Three stages of brain development

The ability of children is like a seed that needs to be maintained and nurtured in order to grow well. The potential, as well as certain abilities, can't be realized if the environment doesn't provide maintenance and protection against excessive stimulation.

Children are born with 10 billion neurons in the brain. The first three years since the birth are periods when billions of glial cells continue to grow to nourish neurons. These nerve cells can form thousands of connections between neurons, called dendrites, that resemble cobwebs and elongated axons.

6, 7-year children's brains are two thirds of the adults' but having five, sevenfold connections between neurons than 18-month children's or adults'. Their brains do have great ability to compose thousands of connections between neurons.

However, the ability stops at the ages of 10-11 years if it ain't developed or used. At that time, certain enzymes are released in the brain and dissolving all channels or nerves that ain't well myelinated.

Brain development of growing children is through the three stages, starting from the primitive brain, the limbic, and finally to the neocortex. These three have their own functions although they're interrelated.

The primitive brain regulates your physical survival, manages reflexes, controls motor motion, monitors body functions and processes the incoming information from the senses. The primitive brain, along with the limbic, prepares fight-or-flight response to the body when facing with the threat or danger.

You'll react physically and emotionally first before the thought brain could process information.

The limbic brain processes emotions such as feelings of like and dislike, love and hate. The brain is as a liaison of the thought and the primitive. The primitive brain can be ordered to follow the will of the thought. At other times, the thought brain can be locked not to serve the limbic and the primitive during emergencies.

Meanwhile, the thought brain, which is the highest form of thinking power and the most objective part, receives input from the primitive and the limbic. However, it takes more time to process information, including images from the primitive and the limbic.

The thought brain is also a place where experiences, memories, feelings and thinking ability join to give birth to ideas and actions.

Brain nerve myelination takes place in sequence, starting from the primitive brain, the limbic and the thought. Neural pathways that are more frequently used create myelin to thickening. The thicker the myelin, the faster the nerve impulses or signals travel along the nerves.

Therefore, a growing child is recommended to accept input from the environment in accordance with the development.

In addition, children also need the experience that stimulates the senses. However, their sensories need to be protected from excessive stimulation because the children are like sponges. They absorb what they see, hear, smell, feel and touch from their environment.

Their brains' ability to sort or filter the unpleasant, dangerous experience is undeveloped.

Stimulation and development of the senses will develop a specific part of the brain called the reticular activating system (RAS). The RAS is the entrance to a place where every sensory captures coordinate with each other before passing to the thought brain.

The RAS is a region in the brain that makes you able to focus. Lack of stimulation, or otherwise excessive, coupled with gross and fine motor movements that don't develop properly, can cause the damage to the environmental concerns.

The primitive brain and the limbic are 80-percent myelinated before the child is 4 years old. Myelination is shifted to the thought brain after the ages of 6-7 years, originally from the right hemisphere that, among other things, will respond to visual images.

The right hemisphere has the most dominant work when watching television. Meanwhile, the left hemisphere is dominant when reading, writing and speaking. The main task of the left brain is to think analytically and to construct logical arguments step by step. It analyzes the sound and meaning of language, also manages the smooth muscles skills.

Nerve bundles, called corpus callosum, bridge both hemispheres. Right and left sides of the body coordinate with each other through this bridge. Gross motor activities, such as jumping rope, climbing and running, and fine motor activities, kindsa drawing, crocheting, making origami and cakes, are essential for the process of corpus callosum myelination.

This path enables the ability to thinking analytically and intuitively to influence each other. The unfavorable development of this bridge affects the effective communication between the right and the left hemispheres.

Allegedly, this is the cause of attention and learning difficulties in children.

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The Teenage Brain
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