Before the age of 2, the brain developed rapidly. Some people think that if a person's intelligence is 65,438+000% at the age of 65,438+07, then his intelligence will develop by 50% at the age of 4 and complete by 30% at the age of 8. After the age of 8, no matter what the environment and learning experience, there is only a 20% chance to change his intelligence at most.
First, nerve cells and their functions
Nerve cells, also known as neurons, are composed of dendrites, axons, cell bodies and nuclei. Neurons are shaped like a small tree, and branches are dendrites. Its function is to receive information and transmit it to the cell body. Axons are equivalent to tree trunks and are responsible for sending information out of the cell body. The connection between dendrites of neurons and axons of adjacent neurons is called synapse. This kind of nerve connection conduction information is realized by using specific chemicals as neurotransmitters to transmit nerve impulses to another neuron, thus causing a series of physiological and biochemical reactions. Different neurons form neural pathways for information transmission according to certain connections. The development and maturity of neural pathways follow the principle of "use in and discard out", that is, good and moderate external stimuli will continuously consolidate neural pathways, while neural pathways that cannot be fully utilized will often be eliminated. In order to establish and consolidate more neural pathways, it is necessary to constantly learn and accept new information.
Due to environmental and sensory stimuli, the dendrites of neurons grow rapidly in the first two years of life. At birth, neurons are like small trees with sparse branches. By the time I was two years old, the branches and leaves were already flourishing. When stimulated by external environment, nerve cells stretch their dendrites and process information.
In the outer layer of nerve fibers, there is a kind of adipose tissue called myelin sheath, which wraps the axon like an insulator wrapped in wires, so that nerve impulses can be accurately transmitted along a certain route, and the transmission speed is greatly accelerated. In infancy, due to incomplete myelination, when external stimuli are introduced into the brain through nerves, because there is no isolation of myelin sheath, excitement can spread to the surrounding nerve fibers, and a clear focus of excitement cannot be formed in the cerebral cortex, so the response of infants to external stimuli is often slow and easy to generalize. At the age of 4, the myelination process is basically completed.
B. What determines a smart mind?
The importance of adult brain is about 1400g. In the past, people thought that the heavier the brain, the smarter it was. Others thought that the deeper the sulcus, the smarter it was. These statements lack scientific basis.
Human intelligence mainly depends on congenital genetic and acquired environmental factors, as well as the results of their interaction and influence. Congenital endowment is the premise of receiving education, which determines the possibility of a person's development, and the acquired environment determines the direction of a person's development. We can't change a child's innate talent, but we can provide a good environment for his development, help him develop better and gain higher intelligence.
If the child gets good sensory stimulation after birth and grows under the care of his parents, then the dendrites and axons of brain nerve cells will grow rapidly and the synapses will increase greatly. The more connections between nerve cells, the faster the conduction speed. If the information can be transmitted smoothly, it can play an extraordinary role. In other words, the closer the connection line is, the more information it transmits, and the smarter the brain will be.
C, critical period and plasticity
Psychologists' research has proved that the training and learning of various abilities have different critical periods. During this critical period, it is easy to learn and master a certain content. After this period, learning becomes very difficult. For example, 4 to 6 months is the key period for a baby to learn to swallow, and 7 to 9 months is the key period for learning to chew. Once they miss it, it's hard to feed. Many studies show that in the critical period of brain development, its structure and function have strong adaptability and reorganization ability, and are easily modified by environment and experience. The first two years of life are the fastest period of brain development and the sensitive period of accepting various external stimuli. During this period, giving infants good and moderate sensory stimulation will have a great impact on the structure and function of the brain. Montessori, an outstanding Italian child educator, said, "The first three years of life are better than the subsequent development stages, and are better than the sum of three years until death."
The theoretical basis of early education is that the baby's brain is plastic. This plasticity is mainly manifested in modifiability and compensation.
● Variability. Some brain nerve cells have special functions, and their special functions have changed due to the influence of environment and conditions. For example, a kitten born in 1 month, if exposed to vertical stripes 1 hour during the visual sensitivity period, will make nerve cells only sensitive to vertical stripes, even if exposed to vertical stripes for a longer time after the visual sensitivity period, its sensitivity will not increase. This example shows that cells are sensitive and plastic to experience and only appear early after birth.
● Compensatability. When some nerve cells are damaged or missing, neighboring cells can compensate and restore their functions. But after the sensitive period, the damage is irreversible. If the language center of the brain is injured in infancy, it has little effect on language ability, because the immature brain has the strongest plasticity and can restore its function. However, if this happens to adults, it is difficult to restore language function.
Modern brain science research shows that infancy is the fastest and most critical period of brain development, and appropriate education and environmental stimulation play a decisive role in brain development. Since childhood, more and more people have been enlightened to develop the whole brain.
Raising a healthy and intelligent child is every parent's greatest wish. Young parents, do you want to know what your baby can do except eat, sleep and cry every day? Scientists have found that newborns have the abilities of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, habituation, interaction with adults, imitation and movement, which is called neonatal behavioral ability. These innate abilities are the basis and conditions for newborns to explore the world and receive early education.
Professor Bao, an expert in neonatal behavior research in China, developed 20 kinds of neonatal behavioral nerve measurement methods based on the most representative neonatal behavioral nerve measurement methods in modern times and his own experience. Knowing and understanding the behavioral ability of newborns is helpful for parents to contact with newborns; Timely sensory stimulation can promote the development of nervous system, which is beneficial to children's early intellectual development. At the same time, slight brain dysfunction can occur as soon as possible, and the early opportunity of strong plasticity of the nervous system can be fully utilized for rehabilitation training.
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