Babies, Brains, Nature and Nurture

Here's an very interesting discussion on brain development. This is very helpful for parents to understand how they can best help their baby or children learn!

Dr. Stuart Shanker is a Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at York University and currently serving as Director of the Milton and Ethel Harris Research Initiative (MEHRI), an initiative whose goal is to build on new knowledge of the brains development, and help set children (including those with developmental disorders) on the path towards emotional and intellectual health.

Information regarding the interview:




Here's the interview with him:




There's an interesting segment regarding Teens: scroll to 0:44:0 and it goes through 0:45:30

Brain pathways for reading

As an educational consultant who helps parents find books for their children, the number one question I'm asked is "what can we do because our child is having such difficulty with reading?"

First of all, let me say the problems with reading are not usually a weakness or learning disability of the child, rather it points to the methods and process of how and when the child has been exposed to the reading in a relational way, specifically the written word. Before we point blame at educators, parents, or pass the problem off on a disability, lets note that the experts in the field of reading education have always said -- they all catch up around 5th or 6th grade.

Quite a generalized statement -- too bad it doesn't come with an explanation. I will attempt to explain -- This great 'mystery' of teaching reading has everything to do with the brain development of the child from birth until the day they show up in the classroom. This place in time is sometimes referred to as "The Window of Opportunity" and I will do a follow up post on specifics.

The early or late factor is actually about the types of experiences the child has with words and books long before he ever walked through the doors of a school!

So for starters, the truth is children do eventually catch up. For some it doesn't take all that long, for others it may seem to take forever, the bottom line is -- so long as they have an interest in reading.

This is all about timing. The debate goes round and round over when to formally begin to teach reading. Lets look at how the brain develops to see when the optimum time for learning to read is easier vs more difficult. Early or late, a child can and will learn to read.

Babies learn spoken language and understand it long before their ability to speak. The same is true for sign-language. But in general, no one seems to think that the written word can be understood as early, well why not?

Speech Language Pathologists will tell you that if there is obstruction of the hearing mode, it directly affects speech development. The brain wires the phonemic sounds of the native language during these crucial first 2 years of life. So if hearing or seeing are affected, then, these two channels of mapping the brain are vital to creating the infrastructure that reading depends upon.

Brain research has discovered that the neurons in the brain at birth are firing off up to 1,000 trillions of connections a second. It basically records channels to everything it gets exposed to. Heat, cold, quiet, loud, bright dark. All the senses provide the input. Seeing, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch, etc. When those things are not involved, the channels available for those tasks drop of significantly.


This process is all about the amount of time the brain synapses are exposed to the various elements of reading (there are 4 major pieces) and WHEN, (early or late) in their brain development this exposure takes place. The more frequently those passageways are used to connect useful information, (the phonemic coding, letters, sounds, and their combinations into words) this process links together into a complex neural network from which their ability to read will emerge.

Its all about exposure and repetition.

This process the brain creating this network, from which the process of learning to read comes from can done be over a short period of time (when exposed to the pieces, in a relational way early) , or can take a very long time (when this relational exposure is done later.) This depends upon when in their brain development this 'building project' is being specifically happening.

Children are born, wired for learning -- more so from birth and significantly less by age 5. Ninety percent of a 5 year old child's neural network is formed, and the synaptic activity for mapping learning activity has dropped off significantly. Learning to read later means the brain has to work through this lower synaptic activity channel. It also relates to where the brain decides to put the reading center, and the distance it is, from the language center of the brain.

If the neural network has not been exposed early to the phonemes and their relational symbols and combinations, the resulting network has to go a greater distance to connect the information.

It is therefore a process of exposure and repetition. Early exposure requires less repetition to form the process of reading fluently than late exposure, which will require more exposure and time to end up with a similar result of fluent reading.


Reading can be a playful, fun and engaging process.

