B is for Brain Development!

During the preschool years 90% of brain growth occurs. It is critical that adults provide positive experiences and environments for the optimal development of children during these important years.

I am very pleased to share this post to participate with a wonderful group in a celebration of 20,000 individuals supporting the importance of the early years in a child's development. Deborah J. Stewart is dedicated to promoting excellence in early education through her Teach Preschool blog. She has just connected with 20,000 individuals who are dedicated to making a positive impact for young children!

This fun celebration is providing a full alphabet of blog posts on a variety of wonderful aspects of the early childhood  years. You can see all that is provided here - ENJOY!

Celebrating the ABC’s of Teaching Preschool and You!

B.... is for Brain Development!  (And it isn't complicated!)

A child’s brain continues to develop long after birth. The term “brain development” refers to more than how smart a child is. It is the actual growth that takes place in the brain. The experiences a child has in the first few years creates the connections between brain cells and develops the foundation for relationships and learning throughout life.

Nutrition, sleep, regular routines, physical activity, play, and repeated positive experiences with caring adults, strengthens the connections to create the growth of a brain. This makes the brain healthy, ready to get along with others, and eager for more learning.

However, constant exposure to stress, limited stimulation, poor nutrition and lack of a nurturing relationship all create a brain being “wired” in a way that leads to emotional and learning problems. Growing brains adapt to the environment they are exposed to.  A brain will adapt to a negative environment just as easily as it will adapt to a positive environment

Understanding this creates the awareness that adults in a child’s life can have a long-lasting impact.
Following are a few areas to focus on and share!

Warm Responsive Care
        Children’s primary need is to know they are loved. This is only learned through consistent nurturing interactions with primary caregivers.

Talk
        The brain makes connections for learning language only from what a child hears. A child needs to hear lots of language throughout the day. Language is learned through direct interaction, 

not from a television or video.

Safe, Healthy Environment
        A variety of nutritious foods, a lead free and safe environment for a child to explore contributes to a well developed brain. A brain requires little stress and routines to feel safe and relaxed. 

Sleep and rest are also necessary to a healthy brain.

Play
        Play is the way the brain learns about the world. Lots of interaction and exploration help the brain form connections that make later learning easier. 

Play outdoors additionally impacts brain development in healthy ways.

What a children need most is adults that understand development!

Parents and medical professionals that are aware and well educated on brain development can provide all that a growing brain needs most. 

Early childhood educators play a vital role in partnering to share in implementing this valuable knowledge.Through working together we can ensure all children receive the experiences that will most positively impact healthy brain connections and success in life for all children!

        ~ We ALL benefit when ALL children 

have well developed brains! ~

For information and loving, fun and interactive activity packets filled with ideas that fit into busy every day life go to www.braininsightsonline.com

BRAIN INITIATIVE - WEEK #20

As a result of watching a discussion last week-end on the topic of education in America, I am including the reasons we NEED the BRAIN Initiative in this post. The program was valuable due to addressing various points on the issues in education, but the development of brains was not mentioned at all! 

So..... here is the list again. Please add any reasons you feel need to be included on this list.

Why Do We Need the BRAIN Initiative?

•  Because we ALL benefit from ALL children having well developed brains.
• Most people do not yet know that 90% of children's brains are developed in the first 5 years, and 85% in the first 3 years.The brain adapts and grows primarily based on the experiences a child has in these years before they enter school!
• The majority of people do not realize the long range impact the early years have on the physical development of the brain and ultimately learning, relationships, and behaviors in later life.
• Economists have demonstrated it is cost beneficial to develop brains optimally from the beginning rather than spending much greater amounts on problems later.
• Due to technology, scientist have gained valuable information on what developing brains need most so we know what we NEED to do. 
• We can all easily contribute to making a dramatic impact simply through creating awareness and understanding.
• Every child deserves the opportunity for healthy development!

Let's make sure EVERYONE knows the critical difference we can make in the early years!!

 

Following is the Week #20 BRAIN insight to share:

 

 BRAIN 

Brains Require All Investing Now

 

A BRAIN Insight to share ~ Week #20

 

A chaotic environment with persistent noise, stress, and unpredictability can impede optimal brain development.

 

 

 
Let's make this common knowledge! 
To share this brain fact just cut and paste or use the the share button!

