The first three years of a child’s life are the critical brain development years.
How are you ensuring your child is being stimulated?
Childrens Development
“While a baby is in its most helpless stage, unable to sit up or crawl around or stand and walk, the brain cells are being produced at a phenomenal rate. So rapid is this process that the brain grows to half of its adult size by the age of six months! During this growth, the treatment and experience provided (deliberately or incidentally) is extremely important to the baby's later learning ability. This rapid brain growth occurs only once in a lifetime. Patterns for much of all future learning are established during this period.”
Balanced Beginings
“Touch, talking, and things an infant sees and smells all build connections if done with continuity in a loving, consistent, and predictable manner. These connections die if not maintained. If there are no experiences, the connections are pruned back and the brain remains small.”
EARLY BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
by Phyllis Porter, M.A.
“Childcare aimed at learning about others, about oneself, and learning how to control and use one's environment is invaluable.”
EARLY BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
by Phyllis Porter, M.A.
Early Brain Development
“The first three years of a child' s life are a critical time for stimulating the learning process. During this time the brain is influenced by environmental factors, including active communication between child and parent or caregiver. The ways in which parents interact with their children will set the stage for an infant's growth and development throughout life.
Why are these years so important?
1. The brain undergoes its most rapid development in the first three years of life, and in this development the environment plays a central role. Nerve connections that are associated with specific skills such as language are developed during this critical period.
The brain has more nerve cells than will ever be used. In fact, 40 to 60% of these die off before birth because they do not find ways to become connected to each other. Stimulation helps to build these connections and pathways and lays the foundation for higher order thinking. This knitting or "wiring" of nerve cells into an efficient structure, must usually be made during this critical three year period.
2. During the first years of life the infant moves from helplessness to independence, sitting, standing, walking, and running. Critical social skills are developed, such as smiling, talking and sharing, often with parents and other family members.
3. Personality development, though guided by a child's temperament, is further established through these early interactions with parents. A child's psychological tasks include understanding that he/ she is an independent being, learning to trust, and mastering social and communication skills. The quality of environmental interactions can influence his or her success in these areas.
4. After the first several years of a child's life, it becomes much more difficult to make significant changes in a child's physical, cognitive, and emotional abilities.”
