When looking at brain development there are a plethora of factors that can contribute to brain development. One of the main beginnings that have a major effect on brain development within the child begin during the first six weeks of pregnancy. This is seen as a very vital time during the stage of development because during this time the child’s brain is developing and if there are any disabilities seen within the child, during this stage is when they are first developing. One of the first and most vital moments of development would be in regards to synaptogenesis. During this stage from birth to a year a child’s dendrites are growing and they are being exposed to many different environments that teach auditory and visual stimulation, this is causing the child to experience a rapid pattern of synapse generation. Another key factor within brain development would be the cerebral cortex, a very important part of brain development because it controls conscious thoughts, feelings, memory, and voluntary actions. It also produces the majority of its synaptic connections after birth. This is very important because over two million synapses are being developed in seconds, by two years old the cerebral cortex contains well over 100 trillion synapses. “Once cells reach their final destination they begin to mature by 1 growing dendrites to provide surface area for synapses with other cells; and extending axons to appropriate targets to initiate synapse formation (Kolb & Gibb, 2011).
In my opinion epigenetics basically means changes that can occur within DNA processing that do not directly involve changes within the DNA sequence. To further explain epigenetics can be traits or genes that a child or individual may be a carrier of but is not necessarily seen in that person. An example of this could be a carrier of autism trait but does not have a clinical evaluation to be determined autistic. This helps to promote positive development and erases the separation of nature and nurture within science and environments. In this case genes acts as followers not prime movers and requires signals to determine which processes are carried out, this causes a biological process through ecology of relationships and perceptions to influence lifelong learning behaviors and integrations. “Chemical signals derived from environmental influence epigenetic signatures affect when and how genes are switched on and off and whether the change is temporary or permanent. (Cantor, 2019).
- In my opinion, it is very important for children to have educators who understand the development of the brain because it allows them to be able to identify the antecedents of disabilities that may be overlooked by parents or often misunderstood due to the lack of awareness. I believe there also has been an increase overtime in the importance of educators to have an understanding of the brain prior to having a career in education due to the increase in scientific study surrounding the human brain within the past 15 years. “Such research has generated great hopes amongst some for a revolution in education in which results from the neuroscience laboratory positively transform the classroom (Ansari, 2011).” This has shown the increase in the demand to help transform the educational structure within school systems to help promote healthy youth transforming into adults.
A topic I hope to learn about throughout this course would be how mental health affects the brain’s development and capabilities. I would like to learn about this from more of a science aspect to understand what mental health disorders look like in the brain and what it does to the daily functions of the brain. This topic really interests me because I would like to be able to identify these antecedents within children more commonly in my career, so that mental health can be embraced more throughout society.
References:
Ansari, D., Coch, D., & De Smedt, B. (2011, January). Connecting Education and Cognitive Neuroscience: Where will the journey take us? Educational Philosophy and Theory, 43(1), 37–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2010.00705.x
Cantor, P., Osher, D., Berg, J., Steyer, L., & Rose, T. (2018, January 24). Malleability, plasticity, and individuality: How children learn and develop in context1. Applied Developmental Science, 23(4), 307–337. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2017.1398649
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