• You can simply post the insight on social network sites 
• You can also include the fact in organizational literature or newsletters, add to your signature on your e-mail, post on a bulletin board and implement it into what you do each week.
• Additionally each week, e-mail the BRAIN Insight to 5 people you know. Encourage each person to share it with 5 people they know. If each person shares with 5 people each week... we will finally have EVERYONE knowing this incredibly important information!  
•  

Enjoy contributing to make this common knowledge!!

 Spreading Brain Development Even Further .... Click here to send the name of a program, agency, school, organization or business that will benefit from a brain development packet. I will draw a name and donate a brain development activity packet 

for the age of your choice, in the name of the person making the recommendation each week!!

The WINNER for WEEK #19:

 

    Conant Elementary School

                    Bloomfield Hills, MI                               

 
A brain development packet for the age of their choice will be donated in the name of:  Angela Parker

 

 

Congratulations!!

 

Have you sent in your nomination? 

There are many terrific programs and agencies already nominated from all over the world! I invite you to nominate programs, schools, organizations, or agencies that would benefit from a donated brain activity packet in either English or Spanish. 

  

THANK YOU to all that are participating the initiative already! Tell everyone you know about the difference we can make!

BRAIN FACT: Natural Settings have a Positive Impact on the Brain

Time spent outdoors in nature is like pushing a "stress reduction button" for your brain.  

Research findings, "demonstrated that tranquil environmental scenes containing natural features, such as the sea, cause distinct brain areas to become `connected´ with one another whilst man-made environments, such as motorways, disrupt the brain connections." 

For an article on the study go to,  Tranquil scenes have a positive impact on the brain. 

BRAIN INITIATIVE - WEEK #18

Are you seeing evidence of an increase in brain development understanding in your area? It would be wonderful to hear in what ways you are seeing a greater awareness!

Let's make sure EVERYONE knows the critical difference we can make in the early years!!

 

 

 

Following is the Week #19 BRAIN insight to share:

 

 BRAIN 

Brains Require All Investing Now

 

A BRAIN Insight to share ~ Week #19

 

 

Hours for an infant have more impact on brain development than months in adulthood.

 

 

 
Let's make this common knowledge! 
To share this brain fact just cut and paste or use the the share button!

• You can simply post the insight on social network sites 
• You can also include the fact in organizational literature or newsletters, add to your signature on your e-mail, post on a bulletin board and implement it into what you do each week.
• Additionally each week, e-mail the BRAIN Insight to 5 people you know. Encourage each person to share it with 5 people they know. If each person shares with 5 people each week... we will finally have EVERYONE knowing this incredibly important information!  
•  

Enjoy contributing to make this common knowledge!!

 Spreading Brain Development Even Further .... Click here to send the name of a program, agency, school, organization or business that will benefit from a brain development packet. I will draw a name and donate a brain development activity packet 

for the age of your choice, in the name of the person making the recommendation each week!!

The WINNER for WEEK #19:

 

  Murray Early Head Start  

                                Murray, Kentucky                                    

 
A brain development packet for the age of their choice will be donated in the name of :  

Althia Caldwell

 

Congratulations!!

 

Have you sent in your nomination? 

There are many terrific programs and agencies already nominated from all over the world! I invite you to nominate programs, schools, organizations, or agencies that would benefit from a donated brain activity packet in either English or Spanish. 

  

THANK YOU to all that are participating the initiative already! Tell everyone you know about the difference we can make!

BRAIN DEVELOPMENT AND PLAY?

What Do You Think? 

When science demonstrates and continuously reports that play and physical activity leads to optimal brain development and enhanced learning.... why do you think so little of it occurs at school and daily life for children? 

BRAIN FACT: Physical Activity Impacts Brain Function

Exercise is not only good for the body... it also has direct and positive effect on the brain. Research demonstrates that physical activity and movement makes actual changes to neurons resulting in improved cognitive functioning. 

Rough and tumble play coordinates the higher functioning area of the brain. 

It is simply essential to the health, learning, development and well-being of children to ensure time for outdoor play and recess is provided everyday!

Help My Child Is Screaming On The Floor, Now What?

A better understanding of children's brains is quite comforting to caring parents and dedicated educators. When gaining insights into what is going on in a child's head, adults can better handle stressful situations.

