It will either disappear into the rubbish heap of well-meaning but ill-timed social treatises or mark the beginning of a new age of activism by the physicians who care for the nation's children: the American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday issued a technical report linking "toxic stress" in childhood to a lifetime of mental, intellectual and physical ills, and called on pediatricians "to catalyze fundamental change in early childhood policy and services."
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/26/news/la-heb-pediatricians-children-stress-20111226
27.12.11
孩子的健康生活由你起
孩子的健康生活由你起！無論工作怎麼忙，每天抽時間和孩子說故事，玩遊戲，一起看一會書。孩子每星期和外籍朋友碰碰頭，聊聊天，和外語一起長大，外語自然好！
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=715491298
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=715491298
Nature of language learning.
Studying grammar can slow down our progress in English significantly. Basic grammar is a necessity, but focusing on grammar will prevent students from being able to speak English fluently in a reasonable time frame. Grammar is most effective to those who have a solid foundation in English fluency. People learned to speak before they learned grammar. We have to focus on our speaking and listening skills prior to studying grammar. After being able to speak English fluently, we will realize how much easier grammar is.
http://www.englishbaby.com/blog/vijay_raj/view_entry/62816
http://www.englishbaby.com/blog/vijay_raj/view_entry/62816
23.12.11
How moms talk influences children’s perspective-taking ability
Young children whose mothers talk with them more frequently and in more detail about people's thoughts and feelings tend to be better at taking another's perspective than other children of the same age.
That's what researchers from the University of Western Australia found in a new longitudinal study published in the journal Child Development.
"Parents who frequently put themselves in someone else's shoes in conversations with their children make it more likely that their children will be able to do the same."
Children with delayed language acquisition were delayed in their development of perspective-taking skills—though this wasn't necessarily due to moms' use of language. This highlights the role played by language as children develop the ability to take another's perspective.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/sfri-hmt121511.php
That's what researchers from the University of Western Australia found in a new longitudinal study published in the journal Child Development.
"Parents who frequently put themselves in someone else's shoes in conversations with their children make it more likely that their children will be able to do the same."
Children with delayed language acquisition were delayed in their development of perspective-taking skills—though this wasn't necessarily due to moms' use of language. This highlights the role played by language as children develop the ability to take another's perspective.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/sfri-hmt121511.php
21.12.11
Build a Solid Foundation
Published Online: December 20, 2011
COMMENTARY
Build a Solid Foundation
It’s time for the education policy world to learn a lesson from “The Three Little Pigs.” To withstand the attack of the big, bad wolf, one pig built a house out of straw, the second built a house of wood, and the third built a house of bricks. All three undertook the same project and had the same goal, but they experienced vastly different results. Two houses—and their occupants, in some tellings—sadly succumbed to the wolf. Only the house of brick remained standing as a tribute to that pig’s foresight and hard work.
It’s time for this nation to start planning like the little pig that built his house with bricks. We must invest in the best materials and follow the right blueprint.
Let’s begin with the foundation. Research shows us that 85 percent of the brain is formed by age 5. Nurturing and supportive relationships with adults and positive learning experiences during those early years shape the brain’s architecture and wire it for future learning.
As Walter Gilliam of the Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center has noted, addressing missed opportunities later in a child’s life is like physical rehabilitation: It’s harder, less successful, and more expensive than investing early.
Fortunately, policymakers are focusing on early childhood, giving us a golden opportunity to give all historically disadvantaged children the strong starts they deserve. [Children from working parents are disadvantaged, especially in the early months and years when infants need rich daily stimulation from mothers.]
Better-educated and -trained teachers generally are more knowledgeable about appropriate teaching practices and deliver better learning experiences for children. Early-childhood teacher education programs must provide sufficient course content and nurture practical skills, particularly to support children of diverse backgrounds.
Make the necessary financial investments. The nation gets a great return on its investments in early education. Researchers have shown that up to $10 can be returned for every $1 spent on early-childhood education in savings later on remediation and criminal justice, or in the form of higher earnings.
tkn=LZLF9mWqNv%2FL5C351RJWVFE2fEZHcpMrPuKS&cmp=clp-edweek
COMMENTARY
Build a Solid Foundation
It’s time for the education policy world to learn a lesson from “The Three Little Pigs.” To withstand the attack of the big, bad wolf, one pig built a house out of straw, the second built a house of wood, and the third built a house of bricks. All three undertook the same project and had the same goal, but they experienced vastly different results. Two houses—and their occupants, in some tellings—sadly succumbed to the wolf. Only the house of brick remained standing as a tribute to that pig’s foresight and hard work.
It’s time for this nation to start planning like the little pig that built his house with bricks. We must invest in the best materials and follow the right blueprint.
Let’s begin with the foundation. Research shows us that 85 percent of the brain is formed by age 5. Nurturing and supportive relationships with adults and positive learning experiences during those early years shape the brain’s architecture and wire it for future learning.
As Walter Gilliam of the Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center has noted, addressing missed opportunities later in a child’s life is like physical rehabilitation: It’s harder, less successful, and more expensive than investing early.
