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: 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: www.aboutthepact.com.

Enchanted Learning Experiences – Why They Should Be The Norm For Our Children.

Walk upstairs, open the door gently, and look in the crib. What do you see? Most of us see a picture of innocence and helplessness, a clean slate. But, in fact, what we see in the crib is the greatest mind that has ever existed, the most powerful learning machine in the universe.” – From “The Scientist in the Crib” (Alison Gobnik, Ph.D., Andrew N. Meltzoff, Ph.D., Patricia K..Kuhl, Ph. D.)

---

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.

---

Such minds should be exposed to enchanted learning experiences where learning becomes the magical natural process nature intended it to be.

The more we discover about the universe around us the more we realize how little we really know. What is true of outer space is also true of inner space – our minds.

At birth we stand like Lucy before the magic Wardrobe prepared to enter a world where enchanted learning experiences become the air we breathe.

The latter part of the twentieth century has seen more discoveries about the human brain than in all previous history of mankind.

It is as though we have been paddling in the shallows of a vast ocean hitherto unaware of its existence. Enchanted learning experiences beckon us out into the deep oceans of discovery and no ocean is more wondrous or mysterious than our brains.

The brain contains a vast number of cells or neurons. It is connections made between these neurons that constitute learning.

Robert Ornstein has estimated that there are more possible links between the neurons in our brains than there are atoms in the known universe.

“We are only now on the threshold of knowing the range of the educability of man . . . We have never addressed ourselves to this problem before.” – Dr Jerome Bruner, Harvard University

“We will by conscious command evolve cerebral centers which will permit us to use powers that we are now not even capable of imagining.” – Dr Fredric Tilney – leading French brain specialist.

The implications for our children are staggering and have focused the attention of many educationalists around the world on the early years of child development. In this context, enchanted learning experiences are not an optional extra. We now believe that we only use around 4% of our brain’s potential. Jack Schwartz, psychophysical trainer, believes:

“We are hoarding potentials so great that they are just about unimaginable.”

Given these revelations enchanted learning experiences should be the norm for our children.

Yet, despite this knowledge, educational systems worldwide still insist on devising ways and means of classifying children in terms of their intellectual capacity, often using very narrow criteria and limited learning styles as far removed from enchanted learning experiences as you can imagine.

While these systems work well for certain types of learners, they disadvantage the majority in a manner akin to self-fulfilling prophecies.

This is particularly true when we consider the structure 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: www.aboutthepact.com

What You Should Know About How Kids Learn

Child Development Basics That You Need to Know

Don’t you know that children develop skills the way builders build a house? How do they do it? They start with the foundation. They build on that foundation at different stages of development which determines what the house will look like and how to get from room to room. In comparison, here are eight key things that you should know about how kids learn and build on their different skills.

_____________________________________________________

For some parenting tips, DOWNLOAD FREE EBook on “How Brain Friendly Learning Can Release Your Child’s Infinite Potential”, a brain-based research and how it impacts upon your child.

_____________________________________________________

The Child’s Brain Wiring System – How Is It Built?

Each brain cell (neuron) in your child looks like a young tree. As children take in information about their immediate environment, their neurons reach, branch out and create connections with each other. Called neural pathways, these connections are like an electrical wiring system. Each neuron can have multiple inter-connections with other neurons.

The “wires” don’t touch. Instead, they pass information at the gaps between neurons—the “electrical boxes” known as synapses. Brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) help power the system to get these messages through.

The Neural Pathways – How It Work

Each of these neural pathways is a circuit. When a stimulus goes through the circuit, it triggers a response. Consider an electrical circuit for example, when you flip a light switch, a light comes on. There are some brain circuits that are already developed at birth like the ones for breathing and circulation.

Other circuits in the brain are “activity-dependent.” They need input to work, and the more input they get, the better they work. These input come from all the experiences kids have. Sounds, sights, tastes, smells, the way things feel and emotions all help the brain to release neurotransmitters and power those brain circuits.

The Neural Pathways – It Also Get Pruned

The neural pathways that are used more often get stronger. Circuits that are not used weaken and disappear over time through a process known as “pruning.” Children have more circuits than they need. Pruning happens all the way through childhood and adolescence. That means kids’ brains are flexible enough to work continuously to build new circuits and refine commonly used neural pathways. This is known as “plasticity.”

Taking Advantage of the Plasticity of the Neural Pathways

For kids who have learning and attention issues, plasticity takes a very important role. Their brains process information differently compared to other children, and they don’t always use brain chemicals effectively. These brain differences make it harder to create or strengthen some neural pathways. Intervention to teach kids alternative ways to process information consider the brain’s plasticity and takes advantage of it. It helps neurons build new pathways. The information may have to take a detour and take a little longer to get where it needs to go, but it can still get there.

