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| |    How Thinking Starts by Dr. Benjamin Spock reviewed and revised by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. Of all the discoveries about child development made in the late 20th century, perhaps none is so fascinating as how a young child's experience changes the development of the cells in the brain. For decades, scientists believed that the human brain was shaped solely in accordance with the child's genetic blueprint. Biology was destiny. However your genes told your brain to grow, that was exactly how it was formed. The real picture is far more interesting and far more complex. First, the human brain contains about 100 billion nerve cells (neurons) and each connects to about 10,000 other neurons. Each cell can send up to 100 messages a second to its neighbors. You can see that the possible number of interconnections between the nerve cells of the brain is beyond measure. What designs a brain? It turns out that these interconnections of nerve cells--scientists call it the architecture of the brain--are to a significant degree determined by the infant and young child's experiences in the world. This is extraordinary news: A young child's environment actually helps to determine the structure of her brain. Now we understand that early experiences--especially those in the first years of life when the brain is growing and interconnections between the nerve cells occur at a very fast rate--actually change the structure of the brain. Then, when the brain stops growing and stops making new connections (sometime during middle childhood), the job is done and the die is cast. That doesn't mean that the process of development stops, but it does mean that the complexity and richness of the brain itself is pretty much set. In computer terms, the hard drive is completed and awaits programming. Then we all have to make the best of what we've got; the critical period of brain development is over. Positive and negative experiences Rich, emotionally positive experiences tend to promote certain complex brain connections. Negative experiences also reinforce certain connections in the brain, although perhaps not the ones we would like to see, such as connecting a feeling of fear to a certain sound or smell. A lack of stimulation causes there to be fewer connections and a less complex network of neurons in the brain all together. Babies growing up in a home filled with anxiety and tension seem to have fewer tools with which to cope with their feelings. They are also easily overwhelmed by their feelings. This, in part, explains why children from nurturing, attentive homes seem to do better in all aspects of life, compared to children who have been relatively neglected. That is why scientists believe that early experiences play a significant role in the long-term process of development, and that is why, right from the start, the business of child rearing is so vitally important, not only to the child and to the family, but to our society as a whole.
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