BRAIN DEVELOPMENT: HELPING ALL CHILDREN DO AND BE THEIR BEST February 9, 2012 5:30 8:00 p.m. (Delicious Dinner First!)
Most annoying thing about learning about the brainmom was right! Everything we talk about tonight is with the understanding that you are already doing incredible things for your students!
My purpose is to share information about how the brain develops so that we can add to our understanding of how children learn and use that information to help ALL children do and be their best.
There is an explosion of information about the brain because of more sophisticated technology and interest. Most exciting new discoveries about the brain: plasticity and neurogenesis!
The basics: safety & security food & water sleep & process time movement* language affection experiences What is optimal for brain growth? The brain does not store energy. The RAS (reticular activating system) is the key to attention.
No matter how much we know there are some things beyond our influence but we can constantly make adjustments to help every child be a happy, healthy learner. I can t change the wind but I can adjust my sails.
Brains: require basic survival needs to be met so learning can occur. come on line as the child matures. develop in response to experiences. develop in response to nurturing. need physical activity and movement for optimum learning. are driven by emotion. 7 Big Ideas reorganize themselves throughout our lives.
7 Big Ideas Brains: require basic survival needs to be met so learning can occur. (food, water, sleep, safety) come on line as the child matures. (maturity develops from the bottom up) (get information from the senses)* *This is why we learn better when we get information is a variety of ways and remember information and processes better when we process in a variety of ways like visuals, singing, dramatizing, drawing...
7 Big Ideas Brains: develop in response to experiences. ( hands on minds on, natural materials, vocabulary, language, modeling) develop in response to nurturing. (basic care taking, touch, affection, emotional support, encouragement)
Stop Stand Think Talk What s on your brain?
7 Big Ideas Brains: need physical activity and movement for optimum learning. (physical activity and movement build better brains)*** *The brain does not store energy. We need to move to get fresh, oxygenated, glucose rich blood to the brain. *When we move we wake up the reticular activating system (RAS) which is our attention gate. Without attention there is no learning or memory. *We can build these in! E.g. Elbow spelling
7 Big Ideas Brains: are driven by emotion. (emotions can hijack our brain-fight, flight, freeze, float) reorganize themselves throughout our lives. (we form new connections between brain cells)
Stop Stand Think Talk What s on your brain?
The frontal lobe: emotions, reasoning, planning, movement, parts of speech. creativity, judgment, problem solving, and planning. The parietal lobe: the processing of nerve impulses related to the senses, such as touch, pain, taste, pressure, and temperature and language functions. The temporal lobes: hearing, memory, meaning, language emotion and learning, interpreting and processing auditory stimuli. The occipital lobe: brain's ability to recognize objects. - vision. The brainstem controls most basic life activities, including blood pressure, body temperature, motor activity, appetite and sleep. The cerebellum coordinates movement, balance muscle tone and coordinating the body s senses.
A 3-year-olds brain is 75% of adults size brain and twice as active as an adult's brain. Early experience and interaction with the environment are most critical in a child's brain development. 4 years Brain activity reaches a peak, resulting in a large need for energy. 5-6 years The brain is now 90% of its adult weight. Ages 3-6 are the prime learning times. Talking to young children establishes foundations for learning language during early critical periods when learning is easiest for a child.
The nervous system takes in information from the senses. In the years birth to 12 the brain is maturing and it develops more rapidly between birth and age 5 later than during any other period.
Humans are born with 100 billion neurons that make connections through synapses, wiring the brain for action. Experiences impact the types and amount of synaptic connections that are made. use it or lose it Only those connections and pathways that are activated frequently are retained. Other connections will be pruned so the active connections can become stronger.
Brain cells A human has about 100 billion brain cells. Glial Cells Glial cells outnumber neurons by 10 to 1, (50-1) Higher ratios of glial cells to neurons appear to indicate greater degrees of functioning in human brains. ("smarter") 70-90% of the cells in the cerebral cortex are glial cells, whose main responsibility, is to play "nursemaid" caring for the talkative neurons.
Neurons: magic trees in the mind A 3 year old child has far more neural connections than the adult brain. It daily consumes 225% more energy than an adult brain. When we learn something new, neurons in the cerebral cortex modify their connections to accommodate the new information, redefining the brain. Mirror neurons are neurons that fire when we observe another person do something. When we model empathic behaviour we help children build empathy.
The impressive power of the human brain comes, not from the number of brain cells, but from the constantly changing, infinite number of connections that the 100 billion surviving neurons make as a consequence of (1) genetic programming, and (2) stimuli encountered in the outside world. K.Wesson Nature AND Nurture
The important thing is that the cells make connections between each other AND that those connections are reinforced so they become myelinated. Myelination
Stop Stand Think Talk What s on your brain?
At approximately 4 years the myelination of the fibers connecting the cerebellum to the cerebral cortex is completed, resulting in a dramatic increase of motor skills.
The limbic system is in the central part of the brain and it controls emotions, attachment and memory. Because the frontal lobes are still developing young children our support is critical in helping them deal with fearful situations.
The cortex is the top layer of the brain and is about the depth of two dimes placed on top of each other. The cortex is the "executive branch" of the brain that regulates decision-making and controls thinking, reasoning and language. The cerebral cortex contains 80 percent of the neurons in the brain. Because it is the least developed part of the brain at birth and keeps developing until adolescence and even beyond it is more sensitive to experiences. Once the child reaches frontal lobes have matured children are more able to think in abstract terms.
