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4 Mar 2009, 0800 hrs IST
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At birth, all of your baby’s organs – the heart, lungs, kidneys are fully developed, but smaller than an adult’s organs, except one - the brain.
Between the sixth week and fifth month of pregnancy your baby’s brain grows about 100 billion cells! Some of these brain cells are connected at birth, but most are not. During the first five years of life (and afterwards at a slower rate), your child’s brain is hard at work connecting these brain cells. More than three quarters of it is made of water. Scientists tell us that there are times when certain parts of the brain can learn new information more easily than at other times. They call these times windows of opportunity. Some of these windows open and then close during the first few years of life. Some ways that your child moves can actually improve her learning! When your baby crawls, your toddler plays patty-cake, or your preschooler dances with scarves, both sides of the brain are put to work. This is important because both sides of the brain are used in many learning skills. So movement can help prepare your child to learn. Never shake your baby! Shaking may cause your baby’s brain to swell, bleed, or bruise. Also, don’t throw your baby into the air, even though you are just playing. Hurting your baby’s brain by shaking or throwing may cause learning disabilities, blindness, seizures, mental retardation and even death. Positive emotions enhance memory. Diet activates memory. Aromas and colours also stimulate mental alertness and memory. Our bodies release harmful chemicals under stress, these chemicals are not good for the brain. The brain needs to be properly hydrated in order to be alert. Small muscle exercise stimulates brain growth. No wonder children are fidgety, constantly moving their fingers and toes! The more multi sensory the activity, the more likely the child is to process the learning activity. Sleep time is important for brain development, as the brain organises all material, otherwise can lead to confusion and loss of what is learnt. Breast-feeding your baby for the first twelve months of life can boost her IQ by up to 8 points. If you can’t breast-feed or have to stop early, be sure to use a commercial infant formula that is fortified with brain-boosting nutrients. Feed your toddler an optimal diet to enhance brain growth. Even a flight deficiency in a key vitamin, mineral, or nutrient (such as iron, iodine) during the time when the brain is going through its spectacular growth spurt can result in a lower IQ, poor test scores, depression, and even teen drug abuse down the road. If a child is stressed out, unhappy, under-stimulated poorly nourished, or exposed to brain toxins in the environment, important neural connections will die, his brain will be less efficient and simply stated, he will not be as smart. (Inputs from Swati Popat Vats; Director Podar Jumbo Kids and Podar Education Network, Mumbai) |
Things you didn’t know about human brain
Brain Training Is A Challenge
The idea is to create new circuitry. “When that scaffolding is finally in place,” Richard Restak wrote in his book Mozart’s Brain and the Fighter Pilot, “you will experience yourself in the world differently.”
“When we’re young we are recruiting neurons to form networks or nerve nets,” Restak goes on to say. As we age the networks can connect to multiple networks utilizing common neurons, which is why learning a second foreign language is made easier once you’ve learned the first one.
In truth, the things that require the most effort usually prove most rewarding. Moving out of the comfort zone is almost always a good idea and the sense of accomplishment, despite early frustration, can be so uplifting emotionally and such a confidence builder, all things combine to increase brain function. It’s difficult to convince your teenager of this but the older we get the more we realize just how meaningful that is.
The key is to step gently. It’s best to move ever so slightly out of the comfort zone and allow your brain a chance to process new concepts before moving on; it’s important to challenge ourselves without making the task so overwhelming that we lose interest.
Scientifically designed brain games are geared for that kind of gradual challenge.
Dealing With Depression
We are aware that drugs can help with depression and anxiety. Anti-depressants have become the treatment of choice to a large extent in curing a variety of mood disorders. A change in attitude can often attain similar results. In other words, the mind can alter the brain.
If the connections within the brain change from electrical to chemical at the synapses, attitude and activity can go along way to change our internal chemistry. It does not always work so easily and sometimes in extreme cases prescription drugs are necessary, however, exercise and the right kind of psychological stimulus can surprise us. Watching a “feel-good” movie or learning something new or listening to music are prime examples.
If you combined music with learning something new by undertaking to learn an instrument or simply strengthen your music appreciation, you might find such an endeavor brings with it new found hope, faith in the future and improved brain function.
