CLEVELAND, Ohio - All the anecdotal evidence, at least, suggests that the socio-economic stratum where you begin is the one where you will end.

"The implication," Johns Hopkins University sociologist Karl Alexander said in a 2014 interview on the school's web site, "is where you start in life is where you end up in life."

Whatever conclusions we may draw about the causes for this, Dr. Alexander's exhaustive study - in which he and his fellow Johns Hopkins researchers tracked almost 800 Baltimore-area children from the beginning of first grade until they turned 28 or 29 years old - added to the evidence supporting the conclusion.

The study formed the basis of a well-received (if clumsily titled) book, "The Long Shadow: Family Background, Disadvantaged Urban Youth, and the Transition to Adulthood" (Russell Sage Foundation, 2014); a video interview with Dr. Alexander can be found here.

As this study and the coming year's reporting from The Plain Dealer and the Northeast Ohio Media Group will show, the very first days of a child's brain development go a very long way toward setting the course for that brain's - and that individual's - development.

The 60-Second Know-It-All project is an experimental series of informational videos produced by Plain Dealer graphic and video artist William Neff, with sound design and creative collaboration from Plain Dealer photo and sound editor Jon Fobes

See the Link to this article and Video by William Neff at: http://www.cleveland.com/metro...developing_brai.html