Thursday, March 26, 2009
Breast Feeding
Mother’s milk can have a significant impact on brain development and other aspects of child development. This is something that you can support. Breast milk can be pumped and stored and then fed to the baby while in child care. How might this impact you? Babies that are nursed and fed mothers milk are less likely to have colic, are more likely to have better health and better behavior.
Brain Development
One thing that we know about the human brain and brain development is that our knowledge of the human bran is only in its infancy. In-spite of this, we have learning incredible things over the past 20 years about the brain and brain development; however our knowledge is still barely in its infancy. This lesson will cover a few highlights of what we now know about early brain development.
During the first three years of life a typical healthy brain in a typical healthy environment makes approximately three billion synaptic connections per second. (Information below will better explain what that means and how it corresponds to growth of neurons.) At around age three the process slows down significantly; though we continue to learn and synaptic connections continue to be made. At about age ten, the typical brain will begin to purge (prune) unused connections. This is sort-of like cleaning out and organizing your bedroom, removing what is not or least important and making everything left easier to find. Some times the brain does not perform this function very well, creating an ever increasingly cluttered and disorganized mind where it is difficult to find and access information. Fortunately most of us are able to continue to learn and discard useless information and connections through most if not all of our lives.
These first few years of life are extremely important to our development in many areas including attachment and relationships and language. The following web sites and videos will provide some basic information on early brain development. If you are reviewing this for IdahoSTARS hours, please review all of the information provided, making comments and asking questions in the areas provided.Brain development is dependant on a number of different factors, genetics, prenatal care, factors that affect the mother during pregnancy, other influences we bring with us from before birth, environment, nutrition, interactions, music (discussed extensively in other lessons) etc.
Some of the following information is redundant; however, there is enough new information at each site to make it worth your time.
During the first three years of life a typical healthy brain in a typical healthy environment makes approximately three billion synaptic connections per second. (Information below will better explain what that means and how it corresponds to growth of neurons.) At around age three the process slows down significantly; though we continue to learn and synaptic connections continue to be made. At about age ten, the typical brain will begin to purge (prune) unused connections. This is sort-of like cleaning out and organizing your bedroom, removing what is not or least important and making everything left easier to find. Some times the brain does not perform this function very well, creating an ever increasingly cluttered and disorganized mind where it is difficult to find and access information. Fortunately most of us are able to continue to learn and discard useless information and connections through most if not all of our lives.
These first few years of life are extremely important to our development in many areas including attachment and relationships and language. The following web sites and videos will provide some basic information on early brain development. If you are reviewing this for IdahoSTARS hours, please review all of the information provided, making comments and asking questions in the areas provided.Brain development is dependant on a number of different factors, genetics, prenatal care, factors that affect the mother during pregnancy, other influences we bring with us from before birth, environment, nutrition, interactions, music (discussed extensively in other lessons) etc.
Some of the following information is redundant; however, there is enough new information at each site to make it worth your time.
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