In troubling times such as these, depression and anxiety readily crop up even for those not prone to depression. But simple pleasures and maintaining a positive attitude even to the point of absurdity can be keys to mental well-being, not to mention our very survival.
Get Your Kids Moving For Strong Hearts And Minds
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Parent Coach: Alyssa Martina
Benjamin Connor just can’t sit still. Fidgeting at his desk in the second grade classroom of Mrs. Flutey, Benjamin has a hard time focusing on his lessons. Staring out the window, he’s itching to get out on the playground and let loose.
At one point, Benjamin would be characterized as a restless child. Perhaps, his parents think, he may have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or some other learning challenge. Or Benjamin may simply need the opportunity to get up and get a little physical activity in order to pay attention in the classroom.
“We need to understand that kids need a break,” Dr. Romina Barros, a pediatrician and assistant professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said in a recent New York Times story. “Our brains can concentrate and pay attention for 45 to 60 minutes, and in kids it’s even less. For them to be able to acquire all the academic skills we want them to learn, they need a break to go out and release the energy and play and be social.” Benjamin’s restlessness could be his brain’s signaling to him that he simply needs to get up and move.
Studies today confirm that movement is essential part of learning and academic performance. In recent years, neuroscientists have well established that a brain’s neural connections are enhanced through plenty of movement and play in infants and toddlers. However, research also clearly demonstrates that movement is essential during the later years of childhood for cognitive and developmental capacities to continue to expand and grow. Simply put, physical movement, from newborns on up, is critical for brain optimization: physical activity fuels the brain.
A study at Rutgers University-Newark that was published in the journal nature affirms this notion that early motor activity is fundamental to cortical brain development. The infinitely complex system of interacting networks in the developing brain relies on an individual’s body movements rather than from sensory inputs and stimulation alone (such as television and video).
Scientists now believe that to achieve the optimization of a well-developed, mature brain, stimulation in the form of movement is especially necessary during all phases of a child’s development.
Movement not only strengthens neural development but also nourishes the brain with increased oxygen by increasing the capacity of its blood vessels. Furthermore, movement allows the left and right hemispheres of the brain to “cross-communicate.” The integration of both hemispheres of the brain is critical to learning. Eric Jensen, an educator and author, argues there is a strong correlation between the body and mind. In essence, Jensen advocates that physical movement/exercise is one of the ideal ways to augment learning. Students who are more physically active witness improved scholastic performance and have a more positive attitude about the schoolroom.
OK, so the linkage between movement and the mind appears undisputed. We know that, in the same way that exercise strengthens muscular development, physical activity stimulates and fuels brain growth by activating nerve cells in the brain and causing them to stimulate neurological pathways.
Although there is an abundance of studies that link movement to brain development and enhanced learning, many parents and educators still aren’t taking the hint and incorporating physical activity into a child’s daily regimen.
Schools, for legitimate budgetary and liability reasons, have severed the proverbial head of a child from her body by cutting “extracurricular” activities and programs. While this may appear to provide the added benefit of keeping children focused on studies in the classroom, the reasoning behind the desire to have children spend more time sitting learning and virtually no time engaged in movement is contrary to what the research shows and what we now understand about cognitive development and learning. In fact, the very activities and programs that have been eliminated (sports, dance, theater, recreation, art) are not “extracurricular” in any way but fundamental to learning itself. From early on, movement plays an integral role in cognitive development and learning. It is fundamental to the classroom experience.
In fact, movement benefits the whole child. In addition to the “invisible benefits” of nourishing the brain, movement can also diminish discipline problems. In a recently released study published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, researchers from Albert Einstein found that school recess can help reduce unruly classroom behavior.
From preventing obesity and developing physical fitness to improved cognitive function, movement should be a staple of every child’s daily activities. Early movement experiences and activities, so critical to optimal brain development, should be introduced early in life (yes, in infancy!) and encouraged throughout childhood and adolescence. It’s important to realize a child is never “just moving” or “just playing.” Every physical action embellishes the child’s development in some important, though frequently unobservable, way.
Apart from insisting that schools maintain movement programs, parents should, on their own, encourage their children to engage in physical activities, both structured (such as soccer teams and dance classes) and unstructured (playing games of hopscotch, or hide-and-seek or jump rope).
