| Are you juggling career and family? Do you find | | | | The same principle holds true in humans. Scientists |
| your free time stretched between your baby and | | | | have discovered, for instance, that certain areas |
| older children? If you think you're too busy to | | | | of the brain are larger and more developed in |
| learn about early education, you've come to the | | | | children who play musical instruments than in |
| right place. Read on to pick up the basics in less | | | | those who do not. These include the cerebellum, |
| than 10 minutes. | | | | which processes rhythm and timing, and the |
| Why is early learning important? | | | | corpus callosum, which acts as the conduit for |
| The first years of life lay the neurological | | | | communication between the brain's left and right |
| foundation for intellectual growth into adolescence | | | | hemispheres - vital for musicians coordinating their |
| and adulthood. This time represents a unique | | | | right and left hands. |
| window of opportunity for learning. | | | | Sowing the seeds of intelligence |
| Each of the brain's neurons is connected to | | | | Early learning programs such as Head Start in the |
| roughly 5,000 others. In general, the more | | | | US are producing measurable cognitive and |
| dendrites (branches between neurons) and | | | | emotional benefits in children - benefits that can |
| synapses (connections between neurons) the | | | | last into middle and even high school. In general, |
| brain has, the greater its processing power. More | | | | the younger intervention is staged, the more |
| pathways mean information can travel in a | | | | significant and long-lived the effects. Full-day |
| number of ways, opening the door to faster and | | | | educational programs for infants have been |
| more complex thinking. | | | | shown to produce IQ gains lasting into |
| This is true in the adult, but not in the infant. Your | | | | adolescence. |
| baby's brain actually has more neurons and | | | | The question is: why only provide such positive |
| synapses than yours - but only because it hasn't | | | | stimulation to children from disadvantaged |
| passed an important developmental stage, known | | | | backgrounds? |
| as pruning, in which the brain deletes unneeded | | | | Many leading childhood development experts |
| neural connections in the interests of organization | | | | believe that we all have far greater potential in |
| and efficiency. | | | | our early years than society gives us credit for. |
| "Use it or lose it" | | | | Waiting until school to begin providing consistent |
| The process of pruning is illustrative of the high | | | | intellectual stimulation to a child is no disaster. But |
| plasticity (adaptability) of young brains, which are | | | | in doing so, we miss a unique window of |
| literally sculpted by the environments in which | | | | opportunity for learning. |
| they are raised. Scientific testing of how exactly | | | | So how do you make the most of that window |
| experience shapes the brain has led to the theory | | | | of opportunity in your baby or child's life? Read on |
| of "critical periods" - specific time periods in which | | | | to part 2 to find out what you can do during |
| stimulation must occur, or the chance to develop | | | | pregnancy and after birth. |
| normal functioning will be lost. | | | | |