Chapter 5 A busy brain is a smart brain? How you learn new things and how to optimize this process Jesse had to learn and absorb a lot of new things. In the world of medicine, you have to constantly learn. And Jessie has been studying for as long as she can remember. However, since she

Brain structures are formed by age three
What happens to a baby's brain after he is born? How to stimulate child's brain development?

After birth, the set of neurons that the child will have has already been formed; there are more than 86-100 billion of them (and according to some estimates, much more). It was already formed before the mother’s mid-pregnancy. New neurons are not formed on a large scale after birth (there are only hundreds or perhaps thousands of hippocampal neurons, and neurogenesis has not yet been proven for cortical neurons).

The way our brain works is determined not by the number of neurons, but by the number of connections between them, they are called synapses. In an adult, neurons are connected to each other into neural networks that intersect many times. One neuron can participate in a huge number of completely diverse neural networks. Each neuron receives approximately 15,000 inputs from other neurons and gives approximately 1,500 inputs to other neurons.
A child is born, all his neurons are in place, but there are very few connections between them.

Then a completely fantastic process begins, of which ordinary people have little suspicion. Starting somewhere from two to four months of life, then another leap to six, literally every hour 15,000,000 synapses (connections between neurons) are formed in the child’s brain. Mad dash. The child’s neural networks become hyperconnected. This period is called the period of synaptic overproduction. Any of us has much less than a child.
By eight to nine months of life, a child has a much more complexly connected neural network than any adult - the best way to adapt to an unknown future.
The plasticity potential of the newborn brain during the period of overproduction is extremely high. Neural networks in this period, when they are extremely plastic, due to the fact that they are super-connected, can be re-educated.

So, two years after birth, a complex neural network is formed in the child’s brain, more complex than that of any adult. And at 6 years old, the complexity of this neural network begins to decline. The number of synaptic contacts is greatly reduced. Why?

Synaptogenesis. Formation of connections between neurons from 39 weeks of pregnancy to 6 years

During development, a child's brain competes frantically for binding space, called synaptic competition. Those connections that are not used disappear.

Use it or you'll lose it!

Interesting example

If a 5-6 year old adult has a cataract in the eye, clouding of the lens. Then this cataract is “removed” and the eye continues to see - everything is fine. If the cataract is congenital, surgery is performed at three years of age - the eye remains forever blind. Why?

We modeled this situation on animals that had one eye closed from birth. It turned out that no degradation of neurons occurs. The lack of visual influx led to the fact that there was not a single neuron left in the cerebral cortex that would respond to stimulation of the previously closed eye. All neurons responded to stimulation of the eye that received visual experience in the first three months of the animal's life.

It turns out that the connections that came from the closed eye lost the competition in some kind of competitive struggle. Those connections that did not work, were not excited, did not conduct information, were lost, and all synaptic sites for connecting neurons in the visual cortex were occupied by working connections.
The principle is: “Use it or you will lose it.”
You will lose in the competition.

At the moment when this incredible growth of synapses in the child’s brain begins (synaptic overproduction), one immature neuron has a huge number of branches, it seems to organize redundant binding sites. In fact, the left and right eyes compete for the binding site. And in some places the left eye wins, in other places the right eye wins. Nerve connections are divided: connections from one eye go to one place, connections from the other eye to another place. (This is how the function of binacular vision arises, i.e. the ability to perceive the depth of space). This competition is necessary for the function to arise. Developmental processes are processes that await experience. This vigorous synaptic overproduction, which is determined genetically, awaits experience as the sculptor who will create from it the final structure of neural connections, which will be optimal for processing the information that the brain encounters in this particular environment.

During this synaptic overproduction, unused synapses are destroyed, losing competition; used synapses rapidly branch, change and form more and stronger connections.

Nothing is guaranteed in the development of neural networks in a child’s brain. The result will be one way or another, depending on what environment the developing brain finds itself in and how strongly the processes of competition work.

“Every newborn child is a born genius, but under the involuntary influence of the people around him and/or not very fortunate circumstances, he gradually turns into mediocrity.”

B. Fuller

To what extent can external stimuli drive the development of the child's cerebral cortex during this early period of development?
To an incredible degree! Even blind children can develop vision during this early period.

