CONNECTING THROUGH EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES
Doing an activity together is not the same as feeling connected.
In this series, the Nurture Science Program provides a new perspective on what are frequently called “joint attention activities.” Joint attention is an important marker of social and cognitive development. But when we start from a place of emotional connection, we’re helping kids get into an optimal state for learning, and we’re both reaping the full benefits of the relationship.
Here we offer manageable ways to nurture whole-family health, by connecting through the activities we do together every day, such as eating, sleeping, bathing, getting ready, going places, playing, and cleaning up. We can work together to make joint attention joyful, and by fostering a state of body-to-body emotional connection, we set our families up for health, wellbeing, learning, and developmental success.
The Nurture Science Program at Columbia University Medical Center is a unique research program rooted in a new, evidence-based understanding of the critical role emotional connection plays in healthy child development.
Our multidisciplinary team is committed to rigorous research, and continues to develop and test nurture-based therapies that support emotional connection to help children and families address, and even avoid, emotional, behavioral, and developmental challenges.
What We Hope to Achieve
Millions of children suffer from emotional, behavioral, and developmental disorders that can be addressed or prevented. Current treatment strategies often are not effective. The Nurture Science Program’s work can help children and their families.
For more than a decade, the Nurture Science Program has amassed considerable evidence to support interventions that advance the child-family emotional connection that is critical to healthy child development. Imagine the possibilities when all children and families have this kind of support.
Martha G. Welch MD Takes on Role of Founding Director Emeritus of the Nurture Science Program
After leading the Nurture Science Program with vision, dedication and passion for 14 years, Dr. Martha Welch, MD, DFAPA, is stepping aside as Director. Dr. Welch, co-founded the program in 2008. She will continue to contribute to the program, and will assume the title of Founding Director Emeritus. The Nurture Science Program is well positioned…
Nurture Science Program Leadership Transition
Together, we have set the stage for a new paradigm of relational health and it is our commitment to emotional connection that brings us to this long-planned and welcome leadership transition.
Relational Health Through the Lens of Emotional Connection
Emergent research has made it abundantly clear that our relationships shape the quality of our lives. As a result, relational health is receiving a lot of attention in the child and public health sectors. At the Nurture Science Program we look at relational health through the lens of emotional connection.
Connecting Activities: Joint Attention through a Nurture Science Lens
Throughout our connecting activities series, the Nurture Science Program has provided a new perspective on what are frequently called “joint attention activities.”