Building New Theories about the Preschool Brain

For much of the past century, educators and scientists believed that children could not learn math before the age of five because their brains simply were not ready, according to The New York Times. Recent research has overturned this assumption, along with other conventional wisdom about the acquisition of geometry, reading, language, and self-control skills in class. The findings from a branch of research called cognitive neuroscience are helping to clarify when young brains are best able to grasp fundamental concepts. Teaching of basic academic skills, once based in tradition and guesswork, is now giving way to approaches based on cognitive science. In several cities including Boston, Washington, D.C., and Nashville, schools are experimenting with curricula to cultivate math skills in preschoolers. In others, teachers are using techniques developed by brain scientists to help children overcome dyslexia. And schools in a dozen states have begun to use a program intended to accelerate the development of young students’ frontal lobes, improving self-control in class. “Teaching is an ancient craft, and yet we really have had no idea how it affected the developing brain,” said Kurt Fischer, director of the Mind, Brain, and Education program at Harvard. “Well, that is beginning to change, and for the first time we are seeing the fields of brain science and education work together.”  Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/health/research/21brain.html?_r=1&em.