Avoid succumbing to urges to turn on the television or computer. Conquer your own couch-potato habits and do some role-modeling about physical exercise. Encourage movement-based hobbies and projects. Go biking, build a snowman, take family walks! It doesn’t matter what kind of activities you choose provided they stimulate appropriate forms of movement and last long enough to energize your bodies and brains. Acknowledge the importance of physical activity — at home and school — for your children, regardless of their ages.
Above all else, remember that movement promotes your children’s overall well-being and provides some of the most essential building blocks of the mature, developed brain. So, let them dance, play and march and move. Allowing your children to express themselves through movement and physical activity is not only good for the heart and soul but for the mind as well.
Alyssa Martina is founder, president and publisher of Metro Parent Magazine and one of Metro Detroit’s foremost experts on parenting. You can reach her at amartina@metroparent.com.
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Movement-in-Development
Title of dance: Movement-in-Development
Title of PhD: Multisensory processing of metrical structure in music: Movement influences adults’ and infants’ auditory perception.
Scientific synopsis: Auditory and vestibular systems receive coupled inputs, contributing to the brain’s multisensory processing of music. Infants learn to feel the beat of music through movement, and this shapes the perception of music throughout our entire lives. Thus music and movement promote early brain development, and play an integral role in the social and emotional experience of music, such as between mother and child, between lovers, and in any community around the world and throughout human history.
Artistic vision: The first musical interaction is between the mother and her infant, such as through the mother’s singing and musical movement. The child becomes a woman, and music functions in her bonding with a mate, which is expressed through a spontaneous salsa dance. The woman becomes a mother, and in her turn, moves musically with her new child. The life cycle continues, and music is always present.
Artist: Jessica Phillips-Silver, Ph.D.
Duration : 0:3:38
Right Brain Education for Accelerated Early Learning
Listen to the founder of Right Brain Education, Pamela Hickein, explain how it can help activate — or re-activate — the lesser-recognized right hemisphere, and why it can be so vital to achieve whole-brain integration.
Developed by Pamela in a Montessori environment, Right Brain Education is a gentle but powerful method of activating both left and right hemispheres of the brain to work together to accelerate learning, activate photographic memory, promote speed reading and make early learning fun for both children and parents. As an accelerated early learning program, it was also inspired by early childhood educators such as Maria Montessori, Glenn Doman, Makodo Shichida, Tony Buzan and others.
Right Brain Education is not just a knowledge-building program — it is a way to learn more deeply and efficiently.
Right Brain Education is built upon scientific findings about brain development. Because the outer cortex of the brain develops from right to left, this gives a window of time during which your child is functioning primarily with the right hemisphere.
In the first six years of life, a child’s right brain is open and primed to absorb incredible amounts of information. Children with early exposure to quality topics during this time — such as math, reading and writing — create a rich knowledge library they’ll tap into for the rest of their lives.
Right Brain Kids has a gentle early learning program called TweedleWink for children ages zero to about six that is tailored with special methods and techniques to help take optimum advantage of this highly fertile right brain learning period.
See a sample TweedleWink right brain lesson at http://www.rightbrainkids.com/early-learning-flashcards/
As a child continues to grow and develop, their right brain pathway becomes less engaged. Right Brain Kids has a program called Wink that uses delightful games and playful training exercises to help reactivate and maintain a child’s right brain connection.
Right Brain Education is very popular in Asia and the Far East where they place a great deal of emphasis and value on early learning and in giving their children every academic advantage to excel in school.
Get more information from an eBook at http://www.rightbrainkids.com/genius-child-program-ebook/
Pamela Hickein is a mother of four children, ages 3 to 15. She is an international author, educator and teacher trainer with over 300 students in Asia, North and South America, Europe, and Australia. She has been and honored speaker at the National ociation for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) sharing how to create caring, right brain learning environments for our children and youth.
Pamela Hickein is one of the principal owners of Right Brain Kids, the official web site of Right Brain Education. Pamela is active in teaching and promoting Right Brain Education on her web site.
Duration : 0:4:30
Embryo axon brain development
A look in baby brain during development
Embryo axon brain development
Embryo axon brain development