Carl Witt's father summed up his education: "When the light of children's intelligence just appeared, his education should begin." From the perspective of modern brain science, this father's main educational purpose is to meet the needs of children's brain development, and finally created this educational miracle. Modern brain science research has found that just as the body can become stronger through exercise, the brain can also become stronger through training. How to develop brain potential to make children smarter? The magic brain: a manual to develop the potential of the brain!
The author of Magic Brain: A Manual for Developing Brain Potential is Mr. Yin Wengang, a researcher and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has been engaged in the research of human brain function for a long time, paying special attention to the development of children's brain potential. Through a large number of experiments, he verified the functions and mechanisms of many brains, summed up a large number of operating methods to develop brain potential, and applied them to the educational practice of primary and secondary schools and kindergartens across the country, and achieved remarkable results.
The magical brain tells us that children's brains can become more developed through training as long as scientific and effective methods are adopted. The author Yin Wengang introduced three aspects through this book, namely, the brief introduction of brain structure, the development of sensory perception, attention, Chinese ability, foreign language ability, mathematics ability, thinking ability and memory ability, and the positive effects of toys, games, music, dance and painting on the brain.
The brain is the commander of the body. Like other organs of the body, this "commander" is composed of cells, but the difference is that the cells that make it up are non-renewable nerve cells. There are about10 billion nerve cells in the brain, and each cell is connected and transmits information through axons and dendrites growing on the body. Many connections form a huge and complex neural network, which supports the brain to receive 100 billion bits of information every second, making the information that the brain can hold in a lifetime hundreds of times larger than that of the National Library.
A large number of cases show that the brain is plastic. You may wonder, didn't you just say that nerve cells are non-renewable? Why is it plastic again? Thanks to the neural network structure. Just like a spider's web (neural network is much more complicated than a spider's web, of course), a message needs to be transmitted from area A to area B, taking the fastest transmission path every time. Suddenly, a nerve cell in the transmission path died unfortunately, and this transmission path may not work, so the smart brain will immediately choose another transmission path to replace the original one.
According to different forms of differentiation, the structure of the brain is also different. There are two brain structures here.
According to the division of brain lobes, the brain is divided into four parts, namely, the occipital lobe at the back of the head, the parietal lobe at the top of the head, the frontal lobe at the forehead and the temporal lobe above the maxilla. All parts of the brain work together, but each lobe has its own outstanding function. Occipital lobe is responsible for processing visual information, parietal lobe is responsible for processing somatosensory information and coordinating various senses, frontal lobe is responsible for body movement, speech function, planning and organization function, and temporal lobe is responsible for processing auditory information.
According to the time of evolution, the brain can be divided into three parts, namely reptilian brain, mammalian brain and new brain. The reptile's brain evolved earliest, that is, since our ancestors were reptiles. It is mainly responsible for involuntary sexual behavior, that is, behaviors beyond our control, such as consciously smiling when we meet close acquaintances and consciously frowning when we meet people we don't like. Above the reptile brain is the mammalian brain, which is shared by mammals and shaped like a mouse. It is also responsible for dealing with some involuntary sexual behaviors, such as courtship, reproduction, eating and drinking Lazarus, emotions and so on. The new brain is the last evolved brain, and it is a magic weapon for human beings to stand at the top of the food chain. Mainly responsible for dealing with advanced cognitive functions, such as language, judgment, memory, reasoning, planning, organization, etc.
The ability that the brain can display is the result of the joint action of heredity and environment, and the acquired environment plays a more important role, and the acquired environment has the most prominent influence on the development of the brain before the age of 6. Teacher Yin Wengang's research found that in different critical periods, the abilities of perception, attention, language, mathematics, foreign language, thinking, memory, innovation and application can be developed to the greatest extent.
sensibility
Perceptual ability includes two parts: feeling and perception. Feeling is a response to the individual attributes of external things, such as cold, hot, red and green. Perception is a response to the comprehensive properties of external things, such as sweet, red and round apples. Sensory perception is the basis of our understanding of the world, and all kinds of advanced cognitive activities, such as learning, reading, sports and painting, are based on sensory perception.
Feeling includes sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, which are basically possessed by children at birth. Perception is gradually established on the basis of feeling, so when feeling has been established, perception begins to develop gradually.
Before the age of 6, we have three most commonly used critical periods for the development of perceptual ability, which need more attention and guidance from parents. 2~5 years old is a critical period for the development of shape perception, which is directly related to the recognition and mastery of future geometry. Girls are more likely to have geometric problems in the future, so parents should pay more attention to training during this period; 2~3 years old is the key period of plane area development, and 3~5 years old is the key period of volume development. During this period, children began to develop the concept of size; 2~3 years old is still the key period of upper and lower perception, 3~4 years old is the key period of the development of front and rear perception, and about 5 years old is the key period of developing self-centered left and right positioning.
A rich environment is very important for children's perception. In order to promote the development of children's sensory perception, nurturers need to enrich children's living environment as much as possible, so that they can be exposed to various sensory stimuli and touch and operate various things. Nature is the most wonderful, with insects, birds, flowers and fish jumping ... In such an environment, children can feel the world to their heart's content, so go to nature!
attention
Attention is the basic activity of the human brain and the most important part of our cognitive activities. It is found that attention deficit is an important cause of ADHD. Generally speaking, attention retention time is prolonged with age. It was found that the attention retention time was 15 minutes for 5-7 years old, 20 minutes for 7- 10 years old, 25 minutes for 12 years old and about 30 minutes for12 years old.
Parents can pay attention to the following points if they want their children to maintain concentration training.
1, in daily life, parents should pay attention to guiding their children to do things from beginning to end, and praise and encourage their children's efforts and achievements in time after their completion, so as to help them form habits and improve their self-control.
