Brain Development An Overview in Infant Development

1. Brain DevelopmentAn Overview in Infant Development

2. Brain Development • 3rd week of pregnancy • 17th week of gestation • 24th week of gestation • The last trimester • Between birth and 8 months

3. Brain Development • The Brain is the only body organ incomplete at birth • During the first decade of life, the child’s brain is more than twice as active as that of an adult

4. Nerve Axon & Myelination • Transmission of information • Synapse

5. Nerve Axon & Myelination • Myelin Sheath • Myelination of nerve cells compared to insulation of electrical wires

6. Nerve Axon & Myelination • Pruning or the “use it or lose it” principle • The vast majority of synapses are formed during the first 3 years of life and pared down after the age of 10

7. Brain Development Key points offered to improve care for children and families.

8. 1. Human development hinges on the interplay between nature and nurture. • Personal characteristics begin to develop before birth • Roughly 60 percent of genes in the human body are dedicated to brain development • Genes play a role in determining temperament; but research shows the intrauterine environment has a decisive influence on development

9. 2. Early care and nurture have a decisive, long-lasting impact on how people develop, their ability to learn, and their capacity to regulate their own emotions. • Responsive care meets day-to-day needs for nourishment and warmth, but also rhythms, preferences, and moods. These interactions appear to influence developing patterns of neuronal connectivity. • Research has shown that adverse or traumatic events, whether physical or psychological, can elevate an individual’s cortisol levels. • Cortisol affects metabolism, the immune system, and impairs the functioning of the brain.

10. 2. Early care and nurture have a decisive, long-lasting impact on how people develop, their ability to learn, and their capacity to regulate their own emotions. • Importance of attachment –Children learn in the context of important relationships. • Research shows mounting evidence that the nature of the caregiver-infant attachment affects early human development.

11. 3. The human brain has a remarkable capacity to change, but timing is crucial. • The brain has the capacity to compensate due to the brain’s plasticity. • The brain’s ability to change and to recover lost functions is especially remarkable in the first decade of life. • By the time children enter adolescence, recovery is possible, but tends to be slower and less complete, and may require more intensive intervention

12. Developmental “Prime times” Neurons can create synapses most easily and efficiently. Critical periods do not exist for brain development as a whole, but rather for each of the brain’s systems.

13. Developmental “Prime times” Brain plasticity at particular ages: • One month: intensive activity in the regions that control sensory-motor functions • 2-3 months: increases for visual and auditory stimulation • 8 months: ability to regulate and express emotion, to think and to plan, self-regulation, and strengthening attachment to primary caregivers. Caregivers play an especially important role in helping infants to develop self-regulatory capacity by responding sensitively to their emotional signals.

14. 4. The brain’s plasticity also means there are times when negative experiences or the absence of appropriate stimulation are more likely to have serious and sustained effects. • As the brain develops in the first years of life, there are periods when children can meet a new developmental challenge most easily and efficiently • When key experiences are minimal or absent, the result may be an inability to modulate impulsivity, immature emotional and behavioral functioning

16. Healthy Brain Connections depend on Healthy Parent Connections • Touch, talking, and sights and smells all build connections, if done with continuity in a loving, consistent, and predictable manner. • If there are no experiences, the connections are pruned back and the brain remains small.

17. Healthy Brain Connections depend on Healthy Parent Connections • Engaging and responding to the child helps to activate the formation of synapses between brain cells. • These connections will determine the child’s ability to learn, relate to people, manage emotions, and function in the world.

18. Healthy Brain Connections depend on Healthy Parent Connections • As a caregiver spends pleasant moments with her child, touching, talking, and creating a bond, she is also helping to build and strengthen the “wiring” of the child’s brain.

19. Healthy Brain Connections depend on Healthy Parent Connections

20. Interaction Touch Stable Relationship Communication Self Esteem Safe, Healthy Environment Quality Care Play Music Reading Healthy Brain Connections depend on Healthy Parent Connections

21. The human brain is the most complex thing on this earth: it is the seat of our consciousness, it is who we are

22. Questions?