Brain Readiness in Early Childhood
Brain Readiness in Early Childhood
By Jo Clark (BTchg Waikato)- Nurture Early Learning, Group Curriculum Leader.Ready, Sturdy, Slow.
As part of our ongoing PD our teachers attended an evening with Nathan Wallis, a renowned Child Development expert. His presentation opened our minds to the implications of the latest brain research and how this drastically impacts our understanding of what children really need in the early years, in order to reach their full potential academically later on.
The short answer is Positive Dispositions.
Dispositions are Habits of Mind/Ways of Being and Doing. Dispositions are developed as children interact with the people, places and things they encounter from birth. People, places and things are the ingredients that nurture your child’s brain. As we know from our Nurture focus on Nutrition, good ingredients, make for the best nutrition for the growing body. Likewise, the brain is designed to be grown by the environment it encounters. The latest research from Harvard states that, “Early experiences affect the development of brain architecture, which provides the foundation for all future learning, behaviour, and health.”
READY:
When people, places, and things offer children the presence of a supportive adult, a stress free, and stimulating environment: the child’s brain builds positive dispositions that in turn open up new areas of brain structure in readiness for all future learning and academic success, not just at primary school; up to, and beyond University.
These positive dispositions are the ways of participating that the child takes with them through lifelong learning.
“I am a good learner.” Participating and contributing.
“I keep trying, and I usually work it out.” Thinking. Perseverance with difficulty and uncertainty.
“If I get stuck, I can get people to help me.” Relating to others.
“I can have my say and be listened to.” Understanding language, symbols and text.
“I have a place and I know where things go.” Managing self.
Interestingly, when we ask our local primary teachers about school readiness, these are actually the same Key Competencies they are looking for in new entrant children.
The more the supportive adult narrates and engages the child in rich and meaningful play experiences, planned or occurring naturally, the more the child’s brain wires itself for interaction with a complex world. This is the Play, Talk, Support, discussed last newsletter.
STURDY:
Under the age of 7 the child is building sturdy brain structure and functioning strongly through the emotional/creative area of the brain, it is the season of open-ended possibility, wonder and innovation, problem solving, strategy and negotiation. At this time children process and measure knowledge in a different way to us adults, they see their capability based almost entirely on feelings. How clever they feel is much more relevant to them than the academic facts they have loaded.
The early childhood years are the golden age of play, exploration, creativity, imagination and movement. These are the modes and media of learning for the developing feeling focused brain. Children’s brain wiring, and feelings focused processing, until the age of 7, makes academic learning/cognitive loading of repetitive patterns and symbols, much harder to do. The academic processing hardware is simply not ready. Unfortunately, early cognitive loading, valued by many adults, can send a message to the child that they are, ‘not good enough’. Children want to please adults and be the best at whatever the adult values. They can easily form a negative disposition towards themselves and may feel that: “I’m not a good learner.” When the truth is their brain is simply not ready for fact loading.
Go SLOW:
What we value as learning matters, because that is the expectation we communicate to the child, intentionally or otherwise. When we value play, child focused projects, creativity, and imagination, the child develops emotionally positive dispositions and builds the essential brain architecture that will support lifelong learning.
PLAY, TALK, SUPPORT = Positive Dispositions = increased brain structure = optimum academic success.
So, don’t be in a hurry to load up facts, instead: ask your child what he thinks and feels. What is important to her. What do they already know about the people, places and things in their world. As you show them you value their creative exploration modes of processing through play and projects, they build a positive mindset and positive dispositions toward learning; as well as the robust brain structure needed for lifelong learning. This is what they really need to set a foundation firmly in place to build future learning on.
Written by Jo Clark 19/12/19 from notes, (Nathan Wallis, Personal communication, 13th October, 2019), and Harvard Centre for the Developing Child newsletter, brain architecture, 2019. Peer reviewed by Kathi Palmer.