In special experiments on animals with tricky surgical transections, the flow of visual information was redirected from the visual cortex to the somatosensory cortex (which processes information about sensations and temperature sensitivity), and the visual cortex was destroyed. If the visual flow is redirected to the somatosensory cortex, and the somatosensory flow is removed altogether, then in such small animals that should have been blind, the somatosensory cortex begins to process visual information. It has been proven that these animals see, and all their somatosensory neurons acquire visual properties. This is the incredible plasticity of neural networks in the early period of anthogenesis.

The higher association areas of the cortex are more associated with the organization of complex brain functions. They go through the same period of synaptic overproduction, and then synaptic pruning, thinning, in competition. Survival of the fittest. First, too many synapses are formed, and then some of the synapses are destroyed.

If you deprive the eye of the ability to see, do not allow it to conduct and process information in the early period, it becomes functionally blind, loses its connections with processing neurons, but what if more complex associative areas are deprived of experience?

Many results have been obtained from studies of children in Romanian orphanages under Ceausescu, whose terrible conditions shocked the whole world. Despite foster families, consultations with psychologists, teachers, etc., the enriching experience that they tried to arrange for them, it turned out that a number of functions in these children were not sufficiently restored. Significantly worse than normal. Studies using instrumental methods have shown persistent severe hypometabolism in the frontal regions of the brain.

Deprivation of the experience of social contacts in the first two to three years of life leads to severe underdevelopment and changes in these areas of the cerebral cortex. This incredibly adaptive, incredibly plastic developmental process responds heavily to deprivation. Not because we remove the processes of competition, but because in this competition we allow the worst to win.

We change the processes of competition. We give the opportunity to win to the process, which will then poorly adapt the brain to behavior in a particular environment.

We used materials from lectures by Tatyana Aleksandrovna Stroganova, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Developmental Psychophysiology, Faculty of Clinical and Special Psychology, Moscow City Psychological and Pedagogical University, Head of the Center for Neurocognitive Research (MEG-Center) at MSUPE.

“The period when connections between neurons are most actively formed is the period from the birth of a child to three years. At this time, approximately 70-80% of such compounds are generated. And as they develop, the capabilities of the brain increase. Already in the first six months after birth, the brain reaches 50% of its adult potential, and by three years - 80%. Of course, this does not mean that a child’s brain stops developing after three years. By the age of three, the back part of the brain mainly matures, and by the age of four, the part of it called the “frontal lobe” is included in this complex process.

Mature abilities such as thinking, needs, creativity, feelings develop after three years, but they use the base formed by this age.

Thus, if a solid foundation has not been formed in the first three years, it is useless to teach how to use it. It's like trying to achieve good results while working on a bad computer."

Masaru Ibuka
Founder of the Japan Early Development Association in 1969.

Human Brain Development

Synapse formation depends on early experience (700 per second in early years) Human Brain Development

From birth, a child's ability to perceive new things grows as rapidly as a rocket takes off. And, like a rocket, this amazing ability reaches its highest point, after which it freezes. By the age of six, her growth is virtually zero. But the wisdom curve gradually begins to grow, and it can even be considered that it first manifests itself at the age of six. All this can be depicted in the following diagram.

Ability and Wisdom Curves

The ability to learn increases and then quickly decreases, but at the same time wisdom begins to gradually increase. By the age of six these two curves meet. At the point where they meet, the child's ability to perceive information without any effort reaches its limit, and any significant brain growth actually stops. However, wisdom only begins to develop and gradually increases throughout the rest of life.

What is not used atrophies

If you do not provide nutrition to a newborn baby during the first three months and put him on water, this will lead to the fact that these children become not fully developed throughout their lives, turning into inferior adults.

If you close your eye in the first months of life, it stops seeing (experiments on animals). It is known that if a child grows up in darkness for the first years of his life, he will remain blind forever. Despite the fact that his visual organs will be in order, the visual function, which is formed in the brain only during the period of its growth, will not function.
If a child grows up in a sound vacuum for the first years of his life, he will remain deaf for the rest of his life.

If you do not communicate with a child for the first two or three years of life, this will lead to severe underdevelopment throughout his life.

Monstrous case

In 1970, a monstrous incident occurred in the United States - a feral girl, Genie, was discovered, who for the first 12 years of her life was imprisoned by a mentally ill father in a room, being in complete social isolation.
Her physical development corresponded to the development of a two and a half year old child, and in terms of mental development the girl was at the level of a one-year-old child. Naturally, she couldn’t speak and was a complete idiot. According to medical records, the girl was absolutely healthy during the first six months of her life.

