September 1999 Current research on child development directs us to focus on the early years of life as critically formative. Brain research falls into 10 easy lessons for ALL parents and caregivers of children. Each enters the world with immense promise. From the very first days of life, brain cells connect at an astonishing pace. The new brain research clearly finds that early experience of brain development lasts the child's entire life, which undermines previous opinions about children's' growth and development.
Most experts draw the line right down the middle.
A recent study suggests that in infancy and childhood the impact of experience on learning ability is significantly more powerful than the influence of heredity. Early Experience and Brain 'Wiring' Young children differ from adults in their ways of developing, learning, and responding to the world around them. At birth, children's' brains contain all the neurons they will need for their lifetime, but these neurons are not yet permanently connected for specific tasks. An analogy suggests that it's like having billions of telephones installed around the world, but not yet completely connected to each other. So much of our brain development takes place in response to our environment that experience is the key to brain development.