interviewed about her research. Her work has highlighted the importance of play, dance, sports, and music in promoting healthy child development.
To listen to the episode of Speaking of Faith that features Dr. Diamond, click here. While you’re there check out some of the other episodes as well. The program does a great job of encouraging you to think about science and religion in ways you may never have before, and does so from a neutral standpoint that allows the discussion of these topics to be constructive rather than divisive as they are in so many other forums.
The program has a companion blog which further elucidates issues of religion and science, and how we can reconcile the two in today’s society.
Past Conference Presenters: Dr. Sonia Lupien
The 2008 BDL Conference focused on stress and the prefrontal cortex. Dr. Sonia Lupien is at the forefront of research regarding stress.
Dr. Lupien is the Founder and Director of the Centre for Studies on Human Stress at Douglas Hospital in Montreal, Canada. She leads the Laboratory of Human Stress Research that specializes in measuring the acute and chronic impact of stress hormones on learning and memory.
She led talk entitled “Shaping Who We Are: Effects of Stress on Cognitive Development” The presentation focused on summarizing the state of knowledge in the field of stress and its impact on brain development, the scientific definition of stress and the positive and negative effects of stress hormones on the human brain.
Results from studies performed in children and assessing stress hormones were also described as well as the model of allostatic load and how it can impact on child development. In the conclusion of the talk, Dr. Lupien explained the ‘DeStress for Success’ program that the Centre for Studies on Human Stress developed and which aims at educating children and teenagers about stress and its impact on learning and memory in order to give them the tools they need to grow up while managing the stress of their lives.
Below are two excerpts from her talk:
Here is a link to an article related to the talk.
SENSE Theatre: Helping Children with Autism through Theater
SENSE Theatre is an intervention program for children with autism. It is a bridge between art and science, utilizing well-established behavioral intervention, peer and video modeling, and theatrical techniques. It has met with remarkable success with children in northern California. We would like to see if it might be helpful to children here, in Vancouver.
A week before our conference, the Developer and Executive Director of SENSE Theatre (Blythe Corbett, a clinician and neuroscientist at the MIND Institute of the University of California – Davis, who before becoming an academic was a professional actor), along with the Stage Director and Musical Director, will come up to Vancouver to work with local children with autism and local child actors for a solid week. The children will then put on the performance they have been rehearsing for us at the Gala Dinner for the conference, Sunday evening, July 18, at 7:00 pm.
Here is a video that explains a little bit more about the great work that SENSE Theatre is doing:
Past Conference Presenters: Dr. Margaret Weiss
The BDL conference is characterized by high quality speaker presentations that are both informative and inspiring. This blog will highlight some past talks and let you know what to expect from the speakers in 2010.
Dr. Margaret Weiss is a Clinical Full Professor at the University of British Columbia, the Director of Research for the Division of Child Psychiatry and the Director of the Provincial ADHD Program.
At the 2008 BDL Conference she led a talk entitled “Optimizing and Individualizing Treatment for ADHD”. The presentation focused on defining the methodology of efficacy vs. effectiveness outcomes for ADHD, reviewing the literature on what we know about optimizing outcomes from an effectiveness point of view and identifying key areas in which the individualization of treatment is essential to optimizing outcome.
Below is a ten minute excerpt from her talk:
Here is a link to an article related to the talk.
“You Changed a Country”
Here at the DCN Lab we have been receiving emails and blog comments from people who attended the BDL conference in the past, and were really touched by all of them. We spend a lot of time and energy trying to make the conference a great experience, and it’s always heartening to hear that people have enjoyed it and learned a lot.
We recently received this email from Karin Windt, President of the Dutch ADD Foundation. Her comments about BDL really resonated with us, and we thought we should share them with all of you.