Susan Curtis: “Gini's functional delay is due to the conditions in which she was kept during the first years of her life. She is not mentally retarded in the strict sense of the word. In particular, Genie took tests every year and demonstrated the development of intelligence every year. This doesn’t happen to mentally retarded people.”

After many years of training, Genie finally began to speak, but only reached the level of speech development of a 5-year-old child.

The same fate could have awaited Leonardo da Vinci, Lomonosov or Shakespeare if they had found themselves in similar circumstances.

If a child’s brain does not develop in the first years of life, then it will never develop in the future.

Children who were in a materially and emotionally impoverished environment during the first 6–12 months can no longer catch up in development with their normally developing peers.

All stages of human development are important, but the first one to two years are a critical window that forms the mental foundation for future life.
Scientists identify several main factors that influence the formation of a child’s brain: genes, daily experience, contact with parents, nutrition, physical activity, love.

The influence of positive emotional connections on the development of brain activity has also been scientifically proven.

An increase in brain mass is an increase not in the number of neurons, but in the number of connections between them. The computational resource of the brain is not its weight, or even the number of neurons, but the number of connections that neurons establish with each other, i.e. number of synapses. They number in the trillions. And the normal development of a child’s brain in the first stage, especially two years, is a very rapid increase in the density of synapses. And it turns out that the location of many neurons in our brain is genetically determined, but what kind of network will be formed, how many contacts there will be, how its work will depend on this or that type of reinforcement - all this is largely reinforced by the first years and months of life.

Vyacheslav Albertovich Dubynin,
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor of the Department of Human and Animal Physiology, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University.
The child's intelligence grows in proportion to the amount of information received.
Moreover, it leads to physical growth of the brain.
Neurons in a three-year-old child's brain are twice as active as neurons in an adult's head.

Every day, more and more new connections between neurons appear in the heads of babies, and a lot depends on what they will be like, including their future character, skills, abilities, and habits.

A child's brain can accommodate an unlimited amount of information.

The ability to absorb information is much higher in a child's brain than in an adult. It is impossible to “overfeed” or overstimulate him: a child’s brain, like a sponge, quickly absorbs knowledge, but when it feels that it is full, it switches off and stops perceiving new information. We should be concerned not that we are giving the child too much information, but rather that there is too little of it to fully develop him.

Those psychologists and learning experts who say: "Don't deprive your child of his childhood!" , for some reason they don’t mention anything about how the children themselves feel about this. They simply express their attitude to the learning process. Try getting a small child to do something! You won't succeed. He will always do only what he likes and is interested in!

The best time for a child is the time he spends with his parents.
The human brain grows only through constant use and this growth is virtually complete by the age of six. Everything that can come out of a given child is determined by the first six years of his life.

The ability to learn new facts is inversely proportional to age.
Most people believe that as we age, we become brighter and more gifted. In this case, they simply confuse giftedness with wisdom.
From conception to the moment of birth, the brain grows at an amazing speed; this speed remains gigantic from birth to thirty months, after which, up to the age of six, it continues to be quite high, and only then slows down sharply. From here it is easy to understand that from birth to six years, during each subsequent month the brain grows more slowly than during the previous one. Needless to say, the earliest moments of life are in this regard the most valuable.

Interesting

Carl Friedrich Gauss, one of the greatest mathematicians of the 19th century, discovered the formula for the sum of arithmetic series when he was only 8 years old.

Gauss's father was a simple mason, he repaired walls, fences, fireplaces and often took his son with him to work. Gauss handed his father bricks and counted them. Apparently, Gauss's mathematical abilities were formed under the influence of this habit in early childhood.

If you tell your child the facts, he will begin to look for the rules himself.
to which they obey.

Children learn three times more in the first six years of life than in the rest of their lives. By age six, brain growth is largely complete.

During the first six years of life, the human brain absorbs information at an astonishing rate. During these years, the child is an accumulator of information that will be useful to him throughout his life, and we can hardly imagine the size of this “accumulator”. This information will serve as the basis for other knowledge and wisdom that will grow throughout your life. What we don't use, we lose. And this is so obvious that it does not require additional explanation.

Knowing that the brain grows through its use during the first six years of life, and that we can influence that growth, is truly invaluable.

In 2007, a panel that included representatives from 30 business schools, 9 leading global experts and Nobel laureate Mr. Fin Kindlan concluded that early childhood development was the most effective social investment strategy among 30 other strategies proposed for consideration ( improvement of the tax system, investment in infrastructure development, reduction of public debt, etc.).

