Enriched Environments and The Brain

Enriched Environments and the Brain

Currently

*“It used to be that we thought the brain was hard-wired and that it didn’t change…[but] positive environments can actually produce physical changes in the developing brain.” ~Fredrick Godwin

Nature-30-60 percent

Nurture-40 to 70 percent

Eliminate negatives

Embarrassment
Finger-pointing
Unrealistic deadlines
Forcing kids to stay after school
Humiliation
Sarcasm
Lack of resources
Simply being bullied

“…you can’t make a 70 IQ person into a 150 IQ person, but you can change their IQ measure in different ways, perhaps as much as 20 points up or down, based on the environment”

What Constitutes Enrichment?

Stimulation

Challenging
Learn from experience through interactive feedback (immediate is the best)(internal and external)

Repetition

Daily
Procedure
Baseline of neural connectivity and enrichment aids in this connectivity
Age-Early (2yrs)

Novelty

Keep up with the “times”
Change décor for best enrichment
Environment
- Technology

Enrichment through Reading and Language

Reading

6 months not when school starts 4-5 or 8 as many children
Age 12 more challenging vocab and foreign languages are effectively learned (Neuron)
- After puberty connections have almost disappeared and the potential cells for language have been usurped by other more aggressive cells for other functions. (Neuron)

Writing

Writing BD PQ
Learning cursive before print

Enrichment through Motor Stimulation

Counting
Exercise
Sports- Repetitive- Hand-Eye
Counting
Planning
Figuring and Problem Solving (neuron)

As teachers, we can help promote by kinesthetic learning in academic classes.

Enrichment through Thinking and Problem Solving

Age 2 brain is ready for basic problem-solving skills
- Donut tube tower
9 and 12
- spurt in the left hemisphere (writing > complex) finer distinctions
11 and 13
- Complex abstractions

Some maturing goes into early 20’s

As teachers, we can help promote problem-solving by

Model
Analogy
Metaphor
Artwork
Science Projects
Demonstrations
Real life is always the best!

Why?

Problem-solving creates new dendritic connections that allow us to make more connections.

When students feel more capable of solving a problem their thoughts change their body’s chemistry

Competence>Chemical response to stress decreased
The process promotes learning not solution>resources learned-to the rescue! (neuron)

Puzzles
Word games
Hypothetical Problems
Jigsaw puzzles
Scrabble
Jeopardy
Upper-level