The Brain You Gave Your Child

 

Since it is brain awareness week, let’s look at the brain you gave your child.

It is interesting that intelligence does not lie in the number of brain cells (the neurons) that a person has but, in their ability to communicate with one another.  For example, an adult has learned much more than an infant, yet the average 2-year-old has twice as many neurons as you do, and you have about 100 billion!  The adult brain has fewer synaptic connections than a child does, but they are in synchronized and organized communication, displaying knowledge, intelligence, talent and ability.  A classic example of “It’s not what you have, it’s how you use it.”

There are several different types of cells in the brain, but the cells that are the seat of learning are called neurons.  Pictures of neurons usually show a structure that would look good as the monster in a science fiction movie.  The neuron has a central portion with spidery fingers (dendrites) reaching out in all directions and a long tail, called an axon with dendrites of its own at its tip.  The pathways for information are one-way streets with dendrites receiving information from the tail-like structures of near-bye neurons and sending them outward through their own axons. When neurons are transferring and coordinating information, sorting it into usable units of thought and storing them for future use, they reach out to one another with these finger-like structures.  An impulse travels down an axon and sends out chemical stimulants to near-bye cells that make them receptive to the message being sent.  As closely packed as the neurons are, they never actually touch.  Dendrites transfer information and messages through chemical and electrical impulses that travel across the small openings between them.  These synaptic connections—their number and location—control the quality of our thinking.  These synaptic connections are frequently what we are talking about when we talk about intelligence.

The more a neuron sends out messages to other neurons, and the more information it receives, the closer and more receptive its dendrites become.  There is a “use it or lose it” quality to neurons.  Intelligent people have many ways to store, find and integrate information.  They use their brain and it becomes stronger with use.

In the first months of your child’s life, and continuing for the next 10 years, your child will produce trillions of synaptic connections.  In fact, the child will produce many more than they ever need.  Evolution has given us a brain that is designed to give itself every opportunity to learn.  This overproduction of synaptic connections assures that we are ready to take advantage of every stimulus, every chance for insight, and every teachable moment.  However, our bodies are energy efficient machines, and unused synapses are not considered worth the energy needed to maintain them.  To conserve energy our bodies selectively eliminate any synaptic connections that are not being used.

We do not need to shed tears for the loss of most of these synapses.  We are designed to lose them. It would be neither normal nor healthy for them to survive intact. Without the selective loss of these unused, synaptic dead ends, our minds would be a confused maze of disconnected, incomplete thoughts.

  It is important to remember that children became intelligent, productive, educated people for generations before we had a single clue how we learn.  They did this by playing in the dirt, banging on pots and pans, building with Lincoln Logs and pulling petals off dandelions. The fact is that giving your child a loving, happy, playful childhood will probably be enough.   But we can also use this information to determine why some of our children are at serious disadvantage when they are competing with children who have been better prepared to learn.

Stay tuned and keep the faith.