This conclusion was also supported by economists from the Cosensus Center in Copenhagen and experts from the University of California.

The first six years of life are the time when geniuses emerge.

During these same six years, mainly the formation of the brain occurs. How amazingly quickly the brain grows and how quickly this growth stops is clearly shown by the following figures: How quickly the brain develops

Head size
Newborn - 35 cm
2.5 years - 50 cm by 15 cm more
21 years old - 55 cm 5 cm more

Our whole life is not enough for us to use even one thousandth of the potential that lies in our brain. The human brain has the capacity to hold 125"500"000"000"000 bits of information.

People are only intelligent because they use their brains. The development of our child’s brain is more successful the more we help him in this. And we can contribute to this by providing him with a lot of information. And it is best to do this in the first six years of life for reasons that have already been mentioned many times.

Our children are smarter the more opportunities we give them to be smart. And this is especially true during the first six years of life.

Child brain development and intelligence quotient (IQ)

If a child does not receive any information during the first six years of his life, he will turn into a complete idiot. If you treat him like an idiot, the result will be about the same. He himself is not able to learn too much: the structure of his toy, yes, thanks to the conversations that took place around him, his native language. By the age of six, his level of development will be below average, and his IQ, accordingly, will be below 100 (i.e., the norm). If you treat your child as if he were the most ordinary, he will become the most ordinary, reaching an average IQ level of 100. Child Development

If you are familiar with the principles of brain development, you will begin to treat your child completely differently, organizing systematic reading and math classes for him, and giving him the opportunity to gain encyclopedic knowledge. In this case, your child will reach the six-year development level when he is only four years old, and his IQ will be equal to 150. If you follow the methods of Glenn Doman for this, he will achieve the same result in three years, and his IQ will be equal to 200, or even higher. But the most important thing is that already at the age of three the child’s brain will be equal in development to the brain of a six-year-old. All this has been proven at the Institute for the Development of Human Potential in Philadelphia, whose founder was Glenn Doman.

Neuroscientists at the Institute for the Development of Human Potential, led by Glenn Doman, have devoted fifty years to solving the problem of children with brain injuries. They were given the task of developing the brains of mentally retarded children. And they managed to do this; moreover, sick children began to develop faster than healthy ones.

Previously, brain injuries were considered an incurable disease. The Glen Doman Institute for the Development of Human Potential has proven that a child with mental retardation can develop into a normal, educated person if he is taught correctly from birth.

When this technique was tested on healthy children, the results exceeded all expectations! Healthy children developed twice as fast.
IQ allows you to track this growth - and nothing more. If a two-year-old child can cope with tasks for a four-year-old, this means that his IQ is 200, that is, twice the average level. Even then, in 1965, there were hundreds of mentally retarded children aged two or three years old who had serious brain injuries, but who could read and fully understand what they read.

“Scientists have discovered that children who are often praised become more intelligent than children who are often scolded. This is the creative element of praise.”

Thomas Dreyer

“Since ancient times, it has been believed that outstanding talent is, first of all, heredity, a whim of nature. When we are told that Mozart gave his first concert at the age of three, or that John Stuart Mill was reading classical literature in Latin at the age of three, most people say: “Of course, they are geniuses.”

However, a detailed analysis of the early lives of both Mozart and Milla suggests that they were strictly raised by fathers who wanted to make their children outstanding. I assume that neither Mozart nor Mill were born geniuses; their talent developed to its maximum due to the fact that favorable conditions were created for them from early childhood and they were given an excellent education.

Conversely, if a newborn is raised in an environment that is initially alien to its nature, it has no chance of fully developing in the future. The most striking example is the story of the Indian girls Amala and Kamala, found in the 1920s in a wolf cave southwest of Calcutta.

Great efforts were made to restore the children raised by wolves to human form, but all efforts were in vain.

It is taken for granted that a child born of a human is a human, and a wolf cub is a wolf. However, these girls continued to exhibit wolfish habits even in human conditions. It turns out that the education and environment into which a baby finds itself immediately after birth most likely determines what he will become - a man or a wolf!
As I reflect on these examples, I think more and more about the enormous impact education and environment have on a newborn. This problem has become of the greatest importance not only for individual children, but also for the health and happiness of all mankind.

Therefore, in 1969, I set about creating the Japan Early Childhood Development Association. Our and foreign scientists gathered in experimental classes to study, analyze and expand the application of Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s method of teaching children to play the violin, which was then attracting the attention of the whole world.”

