Wiring of the Brain

“Wiring of the brain” refers to the explosive burst of the connections between the various synapses of the brain cells after birth. Synapses are the telephone lines that enable brain cells to communicate. Trillions are formed during the First 2 years of life. It is believed that they are overproduced to guarantee that enough are available to form neural networks for vision, speech, thinking, emotions, and other mental capabilities.

Some parts of the brain (example, the visual cortex) are wired rapidly in the First year of life and need little coaxing other than exposure to people, objects, and movement to develop. The auditory cortex, which processes sound, explodes with new connections after birth and maintains this high level of activity until about age 12. Many experts now believe this is the best time for learning music and foreign languages.

The prefrontal cortex, which is involved in processing higher thoughts and motivation, undergoes an initial growth spurt after birth, but it does not appear to be fully developed until early adolescence. This may be the best time to teach such things as calculus. The great explosion of synapses after birth enables the brain to learn how to make it work from the experiences it encounters.

Synapses that are not activated by sounds, touch, sight, smell, or taste are discarded. Nearly half of the connections eventually are pruned away when they are not incorporated into neural networks.

The most formative year are before a child enters school!

The habit of Reading and the love of Learning are developed at home!

Your child spent twice at much Time at Home as in School!

School alone does not prepare your child for an increasingly completitive world!

Children’s Reading Voyage

Parents know that reading is important for school success. Sometimes, though, parents aren't clear about the process of learning to read or how to help their child make this reading voyage.

Infants and Toddlers. Children crawl before they walk; they learn language before they read. Talking sets the stage for language development. Even though your child may not understand the words she hears, she's storing up the sounds of language for the day she'll put the sounds and words together and say them herself.

Start developing book habits early. Infants and toddlers often just want to chew on a book; mouthing and exploring are important book behaviors for very young children.

Read to your infant or toddler until he is bored, then put the book away for another time. As your toddler becomes more interested in books, let him make more book choices, hold the book, and turn the pages. Make these book times pleasurable and fun.

Preschoolers and Kindergartners. Preschoolers and kindergartners like to have fun with language. They like silly rhymes and verses, singing a song, dancing, and sharing a story through finger play. These are ways they develop language and literacy skills.

Children at this age are learning more about letters, print and books. They know many letters of the alphabet. They begin to match letters to their sounds, which is important for learning to read.

Many preschool children will pretend to read books, telling the story as they turn the pages, look at the pictures and identify some print on the page. They learn that print in books moves from left to right. Kindergarten children are getting better at matching letters to sounds and know many words from sight.