Linda Craven: Early experiences have lifelong impact on child's brain

Dec. 20, 2009
TIMOTHY J. GONZALEZ | Statesman Journal
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Recent research on the brain development of young children demonstrates that positive experiences and environments are critical to their healthy development. This raises the question about how best to promote the cognitive, social and emotional development for children.

These difficult economic times cause stress to all families, and this stress inevitably trickles down to children. But children have greater needs than adults.

A baby's brain is only 40 percent developed at birth, so brain growth during the early years is very robust. In the first month alone, the connections between the 100 billion brain cells have increased 20-fold to about 1,000 trillion. Most brain cells (neurons) are produced before birth but are poorly connected. The majority of connections (synapses) between the neurons are made after birth. This means that during every waking hour, new neural connections are being formed and modified in the brain of the baby or toddler.

By the age of 3, the brain is 85 percent developed and 21/2 times more active than an adult brain. (This won't surprise any parent or teacher who has tried to argue with a 3-year-old!)

The good news is that, given a positive and stable emotional start in the early years, the child will be ready to learn and grow more resilient to cope well with the stresses and frustrations of life.

Of course, the bad news is the reverse: Children growing up in neglectful, abusive and non-supportive environments will have difficulty being open to learning and using positive coping and problem-solving skills.

The most important way to support the early development of the baby is through nurturing primary relationships. These relationships begin with smiling, talking, holding, touching, gazing, singing and laughing. All these behaviors elicit very specific neurochemical responses in the brain that promote attachment and healthy social and emotional development.

To promote cognitive development in a young child, it is important to talk in positive tones and use emotionally positive words. Enveloping the child in language has been shown to directly relate to a child's future IQ score. Research in the mid-1990s has shown that regardless of socio-economic class, the total number of words spoken in the home was a predictor of a higher IQ. By age 4, children from language-rich homes had heard 32 million more words than those in language-impoverished homes.

Human development is highly complex, but in the early years, giving loving attention, learning the baby's cues and responding physically and verbally in positive ways help to build the healthy neurological system essential for all future development.

Linda Craven of Silverton is the program chair and faculty member of the Early Childhood Education department at Chemeketa Community College. She can be reached at


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