Masaru Ibuka
Founder of the Japan Early Development Association.

The formation of the human brain begins during fetal development. The peak activity of this process occurs in the first 12 months of life. It is important to understand that the degree of personal integrity depends on the fulfillment of a number of conditions that affect the coherence of all functions of the body. The successful development of a baby requires maximum effort from parents. The efforts made at this stage contribute to the transformation of the child into a self-confident person, clearly aware of his abilities and having a rich inner world.

Components of the brain

The formation of the brain occurs in a strictly defined order. At the initial stage, changes affect the brain stem, at the final stage - the cerebral cortex.

Located at the base of the skull, the brain stem is responsible for many vital signs, including skin temperature and blood pressure. In its upper part is the midbrain, which controls sleep, appetite and motor activity. Maintaining balance and coordinating movements are controlled by the cerebellum, hidden behind the brain stem. Memory, adaptability and emotions are assigned to the limbic system, called the central part of the brain.

The top layer, the thickness of which ranges from 1.5-4.5 mm, is called the cerebral cortex. Thanks to it, the decision-making process is regulated. The functions it performs also include control over such important processes for humans as speech and thinking. The cerebral cortex accounts for 80% of the brain's neurons. At the time the baby is born, the level of development of this part of the brain leaves much to be desired. Its improvement often continues after adolescence. It is the cerebral cortex that demonstrates the greatest degree of sensitivity to the impressions that befall the child.

Truth and fiction

Over the past decades, scientific luminaries have conducted many studies designed to reveal the secrets of the development of the human brain. Thanks to their work, the population of the Earth became aware of the fact that The brain activity of a three-year-old baby is twice that of an adult. Scientists have also proven that the predominant part of brain cells is formed during the stay of the fetus in the womb, and infancy and early childhood are characterized by the formation of a huge number of connections. It was also possible to establish that in moments of conversation with children who cannot speak, the foundation of language proficiency is laid, and learning at the stage of early critical periods of development shows the best results due to the ease of perception on the part of the child.

Nowadays, many doctors are convinced that most of all children need care, love and a sufficient number of new impressions. From this point of view priority remains on playing together, singing, talking and reading. As practice shows, not a single toy can make up for the lack of live communication. The statement about the invaluable experience gained as a result of interaction with surrounding people and the environment. These factors are recognized as most beneficial during the developmental stage of the child's brain.

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Spatial orientation: how to teach a child to distinguish between right and left

At the beginning of life, a child, as a rule, does not come into contact with the larger world. Therefore, many parents...

Nowadays, we no longer talk about the full development of the brain at the time of birth. Such a complex system works differently than the stomach or heart. As it turns out, the genome laid down at conception is not the only factor influencing brain development. The list of false statements was also supplemented by the phrase about the lower brain activity of a baby taking his first steps compared to the level of brain activity of a university student. In addition, the myth regarding the need for special help and the importance of providing the baby with specific educational toys in order to develop thinking abilities was shattered. It also turned out that the importance of conversations with infants who do not have their own opinion regarding the subject of the conversation was previously underestimated.

Features of the development of the children's brain

As already mentioned, the initial stage of brain formation falls during the period of the fetus’s stay in the mother’s womb. On the day the physical connection with the mother is severed, accompanied by cutting the umbilical cord, the number of cells contained in this organ reaches an impressive 100 billion. An isolated existence excludes the presence of connections, the active process of formation of which begins after the first independent breath.

The most significant proportion of connections are formed during the first three years of life. In the future, there is a possibility that some of them will rupture. The degree of their strength depends on the amount of attention, care and love devoted to the little person. It is these elements that form the necessary basis, without which full development of the individual is impossible.

The number of neurons given to us by nature is approximately 20 times greater than the population of the Earth and 10 times greater than the number of stars included in such a large galaxy as the Milky Way.

Neurons are called the nucleus of the brain. The connections formed between them continue to remain one of the most interesting mysteries of the human body. The experience accumulated to date and fresh impressions include the mechanisms for the formation of the so-called brain circuit. The complexity of the network formed as a result of the interaction of individual cells with each other is most eloquently demonstrated by the fact that each of the tiny elements can communicate with 15,000 of its fellows.

At the stage of brain development, the first year of life is most significant. Constantly repeated calling by name contributes to the formation of connections in such a way that the baby, after a certain time, begins to perceive this name as a call that requires a response. Created at great speed connections lay the foundation of our habits, memories, thoughts, mind and consciousness.