2. Always play some games with your children that need attention. For example, looking for similarity, finding a specified target at a specified time, etc. Flying kites is also a good activity.
3. Game recommendation to improve attention span: several things appear in turn, and then let the child say all the items he sees. However, it should be noted that the items presented can not be too single, but can present different forms and contents, such as toys, animals, fruits and so on.
Chinese ability
The starting point of Chinese ability is language, followed by reading and writing, and the comprehensive development of several abilities forms Chinese ability. 2~3 years old is the key period of spoken language, and 4~5 years old is the key period of written language. So children need a lot of oral training when they are 2-3 years old. Parents should actively respond to their children's communication attempts and take the initiative to talk to their children. At the latest, you can start writing language training, that is, reading training. Chinese characters are non-phonetic systems, and reading Chinese characters requires the cooperation of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, so reading Chinese characters has a positive effect on developing the brain. Preschool children around the age of 5 can start word training. The writing of characters contributes to the progress of language functions, and the fine movements involved are also very beneficial to the development of the brain.
foreign language aptitude
As Carl Witt mentioned at the beginning, he can acquire six languages at the age of eight or nine, which shows that our brain has great potential in language acquisition. However, learning a foreign language needs to pay attention to the timing. The Magic Brain suggests that children learn a second language after they have established the foundation of the first language. Of course, foreign language learning should not be too late. It's best to start from kindergarten. You can choose a bilingual kindergarten or find a foreign teacher for your child. In short, you should create a language environment for children to communicate with each other so as to exercise their listening and speaking skills.
Digital ability
Children's mathematical ability is also a process of gradual superposition. Before the age of 6, they will go through three processes: distinguishing numbers, recognizing numbers and counting points. The critical period of the development of digital discrimination is about 1~2 years old. How many children can distinguish it at this stage? The critical period for the development of numeracy ability is about 3 years old. Although children at this stage can't count, they can intuitively tell how many things there are. The critical period of point development is about three and a half years old. At this stage, children can count, and after counting, they can tell how many there are.
In the critical period of math ability, parents can practice according to different abilities, such as how many children to compare, how many children to distinguish, how many children to count, and how long it takes to get to a certain place. If you have energy, it is also recommended that children learn abacus mental arithmetic, which is of great help to mathematical ability and brain development.
toy
Toys are the media for children to explore and learn the world. Just like the psychological therapeutic sandbox game, we can perceive children's emotions and behaviors through the toys they play, and toys are also a good tool to educate children. According to the suggestion of the magic brain to readers, the principle of choosing toys is to play more games, have a wide range of uses and have strong operability.
Children of different ages need different toys to meet their growing needs. /kloc-before the age of 0, it is recommended to choose toys with bright colors, soft texture, no sharp corners and sounds, and as many kinds and styles as possible; 1~3 years old, it is suggested to choose toys that can arouse interest and improve imagination, such as animals, vehicles, building blocks and puzzles. Natural toys that nature can provide are also very good, such as sand, mud, leaves, puddles, rain, snow, ice and so on. 3~6 years old suggest that you can choose some complicated assembled toys, educational toys and theme toys.
match
The game mentioned here is not a virtual world game on electronic devices, but a real game played with peers, people of different ages or alone. The real game process is an opportunity for children to practice, explore the world and gradually move towards society. He can establish a sense of rules through games, imitate the adult world through games to satisfy his imagination, and explore interpersonal relationships through games. What game should I play? We don't limit this, as long as we can ensure safety. For example, the games we played as children, such as catching children, jumping houses, jumping rubber bands, kicking shuttlecock, turning ropes and origami, can all be taught to children.
music
Research shows that music can promote the development of mathematical function, language function and spatial function. Of course, not all music can promote music. Our brains are selective about music. Our brains don't like music that is irregular, with strong contrast, excessive changes and noisy sounds.
In order to use music to develop brain potential, children can learn a musical instrument, and it is best to listen and move at the same time. In addition, dancing is also a very good way to enjoy music, or just play his favorite music to the child and let him release himself with the music.
draw pictures
Drawing contributes to the development of many of our cognitive and operational abilities, such as eye-brain-hand coordination, visual space function, imagination, thinking ability, creativity, memory and attention, and can develop both left and right brains at the same time.
Children of different ages have different painting abilities. Don't ask children according to their own standards, but treat each stage of painting with an objective and appreciative attitude. Generally speaking, the process of children's painting is divided into three stages: when they are about 3 years old, they enter the graffiti period, and his works are all scribbled lines, which may have no specific meaning; At the age of 3~4, I entered the basic shape stage, because my hand-eye coordination ability improved, so I could draw some crooked figures. After the age of 4, they entered the individual embodiment period, and the paintings in this period began to reflect their personality.
sports
Researchers have found that physical exercise can promote learning. Mainly because exercise can improve the basic perceptual abilities such as blood circulation, speed perception, distance perception and depth perception, and can also improve people's reaction ability.
Sports training is not just to incorporate sports into general concepts. Many big and precise movements from birth can be called exercise training, which is beneficial to the development of the brain.
The author, Mr. Yin Wengang, is an expert in brain science, and The Magical Brain: A Manual for Developing Brain Potential is a true presentation of his research results. The book introduces the structure of the brain, gives the critical period for the development of various abilities, and puts forward specific suggestions for the development of various potentials such as sensory perception, attention, Chinese ability, mathematics ability, foreign language ability, thinking ability and innovation ability, and also deepens the positive influence of different activities such as music, toys, sports, games and painting on the development of brain potential for readers. The conclusions gathered here are scientifically verified and are authoritative works worthy of serious study by every new parent.