Getting Students Ready to Learn
How can we get our kids to learn? Is it true that intelligence is part inborn and part learned? How important is PE and art in our kids lives? Do our diets and lifestyles have an effect on the development of the brain? All these are important questions that we ask ourselves regularly.
The following article will help you find some answers to those questions by placing into perspective research done on human brains and the astonishing findings that followed.
In his book “Teaching with the Brain in Mind” Eric Jensen tried to show the effect the environment had on the development of the brain. The book has a lot of interesting chapters however, only one section will be discussed here “Getting Students Ready to Learn”. How much can parents do in order to prepare their children to learn? Actually, they can do a lot.
Jensen discusses that school readiness starts at conception. The most important thing a pregnant woman should do is to eat healthy and avoid stress. Most brain cells are produced between 4th and 7th month of gestation so it extremely important to have excellent nutrition and a stress free pregnancy.
Research showed that emotional intelligence starts developing once a baby is born. An infant’s relationship with its caregiver often determines later learning difficulties. A troubled relation causes the brain to consume glucose to deal with the stress, glucose that is necessary for cognitive functions. Thus, when stress is evident the brain reorganizes itself by increasing the alertness chemicals. Eventually, reactivity and blood pressure increase and the child shows more impulsiveness and aggressiveness in school.
The more a child is exposed to a variety of stimulations the more connections are formed in the brain. Research has found that challenging the brain increased the dendritic branching and made it more complex and enriched. What follows is a long list of tips that is extremely important to the development and enrichment of the brain that can be used from the moment a baby is born.
1. For the emotional brain:
· Provide endless love, care and safety, lots of hugs and kisses, laughter and smiles, bond with your child, teach healthy response to stresses.
· Be a good role model. Model cause and effect feelings, provide a joyful home environment, be empathetic, set clear rules and consequences that are free from any form of violence (verbal and physical).
2. For the motor brain:
· Give chances for your child to crawl and sit. Encourage the use of balls, rattles, and mobiles (the one that hang from cribs or strollers).
· Rock, touch and handle your child frequently.
· Give your child the freedom to explore (within safety limits), play lots of games with her like hide and seek, drawing, running, and jumping.
3. For the visionary brain:
· Avoid TV.
· Use a lot of objects that stimulate the brain.
· Provide outdoor play time.
· Expose to a lot of colors and identify the colors with your child.
· Play attention games.
· Play eye hand coordination games (ex: stacking cups, matching shapes)
4. For the auditory brain:
· Expose to a variety of melodies and rhymes.
· Repeat sounds of animals, engines, and other.
· Always sing to and with your child.
· T alk and name everything that you are doing.
· Expose to other languages and more complex vocabulary and sentences as your child grow.
5. For the thinking brain:
· Be overcurious about your child’s world.
· Start with simple counting.
· Demonstrate cause and effect.
· Ask plenty of questions.
· Teach basic math.
· Teach basic principles of motion and volume.
6. For the musical brain:
· Sing lullabies.
· Give rattles to your child.
· Repeat rhymes.
· Expose to various kinds of music and nursery rhymes.
· Sing.
· Play instruments.
One last tip: Good nutrition is extremely important. For babies, mother’s milk is still number one, avoid excessive juices. For older children, begin with balanced meals that are high in fiber and vegetables.
We wish you a great summer vacation!
Reference:
Jensen, E (2005).Teaching with Brain in Mind. ASCE