Care a nd Feeding Instructions for the Millennial Brain

1. Edward C. Taylor, Ph.D. Child and Adolescent Psychologist Care and Feeding Instructions for the Millennial Brain

2. Millennials at Play

3. Boomers at Play

4. The Millennial Experience

5. The Millennial Environment • Socially and Cognitively, Neither Here Nor There • High Volume of Data Presented Rapidly • Rapid Shifts in Topic or Place • Compressed Speech • Environmentally Directed Awareness • Digital and Visual Data • Multi-Tasking

6. Brain Plasticity • Every experienced event modifies the brain’s structure and processing style • The brain is plastic into old age • All behavior comes from the brain

7. Teachers and Performers • Musicians who became music teachers engaged in solitary, intense, reflective music practice 9 hours per week or 4000 hours total by age 20. • Musicians who became expert performers practiced 24 hours per week or 10,000 hours total by age 20. • The brain becomes expert by practice, practice, practice and by trying to improve in each practice session, until automaticity is achieved, by storing information and patterns in long-term memory and constantly reflecting upon one’s performance.

8. How Might the Millennial Environment Affect Learning ? • Divided controlled attention • Heightened reactive attention • Heightened arousal • Frequent shifts from one topic to another • High volume of data • Inadequate time to reflect and evaluate • External rather than internal direction • Multisensory experience • Limited physical activity

9. Environment Directed Awareness • Reacting, Not Planning or Reflecting • Someone else is making decisions about what, where, how, how long, and how much.

10. Executive Skills • Control over emotions • Impulse resistance • Planning • Plan execution • Execution monitoring and self-evaluation • Task persistence

11. The Statue Test 1940 vs 2001 1940 2001 3 year olds 0 minutes 5 year olds 0 minutes 7 year olds 3 minutes • 3 year olds 0 minutes • 5 year olds 3 minutes • 7 year olds a long time

12. Imaginative Play and the Executive Skills Play in First half of 20th century Play in Second half of 20th Century Adult organized and directed Toy or object focused Real toys with a specific purpose or theme Rules are given TV, video games, or lessons Schools focus on cognitive skills development to pass the test • Unsupervised • Child directed • In groups • Imaginative • Activity focused • Improvisation • Symbolic toys • Kids made the rules • At home and at school

13. The Play Connection • Imaginative play promotes self-regulatory self-talk • Self- regulatory self-talk promotes • Control over emotions • Impulse resistance • Planning • Plan execution • Execution monitoring and self-evaluation • Task persistence

14. Volume and Speed • The Rule of 7 • Divided attention • Superficial engagement • Continuous partial attention leads to staying busy without truly focusing on anything • Limited opportunity for reflecting and planning • Continually in the “on” position; stimulus seeking; increased cortisol production • Are we producing an ADD style of living ?

17. A Mile Wide and Two Inches Deep

18. Mathematics and Science Literacy Average scores of 15-year-olds, PISA

19. What is the Rank of U.S at the TIMSS?

20. Neither Here Nor There • “Technology… The knack of so arranging the world that we don’t have to experience it.” Max Frisch, architect and author • Decreased capacity for social perception • Decreased tolerance for social interchange over a period of time • Lower scores on memory testing • More ADD-like in relationships • Derivatives traders

21. What Do I Do ? • Pilot induced oscillation • Heal thyself first

22. Multitasking Solutions • List your priorities • Allocate your time accordingly • Schedule your time • Power naps • Alternate tasks • Pause, reflect, summarize, plan before moving on • Set limits • Watch your speedometer • Slowly build multi-tasking ability

23. Managing Attention • Mind you mind • Consciously engage your mind • Increase the interest value of the task • Minimize distractions • Manipulate the environment • Be a noisy learner • Frequent breaks • Power naps • No phones at the dinner table, etc.

24. Strategies To Facilitate Executive Skills Development • Simon Says • Thinking • Impulse inhibition • Complex Imaginative Play • Sustained for 30+ minutes • Of the 1940’s style

25. Strategies To Facilitate Executive Skills Development • Activities requiring planning • Games with directions and goal seeking • Construction activities • Pattern recognition activities • Cooking • Joint Storybook Reading • Process the characters self-regulatory behavior promoted modeling • Mastery models not Expert models

26. Strategies To Facilitate Executive Skills Development • Model self-talk • Encourage self-talk • Internalize, do not externalize, the conflict

27. Strategies For Teaching Executive Skills • Classroom routines • Classroom rules • Classroom organizational systems • Learning strategy training • Classroom process meetings • Managing developmental angst • Watch your language

28. Teaching Learning Skills • Explicit instruction in learning processes • Modeling • Post-mortems to discuss why the patient lived or died • Post-mortems to define the “next level’ and how to get there. Then, go do it. • Practice, practice, practice with a focus on attaining a specific level of proficiency or grade

29. References • iBrain, Gary Small, MD and Gigi Virgan • The New Brain, Richard Restak, MD • The Overflowing Brain, Torkel Klingberg, MD • Learning and the Brain Conference, November 2009, Boston, MA