When you struggle to learn something, your brain actually grows.
~ Tweet by Bill Gates, August 2014
Every child born today has access to a superpower that wasn’t available to any other generation. No, it’s not an iPad or a Twitter feed, it’s access to knowledge about themselves: insight into their own body, how it’s built, sustained and degenerates. In particular, how their mental and emotional circuitry work. I realise it sounds a lot more like a biology assignment than a superpower, but remember, even Superman had to learn how to use his gifts – to fly straight, control his heat vision and not be disturbed by his supersensitive hearing. Unlike us, he didn’t have a manual on how to do any of this. Thanks to cognitive neuroscience and technological magic, you have access to information and tools to help your budding superhero understand her mental and emotional capabilities better than ever before.
Unsurprisingly, this is a popular and fast growing area of research and we are learning new things that impress the hell out of us almost every day. We don’t know everything; in fact, we know less about ourselves than about our planet, but we do know that each one of us is an incredible feat of biological engineering and evolution. Our original cognitive specifications allowed us to navigate and survive in the more rural and informal settings of ancient jungles, forests and plains at a time when we were fair game on the food chain. Fast forward to now and we find ourselves in an environment that has changed faster than we have – we are still hosted in a body whose primary purpose remains to protect itself, survive and reproduce.
Whilst most of us are pretty adept at staying alive and reproducing, this ancient inbuilt circuitry of ours runs interference in our behaviour and decision making ability when we least expect it. Higher order thinking is a fairly recent phenomenon in human evolution. Our free ranging ancestors had far less need for executive functions such as planning and decision making skills generated by a well-developed prefrontal cortex1 (the part of your brain that sits behind your forehead). So their brains looked very different to ours and so did their foreheads, which were teeny tiny in comparison, as you can see below.
Over the last 2 million years or so, evolution has literally pimped our brains and added processing power through complex connections that we don’t yet fully understand. Yet the instinct-driven hindbrain of our ancestors didn’t disappear as we grew more sophisticated. It’s still there, just well-hidden below layers of enlightenment.
To fully exploit the phenomenal tool tucked in our head, not only do we have to learn to exploit the higher order thinking capacity of our more evolved prefrontal cortex, but we also have to right-size the influence that our basic programming still has on our thoughts and actions. Certainly a reason that the field of emotional intelligence is booming. Perhaps this is the next evolutionary upgrade that is occurring across generations right now? As we use our emotional circuitry in new ways, such as through practicing mindfulness, for example, new physical pathways will grow and change the layout of the brain over thousands of years.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. I get all fired up when I have an opportunity to help people understand their brain and hence, themselves, better. Most folk I meet in the corporate world don’t know how their brain works and I can’t help but think, “You carry around the most powerful operating system in the world right inside you and you don’t know how to use it?” Most people know how to operate their smart phones better than they know how to use their own brain. So, if this is you too, and you want to raise your child as a thinker, I guess we need to start at the very beginning.
It helps to think of the brain’s basic wiring as a circuit board, just like the ones you built in your school’s science lab, way back when. You had copper wires laid out in series or parallel circuits and then some type of switch or circuit breaker. When the switch was in the on position, the circuit was complete and current could flow and light up your light bulb or turn the little motor that was part of the circuit. When in the off position, your circuit was broken with a physical gap that stopped the current from flowing. In the brain these switches are called synapses: connections that allow chemicals to flow across neurons and turn the circuit on. The more they are used, the easier it becomes for that circuit to fire. Use them enough and we create a memory that we can call on again and again. This is learning.
Neurons are the cells that sit on either side of the ‘switch’ or synapse. They connect to each other via these synapses and form neural networks like information pathways across the brain. The more they exchange information, the thicker and stronger the connections get, until the pathway becomes a superhighway. Should a connection not receive stimulation it will eventually lose its ability to connect to other neurons and disappear from the circuit board over time. Use it or lose it, literally.