In the brain three year old baby generated approximately 1000 trillion connections. Adults, oddly enough, are much “poorer” by this indicator (almost twice as much). When a child reaches approximately eleven years of age, the process of getting rid of unnecessary connections begins in the brain. The environment and close relatives act as a stimulator for the growth of compounds and their further ordering. The learning structure reproduces repeated experience. Connections that have not been activated for a long time are subject to exclusion. There is a theory according to which positive or negative actions committed once have a certain impact on the development of the brain.

Constructive activity of preschoolers

During the period of preschoolers' stay within the walls of the kindergarten, children are accustomed to work activities,...

Daily use of connections during the first years of life transforms them into permanent units. Repeating stable verbal structures promotes speech recognition and strengthens language connections.

Stages of brain formation

The period of brain development can be divided into several stages:

• stay in the womb
• infancy stage,
• childhood
• and youth.

Each of these time intervals is unique. Successful completion of each of them is impossible without certain conditions. Failure to comply can result in serious problems.

Infancy is usually divided into 2 periods. The first (critical) period, which occurs for 1-8 weeks. These days are allocated for the formation of visual functions. Violation of the norm of visual influence in the direction of its decrease increases the likelihood of poor development of nerve cells. Such complications can haunt a person for the rest of his life.

A longer sensitive period begins from six months and lasts up to approximately 24 months. It is characterized by facial recognition, a favorable attitude towards acquaintances and display of wariness towards strangers. At this stage, the baby’s attachment to his protective mother, who radiates warmth and love, is formed.

The curve reproducing the stages of brain formation has a wave-like structure. The nature of the line reflects the level of the brain's response to impressions. The higher this indicator, the more opportunities for brain development. The peaks of the bursts occur at different time intervals, corresponding to the most productive stages of brain development.

Periods favorable for learning are called “windows of opportunity.” On these days, information is received and processed more intensively than during periods of relative calm. A person hones skills in various fields of activity throughout his life. The learning process can only be interrupted by death.

The most fruitful period of brain development coincides with the first three years of life, extending into early childhood and adolescence. This is what explains the ease with which children learn the grammar of their native language, with which they come into contact every day. Learning at a later age turns out to be less effective due to the slower pace of learning. Children who take advantage of opportunities at the most suitable periods for acquiring knowledge will subsequently find it much easier to join the team and realize themselves.

Periods of skill formation

Parents should have an idea of ​​the timing of this or that activity. Knowledge in this area will help determine the level of development of the baby. Shifting the timing involves contacting a doctor to avoid complications in the baby’s physical or mental condition.

Prolonged sleep and lack of obvious activity is the norm for infants 1-8 weeks. After this period, children are characterized by multiple smiles and laughter. Over the next few months Head turns are replaced by rollovers. Four month old babies They excel in this skill and make attempts to grasp objects that are at arm's length. Nine month old babies They are already sitting with support, crawling and taking their first steps with the help of adults. The predominant part yearlings Tomboys not only walk confidently, but also run quickly.

Orientation in space for preschoolers

In preschool age, children's perception of space undergoes significant changes. As o...

Taking care of children 0-12 months involves more than just feeding and dressing. Active intervention in the baby’s life on the part of parents is encouraged. Responsible mothers begin to take care of the child already during pregnancy and include protein-rich foods in their diet. Their menu also includes food products that contain omega-3 acid. This element contributes to the normal functioning of brain cells and the formation of full connections between them.

The benefits of breast milk are legendary. The food supplied by the mother protects the baby from infections, develops its immune system and has a beneficial effect on brain activity.

A lack of love and attention is much worse than its excess. Fathers and mothers need to spend time with the child, sing him lullabies, read fairy tales and not let physical development take its course. Baby-safe toys with a pleasant-to-touch surface can be an excellent help. At the selection stage, it is advisable to give preference to developing varieties. Parents can also play mimic games with their child, varying the intonation and strength of the voice. A baby observing the behavior of adults will subsequently be able to reproduce the emotions corresponding to a particular facial expression.

Reading is designed to sharpen your listening skills and develop your ability to recognize emotions, expressed by vocal vibrations. Understanding the material fades into the background. Lack of training also negatively affects the stimulation of visual functions. A child can learn to distinguish shades both at home and outside the apartment or house.

