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The human brain begins forming very
early in prenatal life (just three weeks after conception), but in many ways,
brain development is a lifelong project. That is because the same events that
shape the brain during development are also responsible for storing
information—new skills and memories—throughout life.
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The rational part of a teen's brain isn't
fully developed and won't be until age 25 or so. In fact, recent
research has found that adult and teen brains work differently. Adults think
with the prefrontal cortex, the brain's rational part.
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The brain continues to grow for a few years
after a person is born and by the age of 2 years old, the brain is about
80% of the adult size. You may wonder, "How does the brain continue
to grow, if the brain has most of the neurons it will get when you are born?
The answer is in glial cells.
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The bran’s ability to change from experience
is known as Plasticity. The human brain is especially plastic early in
life, which is why the “nurture” part of the equation is so important
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Throughout life the brain continues to be
plastic-this is the mechanism of learning-but plasticity declines in adulthood.
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As a child’s brain develops, it goes through
several ’critical periods, a developmental phase in which the brain requires
certain environmental input and it will not develop normally.
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The Frontal Lobe is the most recently-evolved
part of the brain and the last to develop in young
adulthood. Its dorso-lateral prefrontal circuit is the brain ‘stop
executive.
Early Milestones in
Brain Growth
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4 months: the infant‘s brain responds to every sound
produced in all the languages of the world.
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8 to 9 months: Babies can form specific memories from their
experiences, such as how to push a ball to make it roll.
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10 months: Babies can now distinguish and even produce
the sounds of their own language (such as ―da-da‖) no longer pay attention to the sounds of
language that are foreign.
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12 months: Babies whose parents say, for example‖ Lookee at the doggie‖ will go to the
appropriate picture of a dog in a picture book more often than those babies who
are talked to normal, flatter voices.
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12 to 18 months: Babies can keep in memory something that has
been hidden and find it again, even if it has completely covered up. They can
also hold memory sequences of simple activities, such as winding up a
jack-in-the-box until the figure pops up.
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24 months: Preschool children now clear picture in mind
of people who are dear to them, and the get upset when separated from these
people (even their peers)
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30 months: Preschool children can hold in mind a whole
sequence of spatial maps and know where things are in their environment.
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36 months: A preschool child can now two different
emotions in his mind at the same time, such as being sad that he spilled ice
cream on his cloths but glad that he‘s at birthday party.