Your Child Learn Through the Senses

Kids don’t think about developing neural pathways. It happens naturally to them as they explore and learn about the world. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget came up with a famous theory about how children develop cognitive or thinking skills. The first stage is when babies use their senses—sight, sound, touch, taste and smell—to start to make connections. They taste, shake and throw objects. They also start to roll and reach for things and, eventually, crawl and walk.

As they do all these activities, they build neural pathways that control their movement, vision, language development, and others. For example, babies keep making sounds that get them attention they need. They keep putting things that taste good into their mouths, and they keep moving to places they want to see. As they do these things, the brain strengthens those circuits and helps make the activities easier.

Your Child Learn Through Language

Language development takes off between ages 2 and 7 years as kids learn more words, use more complex sentences and even read a little. This is the best time to provide children with a language-rich environment because the more words and ideas they’re exposed to, the more neural pathways they’ll develop.

At this time, you might see your child use a big stick as a horse or turn a box into a rocket ship. Kids now use objects to play more imaginatively. Social skills develop slowly at this age because kids aren’t ready to understand logic, reasoning and other people’s perspectives. They often have difficulty putting themselves in other people’s shoes and can be critical of other children’s choices and behavior.

Your Child Learn Through Logic

Kids start thinking more logically from 7 years old to about middle school. At this stage, they are more able to make connections between things. They become “detectives” who are able to see clues and put them together. Kids develop the ability to take turns, put themselves in other people’s shoes, and understand that actions have consequences. The circuits that process emotion and feelings strengthen and mature. In this stage, adults can support children by helping them reflect on things like cause and effect.

Your Child Learn Through Reasoning

As they become teens, kids start thinking more abstractly and with more complexity. They consider the “what ifs” of situations to figure out possible outcomes. In terms of school, this means they’re able to do more complicated math and understand characters and plots in deeper ways when they read.

Socially, these new skills help them see that other people’s reactions are sometimes based on different perspectives and experiences. Physically, it means they’re able to put different types of skills together to do more complicated things like driving. The wiring system of the brain becomes much more complex and intricate, with neural networks intertwining with other circuits to allow all of those skills to work together.

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

What is Assistive or Adaptive Technology (AT)?

The Assistive Technology Act of 1998 refers to it as "...products, devices or equipment, whether acquired commercially, modified or customized, that are used to maintain, increase or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities..."

What are the Uses of Assistive Technologies?

Assistive Technology has been used in education to facilitate academic skill development and to enable students to fully access the educational program. It could be any item or piece of equipment that can be used to increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities in different aspects of life, which may include activities at school, at work, at home, and even in the individual’s interaction with the community.

As the term “assistive” implies, Assistive Technologies help individuals to perform functions that could have been otherwise difficult or impossible without it. These technologies can include mobility devices like walkers and wheelchairs, as well as hardware, software, and peripherals that assist individuals with disabilities in accessing computers or other information technologies. In the education sector for example, people with difficulty reading may use a text-to-speech software program. Those with low vision can make use of software that enlarges contents on the computer screen to make them readable.

What are the Different Classes of Assistive Technologies?

Assistive Technologies range from low tech to high tech devices or equipment as follows:

Low Tech AT – These are devices or equipment that don't require much training, they can be less expensive and do not have complex or mechanical features. For example:

•          handheld magnifiers

•          large print text

•          using paper and pen to communicate

•          canes or walkers

•          things that can be used to reach or grab items

•          specialized pen or pencil grips and much more

Middle Tech AT = These are devices or equipment that may have some complex features, it could electronic or battery operated, it may require some training to learn how to use it and may be more costly than the low-tech devices. Some examples include:

•          talking spell checkers

•          manual wheelchairs

•          electronic organizers

•          Closed Caption Televisions (CCTV’s)

•          amplifiers

•          books on CDs, or in Kindle readers

•          environmental control units (ECU)

•          alternate mouse or keyboard for the computer

High Tech AT – This refers to the more complex devices that have digital or electronic components, may be computerized, and will likely require training and effort to learn how to use and cost the most. Examples include:

•          power wheelchairs or scooters

•          digital hearing aids

•          computers with specialized software such as voice recognition or magnification software

•          electronic aids to daily living

•          digital hands-free headsets

•          voice activated telephones

•          communication devices with voices

•          bluetooth integration

•          digi-drive technology (operating a vehicle with a joystick)

For consultation on Practical Assistive Technology and Professional Development on Special Education for the management of individuals with LDs, visit www.PracticalATSolutions.com.

Other article you will find interesting:

• ·      Some Facts You Need to Know About Learning Disabilities (LD)

Some Facts You Need to Know About Learning Disabilities (LD)

Here are 18 facts that will help you understand what Learning Disabilities are:

What is a Learning Disability ( LD)?