At birth babies’ brains are already packed with almost all of the neurons they will need for their lives – more than 100 billion – three times as many stars as there are in the milky way. Every time I read that I can’t help but think wow, that’s incredible. The first areas of the brain to develop are those that govern your baby’s automatic bodily functions – as you know they can scream and suck and coo straight out of the womb because the neural connections that govern these functions were created and strengthened in utero. Higher order functions that emanate from the cerebral cortex such as imagination and knowing right from wrong, aren’t yet developed.
Even though the neurons of the brain already exist at birth, those that regulate emotions, generate higher order thinking, language and abstract thought can’t grow and develop till they are actually put into use through interaction with external stimuli after birth. They are also the last part of the brain to mature and will continue to grow into your child’s early adult years. How much control do you think you have over how your child’s brain grows and develops? I hope you answered, “More than I can imagine!”
“The growth in each region of the brain depends on receiving stimulation, which spurs activity and growth in that region”
~ Child Welfare Information Gateway
Once out of the snug but relatively dull murkiness of the womb, synapses occur in response to the young brain’s experiences. Experiences that you control initially. Up to 2 million synapses per second fire through your baby’s cognitive circuits. No wonder babies have to sleep so much – their brains are working incredibly hard every waking second and even when they sleep. But not all of these synapses, or connections, will be strengthened through repeated experience and about half of them will be lost before adolescence. The key here is to make sure that the right ones stick around and the unhelpful ones are pruned and lost forever. Whichever brain pathway is stimulated through experience will physically grow in response to that stimulation. For example, continuously talking to our babies will repeatedly fire language neurons and create connections in that area that become fairly stable memories over time. These language memories form a very important foundation for most other aspects of higher order learning.
In the same way, if a child has suffered abuse as an infant, his fear pathways will be overly stimulated in response to his environment. An overly developed fear response creates hypersensitivity to perceived threats. If this persists for long enough, this sensitivity is likely to remain even after the child is brought into a loving environment. Many foster and adoptive parents experience the heartbreaking situation where a child can remain fearful of caregivers long after the abusive caregivers are replaced by loving ones. In such cases stimulation to the child’s regions of complex thought and emotional management would have been reduced in favour of the more primal survival pathways. If neglect persists for long enough, learning can be permanently impaired.
“While these children are often labelled as learning disabled, the reality is that their brains have developed so that they are constantly alert and are unable to achieve the relative calm necessary for learning.”
~ Child Trauma Academy
Children devoid of any stimulation (positive or negative) from birth, such as those abandoned to mass orphanages during times of war or strife, develop brains that can be up to a third smaller than what is considered normal for their peer group.2 The brain’s ability to create new connections, known as plasticity, allows some regeneration of brain tissue throughout one’s life but sadly not to the extent that could guarantee a return to normal brain function for these children.
On the other hand, the smartest among us have the best wiring on their cognitive circuit boards. Science tells us that the brain volume a child achieves by the end of their first year plays a role in later intelligence.3 Bigger brains result from more connections, remember? This allows messages to travel faster between different parts of the brain,4 increasing memory and processing speeds. And how do we get stronger, faster connections between neurons in the brain?
We do some fun, basic brain building with our little ones.
__________
1 The prefrontal cortex brain region is the seat of executive function overseeing our ability to plan, express ourself, make decisions, imagine different outcomes, use moral judgement and moderate our behaviour.
2 A study led by Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D. 2002 available at www.childtrauma.org
3 The Influence of Head Growth in Foetal Life, Infancy, and Childhood on Intelligence at the Ages of 4 and 8 Years by Catharine R. Gale, PhD, Finbar J. O’Callaghan, PhD, Maria Bredow, MBChB, Christopher N. Martyn, DPhil published in PEDIATRICS Vol. 118, 04/10/2006. In a study of the head growth of 633 term-born children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children cohort, it was shown that prenatal growth and growth during infancy were associated with subsequent IQ.
