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Brain Development. Infants and children. Physical Activity. Exercise feeds the brain nutrition Increases nerve connections – brain grows Children who exercise do better in school Remember more if moving. Math/Logical Brain. Window – birth to 4 yrs
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Brain Development Infants and children
Physical Activity • Exercise feeds the brain nutrition • Increases nerve connections – brain grows • Children who exercise do better in school • Remember more if moving
Math/Logical Brain • Window – birth to 4 yrs • Brain’s math circuits close to music area. Toddlers taught simple concepts, like one and many, do better in math. Music lessons may help with spatial concepts.] • Play counting games with toddlers. • Set table to learn one-on-one relationships – one plate, one fork per one person • Background music
Language Brain • Window – birth to 10 years • Brain’s cortex wired for sounds by age 1. More words hear by age 2, the larger the vocabulary will grow. • Catch hearing problems early so as not to impair the ability to match sounds to letters. Treat ear infections promptly. • Talk a lot to your child. If you want them to master 2nd language introduce by age 10.
Musical Brain • Window – 3 to 10 years • Improves dexterity in non-dominant hand. Increasing brain activity • Sing • Play background music • Give instruments early
Music • Trains the brain for higher forms of thinking • 3 yr olds w/ daily piano and choir scored 80% higher in spatial intelligence after 8 mos than playmates w/o music background
Emotions • Emotional circuits laid at birth. How parent interacts with child, keeps or “kills” circuits. • When parent mirrors child’s emotion, emotion is reinforced but if parent does opposite emotion, child doesn’t know what to do and withdraws. • Toddler proud/excited about tower of pots/pans but mom is always annoyed instead of excited, “kills” positive circuits.
Emotional Intelligence • Window – 10-18 months • “control switch” grows – calm agitation by using reason • Sooth baby by rocking vs putting in bed to cry • Hugging child/kissing boo-boo vs yelling at them for being clumsy and not listening
Emotional Intelligence • Stress and constant threats rewire emotion circuits. • If sound, sight, experience proved painful before, the fear is felt before the “rational” part of the brain kicks in. • Interferes with complex information so may lag behind in language, spatial intelligence, etc