The gentlemen referred to above is Dr John Bruer, president of the James S McDonnell Foundation of St Louis, Missouri. Dr Bruer expands on the above Reuters quote in both papers. In speaking to the claim that early childhood experiences effect early childhood brain development, Dr Bruer states, The arguments runs as follows. Starting in early infancy, there is a rapid increase in the number of synapses or neural connections in children's brains. Up to age 10, children's brains contain more synapses than at any other time in their lives.
Early childhood experiences fine-tune the brain's synaptic connections.
In a process that we might describe as synaptic pruning, childhood experiences reinforce and maintain synapses that are repeatedly used, but snip away the unused synapses. Thus this time of high synaptic density and experiential fine-tuning is a critical period in a child's cognitive development. It is the time when the brain is particularly efficient in acquiring and learning a range of skills. During this critical period, children can benefit most from rich, stimulating learning environments. If, during this critical period, we deprive children of such environments, significant learning opportunities are lost forever.