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.

Would You Test Your Child's DNA to Find Out his/her Strengths or Weaknesses?

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If you can save thousands of dollars instead of sending your child to every enrichment class under the sun in hopes of grooming the next sportsman /singer/ political leader/ CEO / dancer / artist etc, would you do it? Would you allow your child to take a DNA test (at least 2k) of finding out her/his strengths, characteristics, traits and such - even though the results are supposedly to be 100% correct? Or are you going to allow your child to take up whatever interest she/he wants and hopes that she will just sustain this interest in the long run?

When I first read about Map My Gene, I was surprised. Not only has Science now really scale new heights in the arena of parenting but such great leap at that.  A global company, it has been gathering quite an interest from parents, scientists and such. It has also partner with some centres as well. Currently, for $1,980, it will supposedly show you results in 40 areas of your child - including EQ, IQ, artistic, athletics and many more. The company will also help to recommend suitable careers for your child down the road!



Brain Truths of a Baby

Every year, there will be a new wave of education fad that will sweep the world off its feet. Teachers, parents (especially the more educated ones), professors will start scurrying to find out more about the fads and try their best to implement into their curriculum and their lifestyles in the hopes that the future generations can greatly benefit from it.

Some fads require more than years of study before they are proven successful. Some cause uproars when after years of implementation; they find that these fads are not useful to the child but becomes detrimental instead. It has become experiments to try out on our children where the adults adopt a "hope for the best" or "just in case" approach for our little ones (Ok ok, I admit that I am testing out the Babyplus at the moment).

Instead of trying out the latest gadgets, I think most of us have forgotten to go back to basics. It's like building a house. We are always swept away by novelty and interesting ideas that somehow we just forget if the basic foundation has never been stable in the first place; bricks that we pile high up and above will just collapse and give way one day. And its effects can be tragic.

Youth Gangs - Do these problems actually stem from Infant's Brain?

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For a long time, when the recent spate of youth violence started to appear, I have been wondering: Does the state of our youth's behaviour actually stem from the way we shape their brains during Infanthood? Is this a result of lack of Attachment Parenting (but that will be another post)?

Often, humans like to deal with problems the moment they appear. Most of them will adopt the “来到桥头自然直”attitude (That means we cross the bridge when we get there or let's solve problems the moment they appear and not think about it so soon.) I have an issue which many have commented to me about it  before: That is: I like to anticipate future problems and think or read up about it before anything happens. Truth be told, not many like this particular trait of mine for it seems to give an impression that I am always doing stuff and putting unnecessary pressure on them and myself (That may be true from SOME perspectives but I do believe in resting and enjoying - surprise!) And perhaps, I can see no better time than now to be prepared. Therefore, in my bid to gather never-ending knowledge and to see if I can put two and two together (I am a self-declared PI. Some says Kpoh.) , I decided to read up and learn more about the brain.