The Timing and Quality of Early Experiences Combine to Shape Brain Architecture

Critical aspects of brain architecture begin to be shaped by experience before and soon after birth, and many fundamental aspects of that architecture are established well before a child enters school.

The foundations of brain architecture are established early in life through a continuous series of dynamic interactions in which environmental conditions and personal experiences have a significant impact on how genetic predispositions are expressed. Because specific experiences affect specific brain circuits during specific developmental stages—referred to as sensitive periods—it is vitally important to take advantage of these early opportunities in the developmental building process. That is to say, the quality of a child’s early environment and the availability of appropriate experiences at the right stages of development are crucial in determining the strength or weakness of the brain’s architecture, which, in turn, determines how well he or she will be able to think and to regulate emotions. (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, US, Working Paper No. 5)

The exceptionally strong influence of early experience on brain architecture makes the early years of life a period of both great opportunity and great vulnerability for brain development. An early, growth-promoting environment, with adequate nutrients, filled with social interactions with an attentive caregiver, prepares the architecture of the developing brain to function optimally in a healthy environment.

Conversely, an adverse early environment, one that is inadequately supplied with nutrients, or is deprived of appropriate sensory, social, or emotional stimulation, results in faulty brain circuitry. Once established, a weak foundation can have detrimental effects on further brain development, even if a healthy environment is restored at a later age.

Education policies disregard fundamental concepts of neuroscience when they delay teaching second languages until early adolescence and simultaneously undervalue bilingual programs for young children. Beginning at birth, all children have the capacity to learn any of the world’s languages. This ability is encoded in our genes and activated by exposure to everyday conversation in an interactive way. Unless a child has a specific disability, the achievement of fluency in any language, as well as the mastery of more than one language at the same time, does not require formal instruction or intervention in the early childhood years. It simply requires ongoing communication with others. Moreover, the younger the brain, the greater its capacity to master more than a single langauge. If education policies were guided by what we know about the development of the brain, second-language learning would be a preschool priority.

Centre on the Developing Child, Harvard University
http://www.policyarchive.org/handle/10207/bitstreams/20619.pdf