Pre-School Brain Growth and Development and Your Child

Pre-School Brain Growth And Development – Is It The Answer To School Failure, Aggression And Violence?

Frustration is the wet nurse of violence.     – David Abrahansen

Ronald Kotulak comments on the observations of Craig Ramey of the University of Alabama in his book ‘Inside the Brain’:

“Seventy-five percent of all imprisoned males in America have poor school records and low IQs, Ramey pointed out. Tracing their backgrounds turns up a familiar pattern: They begin as children from disadvantaged families starting school academically behind. They don’t know how to read or do basic math because they are in poor systems they get little help. Growing frustration often turns into truancy, school failure, aggression and violence. . .”

This statement is clarion call for urgent investment in preschool brain growth and development.

Sadly the situation described by Ramey is not peculiar to America alone.

---

Taken from the ebook, “How Brain-Friendly Learning Can Release Your Child’s Infinite Potential”, written by Phil Rowlands. For the complete ebook, click link for FREE DOWNLOAD.

---

Pre-School Brain Growth and Development and the Gender Issue

For some reason the corpus callosum, a complex network of over 300 million nerve fibers connecting left and right hemispheres of the brain, seems to be more active in girls than boys.

Much has been made of boys under-achievement compared to girls up to the age of 10 or 11. As psychological researcher H.T. Epstein has pointed out, the brain development of girls is up to twice that of boys by the age of 11.

Can this be offset by a greater understanding of how preschool brain growth and development affects our children? Furthermore, is this reflected in the way curricula content and activities are designed for our children? What both boys and girls need regardless, are learning experiences that will fire their imaginations and stimulate the preschool development and growth of their brain.

Ensure Your Child Succeeds at Math for example, is a program designed to introduce pre-school children to math in a way that is engaging and fun – informed by the latest developments in brain research.

Pre-school brain development – the first months

In the first few months of your child’s life an amazing amount of activity has taken place in his/her brain. From a few cells at the tip of an embryo the explosion of growth has seen an increase that will reach about 200 billion. Their function is to connect to various parts of the body developing around them. Unless they do so they will die.

Pre-school brain growth and development – wiring up the brain

At 20 weeks of fetal development half of them have not survived the competition. This process has been described as wiring-up the brain to enable it to control vision, language, movement and hearing to name but a few areas.

During this period of pre-school brain development the brain experiences four major periods of structural change:

1. In fetal development.
2. After birth.
3. Between 4 and 12.
4. In the remaining years of its existence.

By far the most critical times are the first two periods. One of the most important revelations about the brain is described by Dr. Robert Post, chief of the National Institute of Mental Health’s (U.S.A.) biological psychiatry branch.

“The new thing is that the brain is very dynamic. At any point in this process you have all these potentials for either good or bad stimulation to get in there and set the structure of the brain.”

Pre-school brain growth and development – the role of parents

The implications for us as parents are profound. The experiences we expose our children to will shape their future potential for learning and, ultimately, their destiny as human beings. It is absolutely essential to their welfare and development that we cultivate a more conscious understanding of the factors that impact directly upon the preschool growth and development of the brain.

As the brain is being wired-up learning pathways are being established. Imagine these pathways as being superhighways to the various control-centers in the brain like vision and movement. The pathways are actually the senses. The experiences your child receives will determine how much stimulation reaches these centers and consequently their level of development. Recent research shows that proper stimulation affect such brain functions as:

Language: Children whose mothers talk to them frequently have better language skills than do children whose mothers seldom talk to them. After about age 12 the ability to learn new languages declines rapidly.

Vision: Lack of visual stimulation at birth will cause those brain cells designed to interpret vision to dry up or be diverted to other tasks, making perfectly healthy eyes unable to see.

Did you know that bold black and white images are best for stimulating the visual pathways in a baby’s developing brain?

Knowledge is empowerment. As parents, whether we decide to send our children to state school or take the homeschooling or unschooling option, we should all seek to become empowered to assist the preschool development and growth of the brain.

---

For a 4-step, language-based teaching framework that is easy to implement in regular education, special education, or related services, visit: http://www.aboutthepact.com.

Creative Imagination – The Brain’s Most Powerful Ability

Creative Imagination and Your Child

“To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.”  – Anatole France 1881

The brain is in fact triune in nature.

The Reptilian brain controls our basic instincts. Whenever we are stressed our higher thinking skills shut down and the Reptilian brain takes over. Its main concern is our survival.    “How do I avoid this spelling test?”

In this setting enchanted learning experience appear as unattainable as water in a dry and dusty land. Learning under these circumstances is impossible. Under such pressure children will never access their creative imagination.

---

Taken from the ebook, “How Brain-Friendly Learning Can Release Your Child’s Infinite Potential”, written by Phil Rowlands. For the complete ebook, click link for FREE DOWNLOAD.

---

The Limbic system or Mammalian brain controls, among other things, our emotions.

All learning should involve the emotions to a greater or lesser degree. In fact, the most important state for optimum learning to take place is the emotional state.

In some schools work is now being undertaken on the subject of emotional literacy as a more accurate indicator of a child’s future potential to succeed and live a fulfilled life than I.Q. Something that is in fact ‘learnable’ and not dependent on where you swam in the gene pool.