What is essential to the late reader, involves the need for them to be inspired (either from outside himself or from within.) The inner drive and motivation which comes through inspiration plays a major role in being a driving force to work through any challenge. When their own personal desire to learn gets fired up, then their motivation to do the work necessary (mentally) that the subconscious brain will connect the dots. Forcing the idea that a child must read by a certain age, expecting them to perform when they just aren't really ready to do so, tends to backfire in the whole process. When they avoid, the subconscious brain will slow the process down, and causes it to take longer.

Are their playtime activities associated with connecting the dots to the pieces of reading, words and sounds together, written word and action together, etc? Most young children today are amused by the TV/Videos that do not offer much, if little of any relational meaning, most of it not at all, which delays this process significantly. (media watching is a passive brain activity, learning to read and reading is an active brain activity.)

Other factors involved was the infant talked to with regular spoken language--(rather than baby talk i.e. mispronunciations because they sound 'cute' -- ask any speech language pathologist and they can tell which families actually speak to their babies, vs those that either don't talk at all or talk incorrect spoken language, they can identify the affects of temporary hearing loss from chronic ear infections.) The vocabulary of the understood language of children is also a base from which the brain uses for phonemic cataloging.

Learning with fewer sensory wired modes, takes twice as long, or worked more frequently compared to the same time one would learning with significantly more sensory modes over a shorter period of time.

As parents, the bottom line is, we must ensure to show joy in the process of learning. Young children can learn to read naturally and easily so long as they are exposed to the linked elements in a fun, engaging and playful way.

Remember a babies work is his play. Engaging the older child in various forms of "play" with the educationally rich materials he is bound to learn to read so long as we don't treat the process as a chore. Realize the subconscious, will resist when forced to perform in a manner it is not ready to.
When the child exhibits his will to tackle a problem he can overcome it -- personal drive and motivation play a significant part in the learning curve of the older learner.

Just like learning to play a musical instrument. The earlier the exposure, physical experience with and the amount of practice with it all affect the individual's ability to learn quickly and achieve mastery.

I like to think of reading as the musical score of our spoken language.

10 Ways to Motivate Your Child to Learn

Inspire her thirst for knowledge inside — and outside — of school.
By Caolan Madden

If you want your child to be a stellar student, don't limit learning to the walls of his classroom. Although the skills he's learning there are crucial to his intellectual and social growth, your child needs your help to really "open up the world of ideas," according to child psychologist Robin Forman, PhD. His renewed joy in discovery will transfer to his schoolwork, so you'll boost his academic achievement, too!

1. Fill your child's world with reading. Take turns reading with your older child, or establish a family reading time when everyone reads her own book. It's important to show her that "it's not only a school task," says Ted Feinberg, Ph.D, assistant director of the National Association of School Psychologists. Demonstrate how important reading is to you by filling your home with printed materials: novels, newspapers, even posters and placemats with words on them. According to Stephanie Fanjul, director of student achievement at the National Education Association, "Children can learn to read by living in an environment that's rich in words."
   
   
2. Encourage him to express his opinion, talk about his feelings, and make choices. He can pick out a side dish to go with dinner and select his own extracurricular activities. Ask for his input on family decisions, and show that you value it. "One of the things valued in school is class participation," says Feinberg, and "having practice at home expressing his feelings" is "good for self-esteem and self-confidence." He'll be more likely to engage with the material he studies if he's comfortable asking questions and drawing his own conclusions.
   
   
3. Show enthusiasm for your child's interests and encourage her to explore subjects that fascinate her. If she's a horse nut, offer her stories about riding or challenge her to find five facts about horses in the encyclopedia. Make sure she has the tools she needs — since Feinberg's daughter "loved looking for sea life" at the beach during family vacations, he bought her little nets so that she could catch crabs and minnows. Now she's a marine biologist.
   
   
4. Provide him with play opportunities that support different kinds of learning styles — from listening and visual learning to sorting and sequencing. Fanjul recommends supplies that encourage open-ended play and "do more than one thing," such as blocks — your child will develop his creative expression and problem-solving skills as he builds. He'll need lots of unstructured play time to explore them. Although sports activities and language clubs are valuable experiences, too many scheduled activities can add "too much stress" to your child's life, and distract him from exploring the pleasures of learning at his own pace.
   
