Brain Development

Disclaimer

There is a great deal of technology building up that guides practitioners in addressing childhood learning matters. Those of us laymen wishing to express an opinion on the subject need to be sure that our statements do not bring the technicians or practitioners into disrepute. Still, laymen are entitled to an opinion… so having disclosed my ignorance in the matter, let me tell you a thing or two.

Equal Starting Points

It is my belief that newborn babes have pretty-well the identical number of neurons. We all have the potential to build our allocated quotient of 100-150 trillion synapses. Arguably, heredity gives one child the propensity to build synapses in parts of the brain where forbears had well-worked skills. Arguably, some infants develop synapses at different rates; perhaps girls build theirs a little faster than boys; perhaps first-born build theirs faster because of the additional attention from parents. 

Arguably, the IQ (intelligence Quotas) tests in schools mislabelled (or misunderstood) aspects of intelligence. Does a child able to more quickly recognise a pattern have a higher intelligence than a child able to build a particular pattern? Is it nurture or nature that determines the allocation of synapses across the brain and across different types of skills? 

Academic studies give great preference to having an abundance of synapses in the skills associated with verbalising, numeracy, logic and memory. Historically, we have believed that some kids will never be capable of learning calculus, some kids will never be able to draw; some kids will never be able to run a 12-second 100 metres.  I keep an eye out for studies that claim to be able to accurately predict the boundaries of learning for each individual. If I’ve missed these articles, perhaps someone can point them out for me. 

Sugars and the Juvenile Brain

Every parent and grandparent will have observed a sensible focussed child drink a sugary cordial and within 5 minutes become an uncontrollable zombie. Each of us may have experience lack of brain stimulus (feeling bored, lethargic, uninterested) only to become an energised genius 5-minutes after our morning cup of coffee. This immediate change in brain functioning should be able to tell us a lot about the functioning of this critical organ.

Researchers are now paying greater attention to the longer-term effects of sugar on our brain function. Should we feed our kids food with high fructose contents? Should school canteens be pedalling soft drinks overloaded with sugar? (Perhaps ACCC should look at the appropriate use of the word ‘soft’ in this branding exercise.) Perhaps a more responsible approach could be to offer drinks only with coffee additives… with no sugar. 

The Teen Issue

Some researchers are forming the view that during middle to late adolescence, the teenage body clock takes a nocturnal shift. These researchers claim the propensity to sleep later and stay-up later affects all adolescents… those who have a propensity to get up early will modify their waking hours by about the same degree as those who have always had a propensity to get up late. Researchers have yet to suggest a biological or evolutionary explanation of this shift. However, the researchers claim it is useless to ignore the phenomenon… adolescent students will learn more slowly in classes that start early in the day. Arguably, their driving licenses should be restricted to driving only after 10:00AM each morning. Perhaps, parents should schedule their heart-to-heart talks with their adolescent children after 10:00PM… when they can be more likely to have their child’s full attention.

There appears to be an existing trend for schools to schedule the start of Junior high-school classes earlier in the day and schedule senior secondary school classes to start late in the day. 

Regulated Rate of Learning 

We have all suffered the stress of choosing whether to push our child to keep up with the class average in all subjects, against the view that all kids will welcome the learning experience in all skills if you just wait long enough. How hard… how early… that’s the question. Some parents argue that a very important gift to give a child is to allow them the time to grow. Let them spend their free time in unstructured distraction. If the wandering child comes across a topic that catches his/her interest, give them encouragement to follow-up. This theory assumes that sooner or later, each child will want to learn within the parameters that have caught his/her interest. 

This theory cites Einstein being unable to walk or properly talk up to the age of 3. It points to the low proportion of successful entrepreneurs with tertiary education. Bill Gates dropped out, as did Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. They point to the high rate of depression within professional academics. All good points. However, it takes nerves of steel to see your child/grandchild falling behind class in basic skills… be it reading or writing or arithmetic… and not apply some pressure to get the child to allocate more effort to learning. It gets down to basic philosophic points regarding happiness verses wealth verses contributing to society.

Learning through Different Channels

One last matter. Some kids learn through association. Some kids learn best through repetitious memorising. Some kids learn best through tactile handling objects. You may be one of those people who can remember every word of Bob Dylan’s songs but can’t remember the name of the Prime Minister in the 1970’s. 

It seems that the neurons used in singing are quite distant from the neurons used for memorising facts. Some educators encourage children having difficulty in memorising spelling lists (for example) to put the words into a song to encourage them to see the word when they sing the appropriate part of the song. The world champions in memorising lists (e.g. the sequence of playing cards in a shuffled pack) have somehow trained their mind to associate each item with a real-world object. The player memorises the objects that somehow triggers the name of the list item… beats me!

It would be great if researchers could explain how ‘ordinary people’ can use these memorising techniques, particularly school children… who currently spend inordinate amounts of times memorising lists that will not be particularly useful in later life.

The Rant is Over

Well, like any good rant, I have thrown opinions at you without any purpose and without any suggested solution. In conclusion, it shows how much more we have to learn regarding the workings (or non-workings) of our brains.