Thinking Developmentally: Nurturing Wellness in Childhood to Promote Lifelong Health

Childhood experiences can affect a person’s lifelong health. Thinking Developmentally presents a clinical framework for understanding the impact of toxic stress and both adverse and affiliative childhood experiences on development. It makes a compelling case that many diseases of adulthood are not adult-onset, but rather adult-manifest, based on genetic and epigenetic consequences from early childhood experiences. Garner and Saul examine the needs of children and the role of parents, caregivers, the community, and medical practitioners in ensuring that children have safe, stable, and nurturing relationships. They explore community empowerment and offer suggestions for applying developmental science to help bring about healthy children, nurturing families, and caring communities.

Andrew Garner, MD, PhD, FAAP, is a graduate of Swarthmore College and a product of both the Medical Scientist Training Program at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and the Pediatric Residency Training Program at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Garner has practiced primary care pediatrics with University Hospitals Medical Practices in Cleveland since 2000. He is a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the CWRU School of Medicine, and a Faculty Associate with the Schubert Center for Child Studies. Dr. Garner also serves on the Board of Directors for Zero To Three. When not practicing pediatrics, advocating for children and their families, or writing about relational health, Dr. Garner enjoys hiking, fishing, watching baseball and premier league soccer, and spending some quality time with his wife, adult children, and the family dog, Bear.

Robert A. Saul, MD, FAAP, FACMG, was born and raised in the Chicago area. He graduated from Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO) and from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He completed a residency in pediatrics at the Duke University Medical Center and a fellowship in genetics at the Greenwood Genetic Center. He was in Greenwood, SC from 1979 until 2013 at the Greenwood Genetic Center and also practiced pediatrics for 24 years. He retired from Prisma Health Upstate (Greenville, SC) and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine—Greenville at the end of 2020 as Professor of Pediatrics (Emeritus). He was the Chair of the Section on Genetics and Birth Defects and the Committee on Genetics of the American Academy of Pediatrics, served as project co-director of the AAP Genetics in Primary Care Institute, and served on the AAP National Conference and Exhibition Planning Group. He edited the AAP policy manual Medical Genetics in Pediatric Practice, which received an honorable mention in the American Medical Writers Association Medical Book Awards for 2014. He was accepted into membership of the American Pediatric Society in 2016. In retirement, he serves as a consultant and an author.