Hay-wired or Re-wired: the Brain--Reading and Writing skills

 

 

Brain Development 

Hay-wired or Re-wired

 Reading & Writing Skills

 

As I continue to research the connection between reading, character development, and intellectual development, I have come across some interesting results. The more prevalent the dysfunctional symptoms of ADD, ADHD, OD, and the like, surface in our life time, the more I am convinced that our electronic culture is at the root of the problem. When hospitals start using video screens to pacify babies in their cribs, then it is time for something to be done; when children are in left in front of a TV or computer screen at home and now at school for hours in the day, then something must be done.  Parents need to understand that tv and computer programs can harm the intellectual and character development of their children during a time when there is only a narrow window for growth. A baby's brain as you are about to read, has over a 100 billion brain cells with over a 1000 trillion connections! Can you imagine? At an early age these connections are then "hard" wired as language skills are developed, math, motor skills, art, comprehension etc.  Connections are made through repetition.  There is a saying that might help here: "What fires together, wires together." Electronic gadgets, including the tv and video games change on the screen on an average, every two seconds. A child's brain that is influenced by such interaction is being "wired" to be disorganized. The ADD ADHD phenomenon is not difficult to understand. If you read the recommendations at the end of this article, you will learn how to help your children develop logically connected thought patterns.  Here is some basic research that will help one to understand the importance of interacting with children once again…face to face. The following is an excellent guide to help parents understand the foundational requirements needed to prepare children to become skilled readers and writers.    

 

Understanding Brain Development

Parents, teachers, and others who closely observe children have long recognized the importance of the early years. They know that talking with and responding to babies is the best way to promote security and encourage healthy development. By taking advantage of new technologies--including brain scans--scientists can now see how and when the brain works. Recent research provides proof that a child's interactions and experiences in the first few years of life have a large impact on social, emotional, intellectual, and language development.

Babies are born with 100 billion brain cells, called neurons, virtually all of the brain cells they will ever have. The neurons are not yet connected into networks as they will be when the brain is mature. As babies respond to experiences in their world of home, family, and caregivers, their brain cells form networks that give them the capacity to think and learn. Connections are made as brain cells send signals to and receive input from each other. A single cell can connect with as many as 15,000 other cells. The resulting network of connections is called the brain's wiring or circuitry.

Interactions and Experiences That Stimulate Brain Development

Brain development occurs around the clock, when babies are with their parents and when they are cared for by others. Every important caregiver--relative, neighbor, child care provider--has an impact on the baby's brain development. As babies respond to these actions, their brains develop connections. Touch is particularly important to babies' development. Holding and stroking a baby stimulates the brain to release the hormones that allow for growth. Each time the baby experiences new things to look at, hear, taste, smell, touch, and feel, new connections are formed.

Shortly after birth a baby's brain produces trillions more connections between neurons than it can possibly use. By age three, the child's brain has formed 1,000 trillion connections--twice as many as in an adult brain. Beginning at about age 10, the child's brain begins getting rid of the extra connections and gradually creates a more powerful and efficient circuitry. The brain permanently retains the connections that are used repeatedly in the early years and eliminates connections that are seldom or never used. For example, children who are seldom spoken to or read to in the early years tend to have difficulty mastering language skills because their brains eliminate the unused connections used for this type of learning.

How the Brain Creates Learning Windows

Neurons send their signals through axons - the lines that form electrical connections with other cells. Many of the axons are wrapped with cells which form myelin sheaths. The sheaths insulate the axon, allowing it to send a signal 100 times faster than if it did not have the sheath. Newborns have very few myelinated axons, which explains why they don't see well or have good motor coordination. Without the myelin sheath, their neurons don't work fast enough and can't coordinate well.

Myelinization is the key to understanding learning windows--the times in a child's development when a particular kind of learning is most easily acquired. Different regions of the child's brain become myelinated at different ages. The brain knows which areas to myelinate first--which kind of learning needs to occur before another.

The region in the brain for language production is called Broca's area. When this area becomes myelinated children develop speech and grammar. Wernicke's area--the center of language comprehension--is myelinated six months before Broca's area even starts to develop. The brain makes it possible for a child to understand language before he or she produces it. 

Some language learning windows remain open throughout our lives. For example, we continue adding new words to our vocabularies into adulthood. Some language windows close quite early in a child's life. For example, the window for acquiring syntax may close as early as 5 or 6 years of age. Children can still learn the language skill after the window has closed; however, it will be a more difficult process. This reinforces the importance of encouraging children's learning in the early years. Some young children have not received the experiences and interactions that stimulate the natural development of language skills. Effective teaching, coupled with a responsive tutoring program implemented by well-trained tutors, can help these children gain the foundation needed to become readers and writers.

Recommended Resources: if you are a parent, the follow resources are must reads: The Disappearance of Childhood by Postman; Amusing Ourselves to Death by Postman; Reading Between the Lines by Veith, The Education of a Child by Fenelon. Education of a Child audio by Hamby