HOW WE LEARN TO READ
Understanding Brain Development
Parents, teachers, and others who closely observe children have long recognized the importance of the early years. They know that talking with and responding to babies is the best way to promote security and encourage healthy development. By taking advantage of new technologies — including brain scans — scientists can now see how and when the brain works. Recent research provides proof that a child's interactions and experiences in the first few years of life have a large impact on social, emotional, intellectual, and language development.
Babies are born with 100 billion brain cells, called neurons, virtually all of the brain cells they will ever have. The neurons are not yet connected into networks, as they will be when the brain is mature. As babies respond to experiences in their world of home, family, and caregivers, their brain cells form networks that give them the capacity to think and learn. Connections are made as brain cells send signals to and receive input from each other. A single cell can connect with as many as 15,000 other cells. The resulting network of connections is called the brain's wiring or circuitry.
Source: On the Road to Reading, U.S. Department
of Education
Read more about
this