Frequently I talk about and provide activity ideas for developing the "thinking area" of the brain. This area is the pre-frontal cortex. This area is critically important for the ability to self regulate. It is the area that takes the most time to fully develop. So, it is valuable for adults to remember the brains of children are still immature. Keeping in mind that children's young brains do not always have the ability to control emotions is very helpful. Children need the adults in their lives to help them deal with big and overwhelming emotions.

It is a pleasure to share this guest blog, to provide further explanation about how the emotional brain areas may still be more in control than the "thinking areas."  Dr. LauraJJ Dessauer  shares her knowledge and also provides suggestions for creative and positive problem solving with children. She also shares a link to provide further information. Enjoy!

Help My Child Is Screaming On The Floor, Now What?

If you are a parent then you have faced the challenge of helping your child find ways to manage those big feelings that at times seem to over take them.  Those feelings of frustration, anger, or sadness that appear to storm out of nowhere and take over your child. Often parents are bewildered by the behaviors attached to these feelings such as tantrums, yelling, crying, refusal, inflexibility, shutting down, or hitting.  Many calm rational parents, who have read the latest parenting books, still struggle with helping their children through the maze of these intense feelings and out of control behaviors.  What may be lacking in traditional parenting methods is a way to teach your children emotional management skills that speak to them in their own natural language. Creative thinking offers a way to do just that. 

Children who are unable to regulate strong emotions experience “melt-downs”.  Brain research suggests that “emotional hijacking” occurs when there is a flooding of electro-chemicals in the brain.  Children who experience a stressful situation may become emotionally escalated due to the amygdala being flooded by peptides and hormones.  However, neuroscience suggests that by using your cortex, the analytical part of your brain, you can self-regulate strong emotions.  When a child is in a learning environment that elicits strong negative emotions this can impact their ability to hear or comprehend what is being taught.  The inability to regulate emotions may lead to social isolation, poor academic outcomes, and low self-esteem. However, there is a link between positive affective states and cognitive performance.  Thereby, suggesting a relationship between positive affect, higher productivity, creative problem solving, memory, and logic.  It is also suggested that increases in dopamine released by positive affect promotes creative problem solving.  Moreover, the research on multiple intelligences offers some insight into the different ways a child learns and why some children learn through trying things out by doing a hands-on project.

So what does that mean to the parent who just wants to help their child learn how to manage the big overwhelming feelings and out of control behaviors?  It means that doing a creative and pleasurable activity may enhance a child’s learning. It also means that if a child is involved in a positive learning experience that is related to the way they process information, they may be able to learn and retain this information more readily. 

Five easy tips to help your child use their creativity for emotional management:

1.      Use clay, or crayons, markers, and paper to create a character from their imagination to help them stop and think before they act.

2.       Use clay to express their frustration and then create a new way to solve the problem they are encountering.

3.       Come up with a creative plan to stop their sibling from bugging them using markers to draw out their choices. 

4.      Children in a creative problem-solving group can create modeling clay figures to help them negotiate relationships and find ways to build social skills.

5.      Take a creative break!  When you notice your child becoming agitated and they are unable to talk through the problem have them take a break in their relaxation corner and use markers and crayons to express what they are feeling.

These creative exercises help children to “strengthen” their problem-solving muscles.  In other words, they are building up their prefrontal cortex and when they are becoming emotionally charged they can use their creative thinking to get back in control. Creative thinking offers a way for your child to become in control of their emotions, not their emotions controlling them, and isn’t that what every parent wants?

Are you in need of more support? We can help! Learn more creative tools and strategies to help your child, click here to access the free audio mini-course Secrets Your Kids Really Don’t Want You to Know: A Child Art Therapist Tells All (*except for the confidential stuff) www.thecreativityqueen.com

Bio

Dr. Laura JJ Dessauer’s, ATR-BC, LCAT mission is to teach children and parents creative ways to connect and communicate with respect and compassion, so your child can feel happier and more confident. As the founder of the Creativity Queen, LLC, Laura’s a Board Certified Creative Arts Therapist and Certified Parent and Teen Coach with over 23 years of experience working with families, children and teens in over 21 school districts. The Creativity Queen, Winner of SCORE Small Business of the Year, offers individual art therapy sessions and creative problem solving programs for both children and adults.

Copyright 2011 Creativity Queen, LLC

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