Neurons in the brain grow and increase the number of synapses possible with dendrites of other neurons. By the time that a child is three-years-old, the number of synapses in her brain more than doubles that of an adult, with each neuron forming up to 15,000 synapses with dendrites of other neurons. Neurons are made up of 3 areas: the axon, the dendrites and the cell body. They are a unique type of cell that receive and send messages (electrical impulses).

Language and music are great ways to stimulate a baby’s brain. We have a specific place in our brains that processes language and music and the more that you talk to your baby, the more stimulation that her brain will receive.  Language development at this early stage is essential – children who begin school with poor language skills are likely to continue having difficulties with reading and writing throughout their childhood.

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When examining the adolescent brain we find mystery, complexity, frustration, and inspiration. As the brain begins teeming with hormones, the prefrontal cortex, the center of reasoning and impulse control, is still a work in progress. For the first time, scientists can offer an explanation for what parents already know — adolescence is a time of roiling emotions, and poor judgment. Why do teenagers have distinct needs and behaviors? Why, for example, do high school students have such a hard time waking up in the morning? Scientists have just begun to answer questions about the purpose of sleep as it relates to the sleep patterns of teenagers.

A major challenge to the adolescent brain is schizophrenia. Throughout the world and across cultural borders, teenagers from as early as age 12 suffer from this brain disorder.

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A child’s brain is a magnificent engine for learning. A child learns to crawl, then walk, run and explore. A child learns to reason, to pay attention, to remember, but nowhere is learning more dramatic than in the way a child learns language. As children, we acquire language — the hallmark of being human.

In nearly all adults, the language center of the brain resides in the left hemisphere, but in children the brain is less specialized. Scientists have demonstrated that until babies become about a year old, they respond to language with their entire brains, but then, gradually, language shifts to the left hemisphere, driven by the acquisition of language itself.

But if the left hemisphere becomes the language center for most adults, what happens if in childhood it is compromised by disease? Brain seizures such as those resulted by epilepsy and Rasmussen’s syndrome, have a devastating effect on brain development in some children.

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A baby’s brain is a mystery whose secrets scientists are just beginning to unravel. The mystery begins in the womb — only four weeks into gestation the first brain cells, the neurons, are already forming at an astonishing rate: 250,000 every minute. Billions of neurons will forge links with billions of other neurons and eventually there will be trillions and trillions of connections between cells. Every cell is precisely in its place, every link between neurons carefully organized. Nothing is random, nothing arbitrary.

One way a newborn is introduced to the world is through vision. The eyes and the visual cortex of an infant continue to develop after birth according to how much stimulation she can handle. What happens to the brain when a baby is born with a visual abnormality? Infant cataracts pose an interesting challenge to scientists: How to remove the visual obstruction without compromising brain development.

When we are babies, our brains are more open to the shaping hand of experience than at any time in our lives. In response to the demands of the world, the baby’s brain sculpts itself. Scientists have begun to understand how that happens, but as Neurologist Carla Shatz says, “There’s a great mystery left. Our memories and our hopes and our aspirations and who we love all of that is in there encoded in the circuits. But we only have the barest beginnings of an understanding about how the brain really works.”

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First, music engages all aspects of the brain and stimulates multiple aspects of brain functioning. Children should be exposed often to many different kinds of music, but especially rhythm, rhyme, and repetition in music and songs.

Second, art engages a variety of the brain’s areas that help children learn emotion, cognition and memory. Children should receive many opportunities to draw, paint, craft and create using different types of art.

Third, physical activity and movement help stimulate much brain growth and facilitate key connections for learning. Regular exercise and engagement in all varieties of physical activity are critical for healthy brain development in children.

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