Children's Minds

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But our brains always have the potential to change and grow. It’s never too late to give a child or young person positive brain building experiences. Every day, we manage various demands on our attention, from paying attention and controlling impulses, to managing emotions and prioritising tasks (Shonkoff et al, 2011). This Sharing the Brain Story metaphor compares the process of lorries carrying large loads to parents and carers being overloaded with challenges. Develop children’s imagination and creativity with visits to local venues such as parks, parks with sculptures, art galleries, museums or libraries. These are often free or at a low cost to under-5s. Interact with young children through serve and return, for example by listening and responding to their concerns. This helps build brain architecture and stress management systems (Center on the Developing Child, 2013).

Imagination and creativity - Help for early years providers Imagination and creativity - Help for early years providers

Like improving or rebuilding the architecture of a house – refurbishing rooms, strengthening foundations – the brain can also be improved and rebuilt following childhood trauma through an active process of maintenance and care from supportive, trusted adults.Developmental psychology researchers have long known that children aren’t simply mini-adults – their minds and brains work in fundamentally different ways. Exploring those differences can help us understand how kids think and behave and can provide insights into how the mind and brain develop and change over time. Here is some of the latest research involving children from Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Children’s Minds by Margaret Donaldson | Waterstones

I liked the way Donaldson defines the type of language necessary for the type of mental representation required for such sophisticated thinking, what Piaget terms 'formal operational' and Bruner 'symbolic'--'disembedded' language. What a lovely concrete way to describe abstraction, and what a wonderful way to remind us to initially 'embed' the language we employ in teaching children, before we push them to 'disembed.' Learn how to build strong brain architecture through serve and return interactions in our face-to-face trainingallow the child to ‘serve’ – follow their focus and return their serve with support and encouragement When adults do not respond to a child’s serve or if children spend a long time on passive activity – such as watching TV – this can break the rally and interrupt development. For example, children learn language, more effectively face-to-face with a teacher or caregiver than by watching TV or a video (Shonkoff et al, 2018).

Children’s Minds – HarperCollins Publishers UK

All of these creative experiences build powerful connections within the brain, Creativity is associated with focus, independence, a willingness to explore and ingenuity.Given these thoughts, I really don't understand why teaching credential students at State were not assigned Donaldson's slim and relatively accessible 'Children's Minds.' I read it collaboratively with my sister, and have gained considerable insight into the work I do with children Shonkoff, J.P. et al (2011) Building the brain’s “air traffic control” system: how early experiences shape the development of executive function: working paper 11 (PDF). Cambridge: Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. The air traffic control system in a child’s brain is also known as ‘executive function’: the system that manages social and cognitive skills. Children depend on these emerging executive function skills as they learn to read and write, develop arithmetic skills and interact with peers (Shonkoff et al, 2011).