Loneliness is detrimental to a child. During waking hours, he needs the company of other people. The success of communication in the future depends on the fulfillment of this condition. A conversation with a child should not take place in elevated intonations. During a conversation, it is advisable to minimize exposure to distracting extraneous noise. Communication should be on a positive note. It is advisable to get rid of negativity in advance.

Maximum development of physical and mental capabilities guarantees the absence of difficulties at the stage of adaptation to society. The systematic development of children is observed in families that surround children with attention, warmth and love. At the same time, it is extremely important to perceive the baby as an equal partner with his own needs.

Hearing and vision

Abilities in recognizing sounds and visual images are formed up to 4-5 years. The importance of developing vision and hearing is difficult to overestimate, since it is these senses that help children perceive reality and contact the people and objects around them. During the first months, babies must look at moving and stationary objects of different colors and shapes. Thanks to this, the brain seems to learn to look. Equally important is the variety of sounds, a wide range of which contributes to the recognition and processing of information. At the end of these processes, in most cases a response should occur.

Language skills

Speech is formed during the first decade of life. The greatest effectiveness is observed during the first half of this period. Slurred babble and attempts to speak should not go unanswered.

Emotional development of preschool children

What are emotions? How does the emotional development of preschool children occur? What you need to know...

Movement and physical development

For first 12 years Throughout life, children demonstrate physical readiness for various aspects of motor development. Often, walking skills are acquired much earlier than fine motor skills, which may include assembling puzzles and construction sets, modeling or drawing. It takes several years to develop coordination (playing with a ball). Some of the skills acquired in early childhood continue to be honed into adolescence.

Emotions and socialization

Identical period ( 12 years) is required for social and emotional development, expressed in the expression of trust and empathy, as well as the perception of other people. Rapid development of emotions is observed during the period 0-1.5 years, accompanied by the formation of a feeling of attachment to parents.

The success of a fully formed personality depends on the correctness of emotional perception. Education received at an early age lays the foundation for an optimistic attitude, an active life position, empathy and the ability to be happy.

Parental support is extremely important for the social and emotional development of an individual. Social development is impossible without self-awareness and the ability to interact with other members of society. Their formation can be divided into several stages. For example, two-year-olds do not understand how and why they need to share toys. In children who have crossed the three-year threshold, this social skill is more developed.

Conclusion

Based on the above, a number of conclusions can be drawn. During the development of a child's brain, the power of daily experience, heredity, nutrition, physical activity and sensitive parenting should not be underestimated. The baby's brain is prone to development that is impossible without early experiences accumulated through touch, sight, smell, hearing and taste. The listed feelings contribute to the building of meaningful connections. Early experiences contribute to the learning process by connecting neural circuits in the brain. Patterned patterns help a newborn feel the presence of his mother, recognize his father’s voice or his favorite toy, etc. Sketches borrowed from the surrounding reality are subsequently subject to improvement and honing. Thanks to this, the connection between individual brain cells is strengthened.

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Children begin to develop from the first day of birth, gradually learning day by day. The development of the child’s brain plays a key role in the development of a child as an individual. It is the correct process of improving the brain that determines whether he will begin to walk, talk, study well, and be able to play sports.

Scientists have been studying brain ontogenesis for several centuries, but this process has not yet been fully understood. Various studies are conducted every year, and most countries have brain institutes. This organ is the most mysterious and most important for any person. It has attracted the attention of many specialists: biologists, surgeons, neurologists, immunologists and many others. Each of them finds problems and questions to study. Many problematic issues are studied by groups of specialists in different fields.

Stages of Brain Development

The formation of the brain begins in the embryo at 2 weeks. In the womb, the fetus develops the main parts of the brain: the neural tube, hemispheres, cerebellum and others. By birth, the child’s brain reaches a weight of 300-400 grams. In adults, its weight reaches 1100-1300.

The main stages of brain development in children are identified, the first stage, which lasts from birth to 1.5 years, forms stem structures. During this stage, the baby's brain learns to recognize and respond to daily needs such as food, sleep, and safety. Sensory perception is formed, the vestibular apparatus is adjusted. The baby learns to distinguish smells, tastes, sounds.

From 1.5 years to 4 years, the formation of the limbic system occurs. During this period, the baby learns emotions, he develops imagination and memory, and acquires his first skills. Learns to independently perform various actions.

From 4 to 7 years of age, the right hemisphere, which is responsible for imaginative thinking, grows, that is, it allows the preschooler to perceive the world in all its diversity as a single whole. He learns emotions, improves external speech, and begins to think in images.