1. A learning disability is a biological “processing” problem that impairs a person’s ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell and do math calculations.
2. There are several types of LD based on the type of difficulties involved. Dyslexia, a problem with reading, is the most common.
3. Learning disabilities have a genetic component and often run in families.
4. LD is a lifelong disability. Children don’t grow out of it. They may learn to compensate for their LD, but it’s something they continue to live with as adults.
5. LD is does not include visual, hearing or motor disabilities.
6. LD is not caused by intellectual or cognitive disabilities (formerly referred to as mental retardation), emotional disturbance, or cultural, environmental, or economic disadvantage.

How and who diagnoses LD conditions?

7. Proper identification (diagnosis) of LD in K–12 students involves: parent and child interviews; classroom observation; a review of the child’s educational and medical history; a series of tests to identify the child’s strengths and weaknesses; the gathering of information from teachers and other professionals who work with the child.

8. There is no medical test (such as a blood test) for LD.

9. LD often co-exists with other neurological disorders such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This can make diagnosis/identification of the disabilities tricky.

10. It’s estimated that 4.67 million Americans (ages six and older) have LD. That represents 1.8 percent of the U.S. population. (U.S. Survey of Income and Program Participation)

11. Almost 2.4 million school-age children in the U.S. are classified as having specific learning disabilities. That represents 4–6 percent of all public school students.

12. Almost half of public school students receiving special education services have LD.

Is LD common?

13. People with LD can succeed at school and work if they have targeted instruction, meaningful accommodations, high expectations (of themselves and from others) and a support system.

14. Once a student is identified with LD, the key to success is instruction that’s carefully targeted, well-delivered, research-based, individualized and differentiated.

15. There is no medication or medical treatment for LD, although there are many unproven, expensive and controversial “therapies” for LD on the market.

Are there treatment and help available for people with LD?

16. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides for special education services for public school students aged 3–21 with disabilities. Having LD doesn’t automatically make a student eligible for special education; he or she must also go through an eligibility evaluation.

17. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a civil rights law prohibiting discriminating against people with disabilities in programs and activities that receive federal funding.

18. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is also a civil rights law that protects individuals with LD from discrimination in schools, the workplace and other settings.

Assistive Tools and Professional Development on Special Education for the management of individuals with LDs can be found at www.PracticalATSolutions.com.

Other article you will find interesting:

• How to Choose an Assistive Technology?

How to Choose an Assistive Technology?

The approaches used to address the difficulties faced by students with learning disabilities fall into two general categories - remedial and compensatory. Remedial approaches seek to alleviate a specific deficit or improve an area of weakness. Compensatory approaches try to work-around or bypass a deficit. If a child is having trouble learning to read, a remedial strategy might focus on phonics to improve reading skill. In contrast, a compensatory strategy might provide a book on audiotape or an Optical Character Recognition system so the child could hear the text spoken aloud. However, the two approaches are not mutually exclusive, and providing assistive technology doesn't mean that an individual can’t also receive remedial instructions.

Assistive technology is a compensatory approach. Compensatory approaches are important for those who may not have the time to invest in remediating a specific difficulty like a college student, for example, faced with several hundred pages of text to read in a short period of time.

There are also some overlaps between these two categories, with compensatory technologies sometimes having remedial functions. There is evidence that students, who use speech recognition systems that convert spoken language to text on a computer screen, may also improve their reading comprehension and word recognition skills through use of the system.

It is imperative to make sure that an assistive tool works towards an individual's strengths. For instance, if someone has problem writing, their spelling and grammar maybe poor, however, he or she may be an articulate speaker. Instead of simply providing them a standard word processing program, they might be better off with speech-recognition software, a program that converts the spoken word to text. In another example, if a child is having trouble reading but can easily understand spoken words, then an Optical Character Recognition system with computerized speech that can read a book out loud for them could provide a great deal of benefit.

There are four components to be considered in finding the most appropriate assistive technology for someone with a learning disability. These are:

1.      The individual who needs the technology and their specific strengths, limitations, skill sets, knowledge and interests;

2.      The specific tasks or functions the assistive technology is expected to perform (such as compensation for a reading, writing or memory problem);

3.      The setting where the assistive technology will be used (school, home); and

4.      The device considerations such as ease of operation, reliability, portability and cost.

Keep in mind that assistive technologies are not a remedy for all deficiencies but are merely part of the approaches on how to deal with a learning disability issue. And if you’re a parent trying to find something to help your child, it is important to include your child in the selection process making sure that the technology really addresses their needs, that they are comfortable with it, and that they know how to use it properly.

Finally, an assistive technology should help the individual with a learning disability to function at a level that is commensurate with their intelligence. There are many tools for learning that are available; the challenge is to find one that works best for each specific individual's needs.

For consultation on Practical Assistive Technology, visit www.PracticalATSolutions.com.

Other article you will find interesting:

• How Can Assistive Technology Help Students with Disabilities?
• What Does the Law Say About Assistive Technology?
• What Is Assistive Technology?