As an early education teacher, I have been sparing no effort to promote and popularize the knowledge of early education and parent-child communication, perhaps because of the location of the third-tier cities, there are still many parents who do not pay enough attention to early education, always feel that the child is still small, as long as they eat well, drink and have fun, or the child is so small, nothing can be remembered, there is no use in early education, and it is great to say it.
Therefore, every time I see parents throwing their children to mobile phones and TV "nannies", they feel particularly sad, such precious development time, so wasted, the loss is immeasurable!
We have an old saying in China called "three years old to see big", this time from the perspective of brain science knowledge to share, why is there a "three years old to see big" sentence?
Human babies generally need to be conceived in October to be called full-term babies, but what many parents don't know is that humans are actually "premature". This so-called "premature birth" is relative to animals, animals come into the world with a mature brain, so we can see that the newborn wildebeest only needs one minute to stand up and 10 minutes to walk with its mother. In contrast, it takes 6 years for human children to develop their brains.
Because of this "premature birth", the brain of children before the age of 6, especially before the age of 3, has a high degree of plasticity, and the brain is like a sponge during this period, frantically absorbing information and forming the basis of personality, ability, and habits in the future life.
The brain's first secret
IQ can also be changed after birth
In the past, it was believed that genes determine IQ, that is, IQ is determined after birth, and acquired efforts cannot change IQ. Now that brain science and corresponding technology are constantly evolving, we can already know that the child's IQ is not fixed at birth, but has a floating space of 20 to 30 points, which mainly comes from the quality of the parenting environment in the first three years.
There is a story of a rhesus monkey that can inspire us about how the acquired environment alters the "fate" determined by innate genes.
These rhesus monkeys are born with a mutation in one gene, and if there is no interaction with their mother in infancy, they will grow up to become unusually aggressive.
But if you can form a secure interaction relationship with your mother during the monkey cub's period, the monkeys' personalities will not be so aggressive when they grow up, which shows that the animal's early living environment can indeed affect the expression of genes. And monkeys with a better sense of security will raise their children in the same way in the future. This is very instructive in our human education: our children learn our parenting style and pass it on to the next generation.
So the classic debate about whether it's innate genes or acquired parenting that determines a child's IQ and personality has finally come to an end—the two are closely related and influence each other.
The second secret of the brain
It has just been said that human beings are "premature babies"
Compared with other organs, such as lungs, liver, heart, etc., it has developed well from the birth of the child and can be used normally, but it is still in a relatively young state.
But this is not the case for the brain, and the baby's brain that leaves the womb is still only a "semi-finished product", which is only 1/4 of the adult in terms of weight. Therefore, it can be understood that the human brain in infancy is not like the heart, kidneys and other organs, with complete and normal function.
Then the process from a "semi-finished product" to a "finished product" comes partly from the gradual expression of genes; the other part comes from the influence of the living environment.
When the child receives a wealth of stimulating information from sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and body movement, connections begin to form between the neurons of the brain.
The brain of a newborn is like a lot of telephone landlines, but because there is no telephone line connected, it cannot transmit signals, and when external stimuli are received, the telephone lines begin to connect and the signals begin to pass. This lays the foundation for the child's movements, thoughts, memories and feelings.
Every day, every moment the child is awake, every sound, image, and action stimulus from parents, siblings, and other loved ones causes the baby to form new neuronal connections that are being processed into a "finished brain."
The third secret of the brain
The way the brain is used affects its growth patterns
Your child's brain has magical powers—the ability to adapt to different environments.
No matter what country or cultural environment a child is in, he can form a connection between brain cells according to the environment.
Any routine activity in a child, such as eating, bathing, touching, and playing, reinforces specific brain synapses, and those brain cells that are not reinforced eventually disappear, a process called neural network pruning.
It is hard to imagine that a 2-year-old child has more than 2 times more brain cell connections than adults, so young children have the ability to imitate and learn beyond ordinary people. But if you don't get good stimulation, it's easy to miss the golden period of brain development.
What does this mean for children?
Meaning which neural pathways will form and which will eventually remain depends on a person's early experiences.
Whether a neural pathway that is willing to explore, does not give up, is focused, independent or resistant to exploration, easy to give up, and easy to rely on depends on one's early experience.
The key factors are: repetition, regular behavior, reinforcement.
The fourth secret of the brain
Brain cell connections formed early are difficult to change.
What are the earliest nervous systems in a child?
For example, the nervous system that regulates blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature, we certainly don't want to change easily with time.
In addition to these, the brain structures associated with processing emotions are also stereotyped at a very early stage. Some children tend to escape in the face of unfamiliar environments, and some children are emotionally difficult to soothe, which is difficult to change once they are formed at an early stage.
The earlier the formation of the nervous system, the more difficult it is to be changed, which means that if the early formation is positive emotional development, then this function can be sustained, the child's ability to resist setbacks and pressure is relatively strong, and the harm caused to the child is also difficult to eliminate.
This system of positive and efficient emotional response relies on
1 Fun experience
2 Plenty of security
3 Loving hugs and touches
4 Keep kids exploring interesting things.
The fifth secret of the brain
It's still too late
Many parents will feel very regretful and anxious after understanding the importance of early childhood development, and here I must first say a word of encouragement - the brain is malleable and growable throughout life.
For example, if an adult goes blind by accident, his hearing will become more and more acute, because after becoming blind, people will become more dependent on hearing, and the brain will change the auditory neural pathways to make it more acute.
The 0 to 3 years we are talking about is indeed the most critical 3 years, and its value lies mainly in prevention, but if it has exceeded or is greater, do not fall into anxiety, from now on, it will also produce huge changes.