Brain Development - Early Years -Gabriela Graber

Hi, my name is Gabriella Graber.

And this is my presentation on brain development the early years

for my introduction, my topic of research is on the brain development.

And in the early years,

it is important to know how the brain is developing

in the early early years and how teachers can use

this information to ensure they are providing a rich environment

for the growth and the development of the brain.

So there was a lot of important research uh throughout this paper.

Um some of the important points that I found while writing this paper.

Um according to the Arizona PBS, when a child is born,

their brain is about 1/4 of the size. It will be when the child grows to be an adult.

During that first year of a child's life, their brain will be twice the size.

And by the time the child is five years old,

their brain will have grown about 90% of its size, which is

really important have those first five years

of their development because there is a lot

of uh brain activity and brain development going on in those first five years.

And it's important to know about that development, that way.

Preschool programs and

educators are able to provide a rich environment that is

developmentally appropriate for the Children

and it's helpful for their brain development.

So brain development begins in the womb and

environmental factors may affect his development and it might affect

it in a positive way or in a negative way.

So if the mother is um having a healthy lifestyle,

um taking her prenatal vitamins, going to the doctor,

um just providing

that

um healthy environment for the fetus, then that has a positive impact. Um And then

the other side, if the mother is exposed to like drugs,

alcohol or other like negative environmental factors,

then that also affects their brain development and it might also

affect them and they're learning once they start going to school,

um A child's brain will develop healthily if the

child is provided with a healthy nurturing environment.

So the quality time that is provided to the child

will be benefit on how the brain will develop.

It is also important to keep up with the positive experiences for the child.

And research has shown that there are negative

impacts to the brain development of the child.

If they're not provided with the appropriate nurture

according to the CDC,

um A child's caregivers can help a child's brain grow healthily by often speaking to

their babies playing with them daily and

spending quality quality time with their Children.

Um which is also why

even diaper changes are an important time that you can spend with your child,

talking to them,

um playing with them, singing to them and

it just gives them that exposure to language and which

in turns um helps them with their speech later on.

So knowing all of these like little things and that

you can plug in into the daily routines of the Children

at home or at school is very important.

So the areas of the brain involved that I talked about in my paper,

um the

one of the most important one was the the limbic system which all go in

um in this little paragraph.

So in order for a child to create a new learning experience,

they must pull from past experiences in previous knowledge.

So if they have those experiences and they have that uh foundation,

then they're able to build on top of that.

So according to

um the limbic system is an area in our

brain that has control over emotions and motivations.

So the limbic system is

a group of different areas of the brain and

that might uh that includes the hypo campus,

the Amygdala,

um

the cerebri

um the thalamus.

So in this figure,

um you can see like the different areas of the brain that it includes.

Um So also the cerebellum regulates movement balance

and coordination is highly functional in young Children.

And this is why we see a lot of music,

movement activities being included in most preschool programs and which is why

um

in early childhood,

a worksheet does not use as much and you use a lot

of hands-on activities and where you have the kids moving around.

Um because this is something that is developmentally appropriate for them.

Another part of the brain that is developing in the early

years is the cortex which controls thinking and information processing.

Uh And this explains why Children sometimes it may take

longer to answer or if you ask them a question

and

um

they just sit there and think about it for a little while.

So I think it's, it's just their brain,

it's taking a little bit longer to process and it's

totally fine and it's the appropriate for their early age.

So how does all of this impact learning?

Um So Thompson,

uh he said that um through the use it or lose it principle,

um the architecture of the developing brain becomes adapted

to the needs of everyday simulation and experience.

So in order for the child's brain to

keep making connections and creating those new synapses,

educators should expose to, into routines, repetition and experiences.

So providing this to the students will

strengthen their foundation and learning process.

So if this is not being provided for the Children,

then then that might also affect their learning.

Um

So teachers should provide um experiences. So instead of um having

the Children read about leaves in a book,

maybe you can bring in different leaves or go outside

and collect leaves and then talk about the leaves.

So providing those type of different experiences for the Children to learn.

Um according to

Cozzolino, the early experiences that a child is given

in their early years will aid in developing important aspects in a child's life.

And this, these include attachment, emotional regulation and self esteem.

And those are different things that are worked on

in the early years of a child at school and also at home.

Um

the emotional regulation

uh that is something that

they do have to learn because sometimes when

they come into preschool or a head start,

when they're two or three years old, they don't know how to regulate their emotions.

And

um and that is why you provide them

with the correct strategies for them to use. So they can learn how to

um regulate those emotions and that self esteem.

And also, like we had mentioned before, what Children were exposed to in uteral

might also affect their learning.

Um Some Children that are exposed to like

drugs and alcohol may have behavioral issues or

um some uh delays and that also affects their

um

the way they're um they're performing in school.

So how to apply all of this that we have learned

um to the classroom. So some of these ways are

knowing the funds of knowledge of your students,

including sensory experiences and activities,

ex uh allowing the students to explore manipulatives before an activity,

allowing trial and error and incorporating a research based approach

to addressing behaviors in the classroom.

So the funds of knowledge will differ depending where your students are from.

Um So the funds of knowledge of a child that grew up in the city will be

very different from a child that grew up in

a farm around horses and chickens and being out

in

like uh being out in the environment.

Uh So it'll, it'll be different. So you need to know your students.

Um

So learning stems from concrete experiences in which

they can touch tasty smell in here.

So including activities that they,

where they can experience these different senses, it'll aid with their learning.

Um Also

um allowing the students to explore the materials before. So that'll kind of

um stop the Children from playing

with the manipulatives when it comes time to doing the

the assignment or that you want them to do.

Um also allowing them to have trial and error activities

and for them to arrive to their own conclusions.

So for example,

sometimes kids might see a brown dog and they might think that all dogs are brown,

but then

um providing them with those experiences about

or activities about dogs.

That way they can learn that not all dogs are brown or not all dogs are a big or small.

So that way they can learn that there's like different types of dogs

and also like one of an ex an example of

um a research based approach to addressing behaviors in the classroom

is a conscious discipline and they look at the different areas of the brain

uh that the child is using like during certain behaviors and how you

like what it looks like and then how you can address it.

So that is like a very interesting way of addressing behaviors

while

using research on, on the brain.

Um And this was my research paper and these are the references that

I used uh for my paper and I hope you enjoyed the presentation.

Thank you so much for watching.

Brain Development - Early Years -Gabriela Graber

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