4 Professor Ed Bullmore, professor of psychiatry at Cambridge specialising in brain imaging. In his research he has measured the efficiency with which different parts of the brain communicated with each other and found that high integration of brain networks seems to be associated with high IQ. Find him at the Cambridge Neuroscience Department http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/directory/profile.php?etb23
Let’s recap on what we know so far. Baby’s brains are amazing. All brains are amazing. Brain growth in each functional area is determined by receiving repetitive external stimulation. The type of stimulation determines which connections in the brain are used and so which areas of the brain develop. Genes play a part in determining the layout of the circuitry in the brain and developmental potentials. Which circuits are completed and expressed is determined again, by experience. Oh and did I mention that once your child has built up sufficient networks of good strong synapses in the areas of her brain that support memory, language and higher cognitive functions then learning in general becomes easier because the learning pathways are wide open. Neat, isn’t it?
Brain building is much like building a large city from scratch. Skyscrapers can’t go up until foundations are laid. Foundations won’t be laid until subterranean sewage and electrical pipes are in place. We can’t learn language until memory pathways are ready, for example. We can’t comprehend shapes until we can manipulate objects. There are very specific ages when certain pathways are laid down for the first time and also when they are ready to be strengthened.
Motor development, vision and language pathways are first wired from birth to two years old while social development and emotional intelligence pathways are laid down between 0-48 months.1
As you can see, important foundations are laid in the first two years before your child even goes to kindergarten. So before we talk about different types of intelligence, here are some ways to spend quality time with your infant that will strengthen their learning pathways and enhance foundational brain growth. If you no longer have an infant and don’t plan on having another one in the future then skip right over to Chapter 6 on fluid intelligence.
Your child’s first year is all about sounds. Talk, talk, talk to your child, face to face. Your child will hear sounds from the TV and from around him, but he needs to see your mouth moving and the body language that goes with the sound in order to catalogue words correctly. Of course your infant will be most engaged when you are close enough to make eye contact (remember your baby is short-sighted for the first few months). Keep sentences short and repeat important ideas with all the sounds effects you can muster.
Introduce your baby to a new object that you pick out of a box or from under a cloth. Ordinary objects are best like a wooden spoon, a book or a pair of socks. Hold it up and ask “What’s this?” Then let your child explore it, either let them grasp it or turn it around slowly so that they can see all of it. Describe it as you go. When he’s had a good look, tell him what it is and show him how it’s used.
In your baby’s second year the brain’s language centre evolves dramatically as synaptic activity increases. Vocabulary expands exponentially, but only if they are exposed to many words and things to name. Pull ‘known’ objects out of the box, ask what they are and let your toddler tell you what they know and help them with what they don’t. Then give him cuddles for being so smart.
At around eight months old, your baby’s conscious memory stabilises. He begins to understand that objects can exist even when he can’t see them because now he can remember them. Your baby can look at a partially hidden toy and know what it is because he has a complete image stored in memory. This is when stranger anxiety can begin because a stranger is someone they don’t already have a mental image of. Visiting new places may have the same effect on your toddler as new faces.
If you are worried about your little one’s first day at kindergarten – I’ve not met a first-time parent who isn’t – you can use what you know about memory to ease their first day anxiety – and yours.
Start by building up memories of the kindergarten. Look at the school’s website, explain the different pictures they have on it. Print out the picture of their new teacher and let them look at it often. If you live nearby, try to walk past the school and point out the different things in the playground and how much fun the other kids are having. Do this until they have fairly stable memories of the school and the playground before they even get there. Talk to them about feeling scared and how they can cope without you. Use your new parent coaching skills to talk them through different scenarios and allow them to think of ways they can help themself, until they feel brave enough to go it alone.
Is your little girl reaching for a toy that is just outside of her reach? Your first instinct is to pick it up and give it to her, right? This is what I used to do, for sure, and still want to do when I can see that my son can’t reach his Lego Black Pearl on the top of his bookshelf or can’t find the DVD that I asked him to pack away a week ago. But I stop myself because now I know that this is both a behavioural and cognitive learning opportunity.
Scaffolding happens when you follow your child’s lead in activities that they initiate. You provide just enough support to challenge her to the next level without overwhelming her with frustration. So nudge the toy to just within her reach. She still has to try to get what she wants – which requires both determination and focus – but she is learning that she can help herself, that this requires effort and that daddy won’t just hand her whatever she wants when she wants it. She is also experiencing the triumph of achievement. Don’t rob her of that.