   
5. Point out the new things you learn with enthusiasm. Discuss the different was you find new information, whether you're looking for gardening tips on the Internet or taking a night class in American literature. Let her see you in action: choose an activity that's unfamiliar to you both, such as playing tennis or speaking Spanish, and schedule a lesson or pick up a couple of instructional tapes. "Parents are the single most important modeling agent in a child's life," says Feinberg, and if you "demonstrate that learning is a lifetime adventure," your kids will get the message.
   
   
6. Ask about what he's learning in school, not about his grades or test scores. "Even if he doesn't do well grade-wise compared to the other students, he might still be learning and improving, and you don't want to discourage that," cautions Fanjul. Have him teach you what he learned in school today — putting the lesson into his own words will help him retain what he learned.
   
   
7. Help your child organize her school papers and assignments so she feels in control of her work. If her task seems too daunting, she'll spend more time worrying than learning. As she gets older and has more responsibilities, things can get "excruciatingly painful," warns Fanjul. So check in with her regularly to make sure she's not feeling overloaded.
   
   
8. Celebrate achievements, no matter how small. Completing a book report calls for a special treat; finishing a book allows your child an hour of video games. You'll offer positive reinforcement that will inspire him to keep learning and challenging himself. "If a child feels as if he is successful regardless of what it is, it builds him up and makes the next challenge easier," says Feinberg.
   
   
9. Focus on strengths, encouraging developing talents. Even if she didn't ace her math test, she may have written a good poem in English class. In addition to a workbook for math practice, give her a writing journal. When she knows that she's talented in one area, she'll be confident enough to try to achieve in others. "You don't want to not offer challenges," explains Feinberg, "but there's always a transfer when you have your kid feeling good about who she is."
   
   
10. Turn everyday events into learning opportunities. "Being educated doesn't mean knowing a lot of disconnected facts," says Fanjul. "Learning is building from what you know and connecting it to new facts." Encourage him to explore the world around him, asking questions and making connections. Fanjul remembers pointing to a prickly pear in the produce aisle and asking her young daughter, "Have you ever seen anything so bizarre?" When she replied that the fruit looked like "one of those fish that blows up," Fanjul knew that the structures for learning were firmly in place.

Article From:
http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=1304

Growing Up To Read

Article taken from "Starting Out Right"
http://bob.nap.edu/readingroom/books/sor/sor-2.htm
____________________

Children begin to develop their language skills in infancy. Even their babbles and coos and the ways their families speak to them before they really understand can help them to become speakers of their native tongue. When an infant shows excitement over pictures in a storybook, when a two-year-old scribbles with a crayon, when a four-year-old points out letters in a street sign--all of these actions signal a child's growing literacy development.

The more children already know about the nature and purposes of reading before kindergarten, the more teachers have to build on in their reading instruction. Research reveals that the children most at risk for reading difficulties in the primary grades are those who began school with less verbal skill, less phonological awareness, less letter knowledge, and less familiarity with the basic purposes and mechanisms of reading.

To prepare children for reading instruction in the early grades, it is best that they be exposed to high-quality language and literacy environments--in their homes, day care centers, and preschools. The best time to start sharing books with children is during babyhood, even when they are as young as six weeks. Families, early childhood educators, health care professionals, and communities can bring literacy into the lives of young children.

Early research dating back to the 1930s suggested that there was little use in teaching children how to read until they had already conquered specific readiness skills, such as certain fine motor skills and the ability to tell right from left.

Today, researchers know more. They know that growing up to be a reader depends mostly on the child's knowledge about language and print. A wide range of experiences with printed and spoken language, from infancy through early childhood, strongly influences a child's future success in reading. What is good for a six-year-old, however, is not necessarily good for a three-year-old. Children need activities they will enjoy and can succeed at, without being pushed uncomfortably beyond their current developmental stage.

-- Even when children cannot yet spell,
they learn from trying to write.
-- Even when children cannot yet read,
they learn from being read to.

Article taken from "Starting Out Right"
http://bob.nap.edu/readingroom/books/sor/sor-2.htm