The First Five Years

More research is pointing to the importance of the first five years. In particular, the role of brain 'plasticity' in the early years. Essentially what research says is that the brain is at its most plastic in the first five years of life. This means that the more the different areas of the brain are exercised in those crucial years, the greater is the learning and adaptive capacity of the child. In this rather lengthy (but must watch) talk, Dr. Joann Deak, PhD and author of four books on child development, presents in a very articulate and engaging manner the latest research on early childhood brain development. The key message - children's brains need to be stretched in all areas to maximise their learning capacity.