3-6 years The frontal lobe areas of the brain related to planning and organizing, develop the fastest during this time. 6-puberty The parietal and temporal lobes in the brain, related to language and spatial relations, develop the fastest during this time. As they come on line children are more able to use grammatical speech.
Play is a brain booster! Play is an essential way humans learn to socialize. (relationships) Play helps brain development and promotes fairness, justice and empathy. (self regulation) Play increases efficiency and productivity. (playful folks are also healthier) Play gives children a chance to process information. If we can find a way to make learning and practice playful students will be more engaged.
What does this mean for us?
The brain has 2 hemispheres. These are only tendencies! Both hemispheres are involved in everything. 3-6 years Spurt in the development of the left hemisphere. Speech and language.
The hemispheres communicate through a band of nearly 800 million nerve fibers called the corpus callosum. At 3 most children operate with a split brain and have trouble crossing their midline. 4 years: major development of the corpus callosum occurs an children begin using both sides of their brain. As the 2 hemispheres begin to communicate better the child is able to tell real from pretend as the more left brained analytical skills and the more right brained and perceptual skills become more synced. (talking to themselves while they do puzzles) Once the corpus callosum has fully matured (age 9 to 12) 4 billion messages are exchanged between the hemispheres every second.
We do cross over activities to help children cross the midline and get the 2 sides talking to each other.
3 Making Every Brain The Best It Can Be I am constantly on the lookout for 2 things: 1.activities that will help students understand that their are things they can do to make their brains and bodies work together more efficiently. 2.activities that will help students develop their self regulation. Try this: Print the alphabet with your non-dominant hand. Do some activities to get the 2 sides of your brain working together. Print the alphabet with your non-dominant hand. What do you notice?
Review of Brain Gym Adaptations Cross Crawl Link Ups Lazy 8's Double Doodle
Making Every Brain The Best It Can Be I am constantly on the lookout for 2 things: 1.activities that will help students understand that their are things they can do to make their brains and bodies work together more efficiently. 2.activities that will help students develop their self regulation. Try this: Print the alphabet with your non-dominant hand. Do some activities to get the 2 sides of your brain working together. Print the alphabet with your non-dominant hand. What do you notice?
We can build in crossovers to reinforce skills. Skip counting\times tables Disco spelling
When both sides of the brain work together we double our thinking and self regulation power!
Stop Stand Think Talk
What can professionals do? Keep doing all the wonderful things you do now! Hands on activities Dialogue and scaffolding language Play and process time Movement indoors and out Practice with support and FUN Provide choice Positive language Specific feedback
Positive With Purpose: Using Language to Reinforce Productive Behaviours I used to say But now I say It is your job do everything you can to learn and not get in the way of other people s learning. It is your job do everything you can to learn and let other people do their learning. Don t run in the hall. Walk run in the hall. Stop kicking your feet. Keep your feet still. This room is a mess. We need to make this room tidy. Why do you think? Can you tell me about your thinking?
The art and the challenge we have is to take the most current information about how the brain works and apply it to what we do with our students. A powerful question for us is, What do we want to do more of more often?
Critical Periods of Brain Development Brain development: Is not finished at birth proceeds in waves different parts of the brain becoming active "construction sites at different times. responds to experience presents exciting opportunities for a child's development. learning continues throughout life. the brain is a kind of "supersponge," "prime times" or "windows of opportunity" absorbs new information more easily than at other times and develops in major leaps. While this is true especially in the first three years of life, it continues throughout early childhood and adolescence. However, providing children with the best opportunity for learning and growth during the periods when their minds are most ready to absorb new information is important.
Visual and auditory development The "prime time" for visual and auditory development, or a child's capacity for learning to see and hear, is from birth to between 4 and 5 years old. The development of these sensory capacities is very important for allowing children, especially babies, to perceive and interact with the world around them.
Language development The "prime time" for language development and learning to talk is from birth to 10 years of age. hildren are learning language during this entire period. owever, the "prime time" for language learning is the first few years of life. hildren need to hear you constantly talk with them, sing and read to them during these early years.
Physical and motor development The "prime time" for physical and motor development in children is from birth to 12 years of age. Children become physically ready for different aspects of motor development at different times. Large motor skills, such as walking, tend to come before the refinement of fine motor skills, such as using a crayon. A child needs several years to develop the coordination skills to play catch with a ball easily, and even then refinement of such skills continues into a child's early adolescence. Children vary in their rates of development.
Emotional and social development The "prime time" for emotional and social development in children is birth to 12 years of age. Differing aspects of emotional and social development, which incorporate higher capacities, such as awareness of others, empathy and trust, are important at different times. The real "prime time" for emotional attachment to be developed is from birth to 18 months, when a young child is forming attachments with critical caregivers. Such development provides the foundations for other aspects of emotional development that occur as children grow. Emotional intelligence is critical to life success. The part of the brain that regulates emotion, the amygdala, is shaped early on by experience and forms the brain's emotional wiring. Early nurturing is important to learning empathy, happiness, hopefulness and resiliency. Social development, which involves both self-awareness and a child's ability to interact with others, also occurs in stages. For example, sharing toys is something that a 2-year old's brain is not fully developed to do well, so this social ability is more common and positive with toddlers who are 3 or older.