When this concept is grasped by educators universally then the creative imagination of children will be released.

The Neo-cortex controls the intellectual processes and is divided into two hemispheres often referred to as the right and left brain. Each hemisphere has certain abilities associated with it. It is the right brain that houses our creative imagination.

Western society has tended to value the functions of the left brain and this, historically, has reflected the way children have been taught.

The right brain is potentially far more powerful and, in fact, complements the left brain.

If the two halves of the brain could be made to work together regularly the greater potential exists for learning and creativity. Children exposed to a system that overemphasizes analytical thinking is harmful to the brain’s development. One psychologist comments:

“Such people’s brains are being systematically damaged. In many ways they are being deeducated.”

Creative imagination is a very powerful ability. At school, Albert Einstein displayed talent as a musician and artist. How many enchanted learning experiences was Einstein exposed to? He actually failed his maths!

The Theory of Relativity was conceived as the result of a daydream he had on a summer’s day alone on the top of a hill. In essence Einstein created his own enchanted learning experience through the power of creative imagination.

Using the power of creative imagination he visualized himself riding on a sunbeam to the end of the universe, returning toward the sun. He reasoned that if his dream were to be proved correct then the universe must be curved. What Freud would have made of it is anybody’s guess!

For my part, as a consequence of the failure and subsequent sense of guilt and shame experienced through my failure to grasp math in school, I became motivated to develop a math program that would ensure any and every child could succeed. It took years of determined and driven research.

I was going to make absolutely sure no child I taught would experience that shattering sense of failure and inadequacy.

Children would engage in enchanted learning experiences in the subject that is most likely to cause disillusion and despair. Throughout this process I drew on the most powerful resource available – my creative imagination.

The resultant programme Ensure Your Child Succeeds At Math is highly tactile and visually (right brain activities) based but also draws upon logical evaluation of what has been visualized (a left brain activity). In essence it engages both hemispheres of the brain.

Whole-brain-learning approaches are now being developed to ensure both right and left hemispheres of the brain are engaged during the learning process. For example, Brain-Gym is a universally recognized and practiced method of enhancing whole-brain-learning.

Until education systems consciously provide for both left and right brain orientated students many of our children will remain seriously disadvantaged, de-motivated and ultimately disaffected. They will remain strangers to the liberating power of creative imagination. For many children we will have created an intellectual wasteland where they are consistently denied the opportunity to drink from the refreshing streams of creative imagination. This has serious implications for society as a whole.

---

For a 4-step, language-based teaching framework that is easy to implement in regular education, special education, or related services, visit: http://www.aboutthepact.com.

What Does the Law Say About Assistive Technology?

The Federal government is fully aware of the potential of assistive technology for students in the 1997 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which mandates that assistive technology devices and services be considered for each child with a disability. The 1997 amendments manifest a shift in focus about how assistive technology is to be used. Instead of it being considered as just a rehabilitative or remedial tool, assistive technology is now reflected in the student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) as a method for general curriculum access. Rather than just specifying a student’s special education services, the IEP must include information about a student’s current abilities and how his or her disability affects involvement and progress in the general curriculum. The IEP must also include the program modifications and supports the school and teachers will provide to help a student’s involvement and progress in the general curriculum.

The use of Assistive Technology is supported by other federal laws. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 0f the Rehabilitation Act requires schools to provide assistive technology for students with disabilities. This is to assure equal access, and remove barriers to programs and services.

Instructional issues are at the heart of this challenge which requires that educators should look at the curriculum, and then ask how assistive tools might assist students in achieving the outcomes. The remedial approach combined with traditional assistive technology applications is no longer the main goal in finding appropriate assistive technology for the students. This change in focus on assistive technology in the IDEA shows what school-based professionals have found after years of experience.

In any situation, when considering assistive technology for a student, the focus should be on what the device does for that person, and not on the device or the technology itself. Assistive technology is merely the support to get the job done more independently. It can reduce a student’s reliance on parents, siblings, friends and teachers, helping in the transition into adulthood, and fostering self-esteem and reducing anxiety.

What is the Legal Definition of Assistive Technology

The Technology Related Assistance Act of 1988 (P.L. 101-407) and the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-394) provide a standard definition of assistive technology as “any item, piece of equipment, or product, whether acquired commercially, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.”

Assistive Technology Service

An assistive technology service is any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device. The term includes:

• The evaluation of the needs of a child with a disability, including a functional evaluation of the child in the child’s customary environment
• Purchasing, leasing, or otherwise providing for the acquisition of assistive technology devices by children with disabilities
• Selecting, designing, fitting, customizing, adapting, applying, retaining, repairing, or replacing assistive technology devices
• Coordinating and using other therapies, interventions, or services with assistive technology devices, such as those associated with existing education and rehabilitation plans and programs
• Training or technical assistance for a child with a disability or, if appropriate, that child’s family
• Training or technical assistance for professionals (including individuals providing education or rehabilitation services), employers, or other individuals who provide services to, employ, or are otherwise substantially involved in the major life functions of children with disabilities

Learn more about Assistive Technology Services by visiting http://www.PracticalATSolutions.com.

Other article you will find interesting:

• What Is Assistive Technology?