WE continue our discussion on “Giving children a good head dtart” in elementary and early childhood education and this week and we look at the significance of “Brain development and nutrition” in children.
What is about to be discussed is information teacher educators, teachers, care givers, child minders and parents of children ought to know about this vital human organ that plays a critical role in the development of the human body from infancy through to adulthood. It is what I call a basic tool box for use in nurturing early learners in their early years of education. Brain development has two pathways, neurological and biochemical pathways. The pathways lead and operate differently but give totality to the infant brain in its developmental stage. In the neurological pathway when children are born, some brain cells (neurons) are not connected up well. At birth babies have brains that are 25% the size of an adult brain and by age three, toddlers’ brains are approximately 80% the size of adults. By age three, children have three times more neural connections than adults. Thus, children need more energy to keep these connections happening. By two years of age, toddler brains are twice active as adults and by age three, their brains are 25 times more active than adults. As the child grows and many brain pathways get wired up, his/her brain becomes too complex to function. At this age children tend to eat small but at regular intervals to feed their developing brains. However, nutritional deprivation has major short-term and long-term consequences. In the biochemical pathway, humans have developed biological stress reaction to help us deal with modern day lives. These are things that cause us to experience uncertainty, unsafe feelings, fear, anxiety, thirst, hunger, sick and stress. All these cause biological reaction to children. In situation of biological reaction, the body releases a substance called cortisol. Cortisol takes energy from other parts of the body and feeds extra heart rate, blood pressure and levels of arousal. It assists by turning off the parts of the brain used for rational thinking and problem-solving and memory. So, energy used for feeding rational thinking, problem-solving and memory are turned off during stressful events or during periods of high levels of arousal. Cortisol then uses the energy that feeds rational thinking and problem-solving and memory to feed the extra heart rate and extra levels of arousal (Sims, 2004). Comments are closed.
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