Parents - How you can help develop your child's brain and learning capacity

The flexible brain - neuroplasticity 

It has been known for some time that the time of greatest growth for the child's brain is between 0-2 years old when masses of nerve cells (neurons) make thousands of connections as the baby makes sense of the world they are born into as a result of their external environment and their genes, but it doesn't stop there. As parents, you want to create the best environment for your child to thrive - to grow their mind and brain and be the best person they can be. So how can you create an environment for your children that supports healthy  brain development and encourages growth?

As a teacher and tutor for over 25 years, I have been fascinated  by how the children I have taught have transformed from feeling a lack of confidence  and a lack of self-belief to literally blossoming before my eyes and instead of saying ‘I can’t' to saying ‘I can’! Does it happen by magic? No of course not- it takes practice practice practice and like sport or any physical activity - you become stronger and more skilled as you keep at it. The brain is no different - by constant and regular practice at a particular task- those pathways in the brain become stronger and the tasks that you initially found hard become easier and easier.

 A child's brain is developing, learning and making connections

The technical term for this is ‘neuroplasticity’ - as the brain grows and learns - hundreds of new connections are made based on the stimuli from the external environment - the effect is more marked in children as the mind and body are still growing, but it is now known that this can happen in the adult brain as well. Think about when your child is learning to walk, learning to ride a bike or even learning a nee language - your child's brain is making hundreds - if not thousands  of new connections and once mastered they wonder why they found it so difficult in the beginning - that is brain plasticity.

What can you do to help your child develop more connections in the brain?

• Why not play memory games - please up to 20 items on a tray - give them about 2 minutes to look at the items and memorise them. please a cover over the items and ask them how many they can recall. it may be 10 items at first - often the first and last ones they look at but with practice they may be able to recall all 20. this will help them in school when asked to remember facts  about various topics and recall the main points.
• What about puzzles? Jigsaws have been around a very long time but they are fun - they get the cognitive areas of the brain working and if it's a big jigsaw it's fun for all the family. if you have a large enough area you can keep it on the surface for several days and do a little each day- this helps develop logic and problem solving skills - a skill needed for 11+ and most topics involving analysis and logic.
• The children I teach love crosswords- it builds vocabulary as well as deduction and logical skills - although they must be age appropriate - too easy and no brain growth - too hard and your child will give up! Words searches are also good - they are a number of exercises online as well as book with a wide choice of puzzles to choose from.
• Number games - instead of crosswords - why not try a puzzles with numbers- questions to do with prime numbers - times tables - addition subtraction  - all reinforce these pathways in the brain making recall and calculations easier to access.
• Creative activities are also important- drawing, painting - using the imagination - making up stories - all help to develop the various nerve cells and pathways associated with that skill

A jigsaw is great for stimulating the brain

Why not keep a chart on the wall  or fridge of each activity - score how hard your child found it the first time and keep a record of when they start to find it easier - maybe give it a score out of 10 - it WILL get easier with PRACTICE and your child will benefit in school work and it won't even seem like ‘homework’!

Scrabble - great for building vocabulary