Learning More About Early Brain Development

Research shows that who and what a child becomes is mainly determined from birth to age 8.  As a parent or caregiver, every time you talk, play, sing or interact with your child, you are stimulating your child’s brain and helping him to become a productive, happy and healthy individual.

To a great extent, a baby’s brain is constructed with building blocks of experience ready to be further developed by you.  As a child begins to experience the world through sight, sound, touch and to a lesser degree, smell and taste, the wiring and sculpting of the brain falls into place.  In essence, a baby's brain grows with the flood of experiences absorbed through the senses, and the more she experiences these senses, the more importance her brain will attach to them.

A child who receives too little stimulation, or the wrong kind of stimulation, may not realize his or her full potential as the brain forms the wrong connections.  In fact, research shows that children who do not receive enough touching, or experience too little play time, may develop brains that are 20 to 30 per cent smaller than average.  Conversely, the right kind of stimulation will have a decisive and positive impact on a child's development and learning.

In the ground breaking report of their Early Years Study, co-chairs Margaret Norrie McCain and J. Fraser Mustard stated that ". . . early child development is as important, if not more important . . . than the periods children spend in education or post-secondary education."  Their study found that the development of the brain (at an early age) sets the base for competence and coping skills for the later stages of life.

The first three years, the study concluded, are especially crucial in the growth of a child's brain.  A baby is born with billions of neurons in its brain.  While brain cells grow throughout life, it is during the early years, the most sensitive period, when these neurons develop their function and key connections.  Loving interactions between the child and other human beings provide the stimulation and nourishment that these neurons need "to connect" with one another.  Conversely, if neurons are not stimulated early in life, they tend to wither and become more difficult to stimulate.

How well this web of connectedness is established in an individual child depends on two factors:

• who the parents are, in other words, what genetic code is passed on to the child; and
• the environment in which the child is raised - how the child is nurtured, protected and loved.

And that is why taking 30 for the family is so important... now, today, this week.

(Adapted with permission from the Kiwanis Club of Ottawa)

Big Pictures

In the graph entitled,'Sensitive periods' in early brain development, we can see  how key learning is concentrated in the early years, starting with emotion control, vision and hearing then moving into conceptualization, language, peer social skills and numeracy.

The chart called, Best Times for Wiring shows how motor development, social attachment and symbols fit with the other developmental factors to mould our children’s brains during this critical period.

Best Times For Wiring (Dark green part of graph indicates time of greatest brain activity)   age (years)     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7       Vision Creating brain patterns so that both eyes can see correctly         Motor Development Before birth, the brain is creating patterns for muscle control         Language Creating brain patterns to: listen, speak, read, write         Social Attachment Creating brain patterns to relate well to others at home, and later at play and at work           Emotional Control Creating brain patterns to manage emotions             Symbols Creating brain patterns to understand that one thing can stand for another, such as letters and numbers           0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7       age (years)

The Science of Early Brain Development
Stuart G. Shanker
(download PDF 900K)