From birth to age 5, a child’s brain develops more than at any other time in life-producing more than a million neural connections each second. And early brain development has a lasting impact on a child’s ability to learn and succeed in school and life. The quality of a child’s experiences in the first few years of life- helps shape how their brain develops.
90% of a child’s brain develops before they start kindergarten. Kids with positive, stable relationships with parents and caregivers, as well as quality child care and preschool experiences, go on to do better in school and in life.
At birth, the average baby’s brain is about a quarter of the size of the average adult brain. Incredibly, it doubles in size in the first year. It keeps growing to about 80% of adult size by age 3 and 90%-nearly full grown-by age 5.
The brain is the command center of the human body. A newborn baby has all of the brain cells (neurons) they’ll have for the rest of their life, but it’s the connections between these cells that really make the brain work. Brain connections enable us to move, thinks, communicate and do just about everything. The early childhood years are crucial for making these connections. At least one million new neural connections (synapses) are make every second, more than at any other time in life.
Different areas of the brain are responsible for different abilities, like movement, language and emotion, and develop at different rates. Brain development builds on itself, as connections eventually link with each other in more complex ways. This enables the child to move and speak and think in more complex ways. The early years are the best opportunity for child’s brain to develop the connections. The connections needed for many important, higher-level abilities like motivation, self-regulation, problem solving and communication are formed in these early years-or not formed. It is much harder for these essential brain connections to be formed later in life.
How Brain Connections Are Built
Starting from birth, children develop brain connections through their everyday experiences. They’re built through positive interactions with their senses to interact with the world. A young child’s daily experiences determine which brain connections develop and which will last for a lifetime. The amount and quality for care, stimulation and interaction they receive their early years make all the difference.
Caring, Responsive Relationships
A child’s relationships with the adults in their life are the most important influences on their brain development. Loving relationships with responsive, dependable childcare givers re essential to a child’s healthy development. These relationships begin at home, with parents and family, but also include childcare providers, teachers and other members of the community.
From birth, young children serve up invitations to engage with their parents and other childcare givers. Babies do it by cooing and smiling and crying. Toddlers communicate their needs and interests more directly. Each of these little invitations is an opportunity for the childcare giver to be responsive to the child’s needs. This “serve and return” process is fundamental to the wiring of the brain. Parents and childcare givers who give attention, respond and interact with their child are literally building the child’s brain. That’s why it’s so important to talk, sing, read and play with young children from the day they’re born, to give them opportunities to explore their physical world, and to provide safe, stable and nurturing environments.
