Month of the Young Child

          Once again, April has been designated as the Month of the Young Child.  This year’s theme – “Children’s opportunities are our responsibilities”, is a great reminder of the need to recommit ourselves to ensuring that each and every child experiences the type of early environment that will promote their early learning. 

          Over the years, research and experience have clearly shown that the children’s earliest years are crucial learning years.  As your child receive loving care and stimulation, neural connections are formed between his/her brain cells. These connections form the wiring system of the brain. Your child’s early experiences largely determine the strength and function of his/her brain’s wiring system. Warm responsible parents, who cuddle and talk to their children and provide challenging learning experiences, promote healthy brain development for their children.  To fully understand this development, we need to know how a child’s brain works.

          - A child is born with over 100 billion neurons or brain cells. That is enough neurons to last a lifetime, since no more neurons will develop after birth. These neurons form connections, called synapses, which make up the wiring of the brain.

          - At eight months, an infant may have 1,000 trillion synapses. However, by age 10 the number of synapses decreases to about 500 trillion. The final number of synapses is largely determined by a child’s early experiences, which can increase or decrease the number of synapses by as much as 25 percent.  

          - The brain operates on a “use it or lose it” principle: only those connections and pathways that are frequently activated are retained. Other connections that are not consistently used will be pruned or discarded so the active connections can become stronger.

          - When an infant is three months old, his brain can distinguish several hundred different spoken sounds. Over the next several months, his brain will organize itself more efficiently so that it only recognizes those sounds that are part of the language he regularly hers. During early childhood, the brain retains the ability to relearn sounds it has discarded so young children typically learn new languages easily and without an accent.

          - The power of early adult-child interactions is remarkable. Researchers found that when mothers frequently spoke to their infants, their children learned almost 300 more words by age two than did their peers who mothers rarely spoke to them. However, mere exposure to language through television or adult conversation provided little benefit. Infants need to interact directly with others. Children need to hear people talk to them about what they are seeing and experiencing, in order for their brains to fully develop language skills.

          Researchers who examined the life histories of children who succeeded despite many challenges, have consistently found that these children had at least on stable, supportive relationship with an adult early in life.   Month of the Young Child is a chance to celebrate the immense learning capabilities of young children and to recognize the responsibilities we share for helping them make the most of the early years.