Why the First 6 Years Are Critical to Your Child's Brain

Wow. This is one of the heaviest topic that I have read and trying to understand its technicalities and summarizing it in layman terms can be difficult. Yet it fascinates me the critical periods of the brain are formed in the first 6 years and how the older one gets, the harder it will be to speed up the processing of the mind. This information , to me, is a must-share!

At Birth
If you read my earlier post about baby brain truths, this is really why all these happens. In the brain, there are a lot of neurons that form in the brain of your little one. If you look at the chart, there are very little of them at birth and these neurons will start to form connections with each other very, very soon - not unlike those of the 'telephone connections'. These are called synapse and dendrites; which are often form in the cerebral cortex (the tissue papers). This is when your little one will start to take in all sorts of information slowly and they will start to form connections. It is also when your little one use up very little glucose for their basic responses such as sucking, grasping, rooting and all these will disappear when the cortex develops further.

From 3 months - 6 years
This is a time where babies are able to see things much clearly than before due to the development of the frontal lobe of the brain. That is when there seems to be an explosion of synapse and dendrites connections start to form as they begin to slowly take in sights, sounds and experiences around them - with the help of myelin (a fatty substance that forms the connection between the nerves more quickly and can be found best in  a high fat diet for up to 2 years old). This can also be heightened with the environment if they have access to many enrichment items and continue to do so later on.

After 6-8 months, the baby will begin to use more glucose due to the surge in higher cognitive functions in the brain such as memory, emotion, and general awareness of their surroundings. 'Nurture' has come into mould. At this point, you will find that the 'telephone connections' will start to form more and more. However, all these synapses and dendrites will start to disappear when they are not in use repeatedly. This is to streamline and fine-tuned the information which has been repeated in the brain permanently.  This is why there's no use sending your child to early foreign language classes if he/she is not going to be surrounded by people who are not going to use the language.

From this time to 6 or 7 years old, the kids must be continuously exposed to enrichment and new experiences (especially repeatedly) in order to remember the information better - especially when there is a huge amount of 'telephone connections'. This is when the brain can be shaped due to their plasticity and be permanently wired for certain ways of thinking, acting and perceiving.  However, once the 'telephone connections' are cut and gone, the child will have to do with whatever he/she has.

From 6 Years old onwards
By the time they are 6 years old, many connections have been cut away. Their brains are alive with information and they have a very strong curiosity to learn and ask alot of questions. Learning actually becomes easy for them. That's when the famous and irritating "why?"  questions come in fast and furious. Traits such as self-control will have to take a back seat as first and therefore they will still continue to need strong guidance in learning and self-control.

By 14 years old
By then, the telephone connections have been fully trimmed to retain whatever information they had from earlier times.  They will take a much longer time than before to remember something and therefore, their learning style usually have to incorporate repetition, routine and positive reinforcement.

Whew! This is a very heavy topic indeed. I hope I summarized it well in layman terms.  I hope I can remember all these when it comes to application of the little ones!