Brain Based Learning
Learning
Q: How do parents influence vocabulary and language?
A: The quality and depth of parental input seems to matter a great deal. Affirmative feedback and the amount of time spent in conversation with children -- in particular during their second year -- appears to have a major impact on vocabulary and language later.
In research by University of Chicago Psychologist Janellen Huttenlocher,5 comparisons between professional, working-class, and welfare families, reveal their children heard 2,100, 1,200, and 600 words an hour respectively. Furthermore, positive feedback came an average of thirty times an hour for professionals, fifteen for working-class, and just six times an hour in welfare families.
The quality and quantity of this input is directly correlated with brain development and vocabulary in later years. Some children naturally catch up. Others do not.
Q: How does practice change the brain?
A: As mentioned earlier, monitoring the brains of violin players by fMRI reveals areas of the brain involved with the left hand (used for fingering) to be substantially larger. The motor cortex grows to accommodate the demands of learning.
Q: Why is sleep important for learning?
A: Apparently, even while we sleep, our brain is at work sorting and storing data in our memory. Research indicates that sleep deliberately interrupted at certain points in the sleep cycle can block learning. A solid night’s rest is essential if the brain is to have sufficient and appropriate time to organize and form into lasting memories the information it takes in during waking hours.
Q: What is the impact of using rewards in training?
A: It has been conclusively revealed that reinforcement makes the memory bonds stronger because more neurons learn the code. That’s why rewards, including praise, are a part of training new skills.
Brain Based Learning – New Horizons for Learning
Perhaps the most important encouragement science has provided is that we need not settle for what appears as a limitation or a lifetime disability. The human brain is capable of amazing change and modification. An individual’s cognitive skills can be tested for relative strengths and weaknesses; the brain is capable of expanding to accommodate greater cognitive capacity. By training the brain to work faster and more efficiently, learning success can be dramatically improved.
We can set new courses for ourselves, acquire new skills, and set our sights on new horizons with the assurance that our motivation can carry us (and our brains) much farther than we might imagine. We must only be willing to do the work and arm ourselves with the right kind of training tools.
The brain is truly incredible!
Return To Other Cognitive Learning Topics
5 Huttenlocher, J., et al. Early Vocabulary Growth: Relation to Language Input andGender. Developmental Psychology (27). 1991.
Excerpts of the book Unlock the Enstein Inside by Dr. Ken Gibson
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