From 7 to 9 years old, logic develops, for which the left hemisphere is responsible. During this period, the student begins to process information in detail and improves all his skills. Children begin the period of school life, where the first ideas about the systemic nature of the world around them are formed.

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At the age of 8, an important period in the formation of the body passes. The frontal lobe, which is responsible for social behavior and self-control, is formed, and internal speech is formed.

From 9 to 12 years of age, the corpus callosum is formed, which is responsible for complex information processing.

In the period from 12 to 16 years, a hormonal surge occurs in the body of a teenager, which affects the entire body. He is formed as a personality, gets an idea of ​​himself as a part of society, and goes through one of the most important periods of socialization.

How to develop a child's brain correctly?

Most parents are very concerned about the correct and comprehensive development of their baby. Every family dreams of healthy and smart children. For the correct formation of brain functions in the offspring, it is important to follow simple rules.

Correct and timely development is primarily influenced by the surrounding reality. Parents and loved ones should take part in the upbringing and education of their child and broadening his horizons from birth.

From birth to 1.5 years, children learn about the world through sounds, tastes, and tactile sensations. During this period, it is important to improve fine motor skills, which will help the baby speak more quickly and learn to perform basic actions, for example, holding a spoon in his hands.

The child is developing speech, so it is important to constantly talk to him from birth, gradually processing sounds in his subconscious, he will learn to connect them into images, and then he will begin to speak himself.

From 1.5 to 4 years old, the baby learns to receive, process and show emotions. During this period, close emotional contact with parents is very important. Research has proven that the lack of close communication with parents during this period forms an incorrect emotional picture of the world in children. Children who did not receive positive emotions and love in childhood become aggressive or passive adults who do not know how to love, empathize, and they develop the wrong emotions.

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In the period from 4 to 7 years, the formation of imaginative thinking occurs. It is during this period that it is important to intensively work with a preschooler: read to him, teach him to draw, sing, dance, read, play intellectual games. All this will allow him to learn to form complete images, remember and reproduce them.

From 7 to 9 years old, the child develops logic. He begins to make his own conclusions based on information received verbally and non-verbally. During this period, parents should not rely on school, but rather take part in the formation of logical thinking in their child. To do this, you can simply ask your son or daughter problems from life, and ask what he would do in a given situation. Find out from him why his choice is this way, help and correct if necessary. It is important that the child himself learns to understand the logic of processes occurring in life and learns to analyze them.

With the formation of the frontal lobe, which usually ends at age 8, the child becomes part of society. His world expands along with his social circle and he defines for himself the framework of behavior in society. At this time, it is important that the family shows by example how to behave in society. If a mother is rude, screams and swears, most likely her child will behave the same way, because he will consider this behavior to be the norm.

From 9 to 12 years of age, a student learns to process information in a complex manner. That is, it is at this time that he learns to obtain complex knowledge and uses various methods for this. Parents should control that the student does not get stuck on one source of information and teach him in every possible way. If he loves animals, he should read about them, watch videos, communicate with them (petting them, feeding them, etc.). That is, obtain information about a subject of interest from different sources. This will give him the opportunity in the future to react correctly to various situations and evaluate them comprehensively.

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From the age of 12, a hormonal surge begins, often called the transition period. Most children at this time do not get along well with their parents, and conflicts and misunderstandings arise in the family. The main thing during this period is not to lose touch with the teenager, and if there is no way to cope with the situation on your own, it is better to turn to psychologists.

Abnormalities in brain development

Currently, more than 30 possible deviations in brain ontogenesis have been identified. Each of them causes abnormalities in maturation, some leading to death.

60% of anomalies develop in the prenatal period. Modern diagnostics make it possible to identify most abnormalities in the fetus before birth.

Such anomalies can be provoked by both hereditary factors and environmental influences on the body of the mother and child. The mother's lifestyle plays an important role in this problem. Smoking, alcohol abuse, drug addiction, taking potent drugs, all this affects the health of the fetus.

Disruptions in progress can occur at any stage of growing up. They can be triggered by injuries, stress, health problems, environmental problems and other factors.

There are cases when, after severe stress, children stopped speaking or understanding speech. Head injuries disrupted the cycles of visual, auditory behavioral activity, and children became unresponsive to learning and many others.

At the slightest sign of abnormalities, parents should show their offspring to doctors. Nowadays, medicine has made a significant breakthrough and many deviations can now be corrected and eliminated.