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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

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