As you can see, these are not formal sit down and learn exercises, goodness knows you child will have enough of those throughout their lifetime. For many of us, the time that we spend with our children is limited to those precious minutes and hours that we carve out in the evenings and over weekends to be nothing but a father or a mother. My son’s days are as packed as mine – crowded with homework and sport, parties, concerts and extra math. Do I really want to take up our time together with critical thinking tutoring delivered by moi? Absolutely not, which is why the activities I suggest are ones that can be used in everyday interactions with your school-going children such as going shopping, parking the car or taking about a birthday party. Consider theses exercises impromptu pop-up training for the school of life. Like any exercise routine, if these conversations don’t fit in with your life, aren’t fun and don’t eventually produce results, you will drop them and be reluctant to try again. The next chapter discusses more brain building activities as we look at working memory as a building block of fluid intelligence (remember fluid or raw intelligence as a quality of a hyper-skilled employee?).
• Right from birth: Building your child’s foundation for life: Birth to 18 months by Ramey, C. T. & Ramey, S. L. (1999). Goddard parenting guides. New York: Goddard Press. Schiller, P. B. (1999).
• Start smart!: Building brain power in the early years by Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House (1999).
• How Brains Think: Evolving Intelligence Then and Now by Calvin, W. New York: Basic Books (1996).
• A Celebration of Neurons: An Educator’s Guide to the Human Brain by Sylwester, R. Alexandria, ASCD (1995).
TIPS AND TAKEAWAYS FROM CHAPTER 5
1. A young brain grows and learns through exposure to different stimuli. You choose what to expose your infant to and how much to interact with them – so make it count.
2. Brain growth achieved in the first year will influence later attainment levels.
3. Language and memory develop rapidly in the toddler years – play games with your little one to boost these pathways in the brain.
4. Speak to your baby as much and as clearly as you can, about anything. This may mean putting your phone away when walking with them in the park or at a restaurant or when grabbing a quick coffee at the Starbucks with them in tow.
When basking in the latest cognitive research and cool stuff that we didn’t know yesterday, it may be tempting to think that the problems we face in preparing our children for life are new world problems unique to our generation. But what if they aren’t? What if we’ve been trying to solve the same problems for decades using the same thinking that created them in the first place? What if, today, we merely have a better lexicon of terms to voice our concerns and insights?
In the early 1940s the war effort in the US required a certain standard of literacy amongst army recruits. To achieve this, disparate schools across the nation were required to conform to a standard curriculum for the first time. This was the beginning of a revolution that also severed the connection between wealth and access to education in the US. By 1947 standardised testing was introduced and became the only way to gain admission into higher education.
Assistant superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools at the time, George H. Reavis, was part of this transition. Perhaps because of or in response to it, he penned and published a fable in the early 1940s that reflected his view of the changes around him. Remember that this was a time still untroubled by a deep-seated scholastic status quo and a tipping point where the decisions of a few changed the lives of almost everyone.
Now who doesn’t love a fable in the middle of a book on thinking about thinking? It’s been around for more than 70 years but still rings clear and true for many today.
The Animal School By George H. Reavis
Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of “a new world”. So they organized a school. They adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects.
The duck was excellent in swimming, in fact better than his instructor, but he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running. This was kept up until his webbed feet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school, so nobody worried about that except the duck.
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but had a nervous breakdown because of so much make-up work in swimming. The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down. He also developed a “charlie horse” from overexertion and then got a “C” in climbing and a “D” in running.
The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing class he beat all the others to the top of the tree, but insisted on using his own way to get there.
At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceedingly well, and also run, climb and fly a little, had the highest average and was valedictorian.
The prairie dogs stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because the administration would not add digging and burrowing to the curriculum. They apprenticed their children to a badger and later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start a successful private school.
__________
1 Early brain development research review and update by Schiller, P. Published in Nov/Dec 2010 edition of EXCHANGE Magazine, US