Here is Karin’s email:
“Dear all,
This blog is a great idea, thank you so much for once again organizing this great event! First of all I would like to take the opportunity to thank the people at DCN Lab for making me feel so welcome at the last Brain Development and Learning conference. I found out about the conference only two weeks before and you were all a great help in finding a place to stay and giving me pointers as to how to find you and which speakers addressed the topics of my interest. Nevertheless I managed to attend each and every one of them and needed 2 more notebooks (in addition to those you provided). I was only late once!
The BDL conference meant a lot to me, it gave me the confidence to continue my current efforts as president of the ADD Netherlands Foundation and provided me with the information I needed to help those in need. Specifically children with the predominantly inattentive type of ADD who are in school. I won’t forget Laurel & Hardy ever again! I think I even met the speaker but was too overwhelmed by the amount of information to realize. Before the conference, my last days in school were 15 years ago. I forgot how good it feels to receive a certificate. And being a smoker in Canada turned out to be a great challenge by the way. I even lost weight because the food stands in Vancouver only carry healthy foods and spending the first day on Grouse mountain gave me more energy then any spa would.
A lot has happened to me since I met all of you. I wrote another book and organized the 3rd national ADD-day in Amsterdam. 800 people attended and I told them everything that happened in Canada and how nervous I was when Dr. Diamond introduced me to everyone; waiting my for my turn to ask a question, my leg was shaking out of control while my mind had so much to say. I was doing a little dance to prevent others from seeing that and was afraid people would view me as hyperactive while trying to represent the inattentive ADD Foundation. (I never even considered this to be stressful, Dr. Lupien) but I got used to it!
What I would have liked to say is that because of Dr. Adele Diamond and her lab, relatives in Vancouver were diagnosed with the predominantly inattentive type Attention Deficit Disorder early on. The information reached me in Holland in 2004 and I immediately went to see (a few) doctors. So in a major way, Adele Diamond and her lab (you people) are the reason I was diagnosed with ADD my self 7 years ago. I would like to thank her for that. To me and many others, this diagnosis came as a great relief. I knew my brother had ADHD and that my late grandfather (who was a painter) had great trouble sitting still when young but I never heard of ADD before. Most of my relatives moved to Canada years ago. Hyperactive was normal to the rest of us here n Holland…but I was different.
What you may not realize is that in 2004 there was absolutely no information on this topic whatsoever. ADD and ADHD are not the same, no question about it. I wrote an article about ADD on my homepage and with this the foundation was laid for the ADD Netherlands Foundation at www.sadd.nl.
Dr. Diamond made an incredible contribution with her paper on this subject in 2005, it is a must read!!! (http://www.devcogneuro.com/Publications/ADD.pdf) My books in Dutch and English, the first, 2nd and 3rd national ADD-day followed and now I am providing extra training to doctors so that they can learn more about the differences between ADD and ADHD. It is only since 2008 that (little) more information on the predominantly inattentive type appeared on the web. So please know that the work you do at DCN Lab has more than just an impact, you changed a country (although we do have a long way to go).
For those who remember I enjoyed our talks very much! It was an absolute honor to meet you all.
THANK YOU!
Karin”
We can only hope that everyone gets as much out of the BDL conference as Karin did.
Welcome!
Link to BDL 2013 Conference Website
Welcome to the blog of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia!
This blog will document the behind the scenes preparation that goes into creating the biennial Brain Development & Learning Conference, an interdisciplinary conference devoted to improving children’s lives by making cutting-edge research in neuroscience, child psychology, and medicine understandable and applicable to those who work with children on a daily basis. This conference has been called the best in North America, and the information gained from the conference has been invaluable to those who have attended.
The primary goals of our blog are to increase awareness about the conference, and to provide readers with a space to share their thoughts and engage in discussion about related topics. To get you excited about the conference we will be posting information about relevant research, current events from around the web and clips from past conferences. We will also have guest posts from people involved with the conference such as conference leaders, staff, and volunteers.
The 2013 conference will be held in Vancouver, from July 24-28. To find out more information about the conference, and to register for the upcoming conference, click here.
We hope to see you there!