Fortunately, policymakers are focusing on early childhood, giving us a golden opportunity to give all historically disadvantaged children the strong starts they deserve. [Children from working parents are disadvantaged, especially in the early months and years when infants need rich daily stimulation from mothers.]
Better-educated and -trained teachers generally are more knowledgeable about appropriate teaching practices and deliver better learning experiences for children. Early-childhood teacher education programs must provide sufficient course content and nurture practical skills, particularly to support children of diverse backgrounds.
Make the necessary financial investments. The nation gets a great return on its investments in early education. Researchers have shown that up to $10 can be returned for every $1 spent on early-childhood education in savings later on remediation and criminal justice, or in the form of higher earnings.
tkn=LZLF9mWqNv%2FL5C351RJWVFE2fEZHcpMrPuKS&cmp=clp-edweek
17.12.11
Early childhood education is the wisest investment
Funding early childhood education is not charity; it is the wisest investment we can make in our culture. Recent research by the Minneapolis Federal Reserve shows conclusively that, for every dollar invested in early education, society will realize a $16 return, because it dramatically reduces two of our culture’s highest expenses: special education and incarceration. More importantly, it would ensure that our children achieve the skill level required to do the jobs that will keep our country competitive in world markets.
Brain development does not happen by accident. The basic architecture of a child’s brain is constructed through an ongoing process that begins before birth and continues through adulthood.
The most rapid brain development occurs during the first three years of life. Early experiences literally shape how the brain gets built. A strong foundation in the early years increases the probability of positive outcomes. A weak foundation will require ongoing intervention and remediation that is usually much less effective and much more costly than providing effective brain-building interactions during the early years.
One effective way we can prepare our children to enter school ready to learn and succeed is to provide high-quality early childhood education to all children.
http://www.telegram.com/article/20111215/NEWS/112159707/1020
Brain development does not happen by accident. The basic architecture of a child’s brain is constructed through an ongoing process that begins before birth and continues through adulthood.
The most rapid brain development occurs during the first three years of life. Early experiences literally shape how the brain gets built. A strong foundation in the early years increases the probability of positive outcomes. A weak foundation will require ongoing intervention and remediation that is usually much less effective and much more costly than providing effective brain-building interactions during the early years.
One effective way we can prepare our children to enter school ready to learn and succeed is to provide high-quality early childhood education to all children.
http://www.telegram.com/article/20111215/NEWS/112159707/1020
14.12.11
HK Tops Financial Development Index
World Economic Forum
Financial Development Index
2011 Rank
1 Hong Kong SAR
2 U.S.
3 U.K.
4 Singapore
5 Australia
6 Canada
7 Netherlands
8 Japan
9 Switzerland
10 Norway
Financial Development Index
2011 Rank
1 Hong Kong SAR
2 U.S.
3 U.K.
4 Singapore
5 Australia
6 Canada
7 Netherlands
8 Japan
9 Switzerland
10 Norway
13.12.11
Babies understand grammar long before they learn how to speak
That's the finding of Jill Lany, a psychologist at Notre Dame. She found that babies as young as 12 months can identify what she calls "adjacent relationships", which means they can tell what part of speech a word is by what words or phrases are near it. These sorts of patterns provide a sort of basic grammatical structure for the infant's language acquisition later on. Lany provides an example of what she means:
"If I were to say to you, 'Oh look, it's a dax,' you might not know what a 'dax' is, but the cue 'it's a' lets a baby know that what follows is an object. We often think about grammar coming after word-learning, but in fact, my research shows that all this information that babies are picking up in that first year of life about how words are occurring in their language, actually is supporting this process of word-learning prior to mastery of language."
Lany says a baby will be able to distinguish between how different words are used by speakers well before they actually grasp their specific meanings. While "It's a dax" indicates a noun (and possibly that you're starting your baby on Deep Space Nine at a very early age), something like "I'm daxing it" would indicate a verb. Her research suggests babies can pick up on that within a year, and by 15 months they can track much more complicated, "non-adjacent" relationships, in which the word cue is much further from the word it describes. Lany concludes:
"Babies are constantly looking for language clues in context and sound. My research suggests that there are some surprising clues in the sound stream that may help babies learn the meanings of words. They can distinguish different kinds of words like nouns and verbs by information in that sound stream."
http://io9.com/5867029/babies-understand-grammar-long-before-they-learn-how-to-speak
"If I were to say to you, 'Oh look, it's a dax,' you might not know what a 'dax' is, but the cue 'it's a' lets a baby know that what follows is an object. We often think about grammar coming after word-learning, but in fact, my research shows that all this information that babies are picking up in that first year of life about how words are occurring in their language, actually is supporting this process of word-learning prior to mastery of language."
Lany says a baby will be able to distinguish between how different words are used by speakers well before they actually grasp their specific meanings. While "It's a dax" indicates a noun (and possibly that you're starting your baby on Deep Space Nine at a very early age), something like "I'm daxing it" would indicate a verb. Her research suggests babies can pick up on that within a year, and by 15 months they can track much more complicated, "non-adjacent" relationships, in which the word cue is much further from the word it describes. Lany concludes:
"Babies are constantly looking for language clues in context and sound. My research suggests that there are some surprising clues in the sound stream that may help babies learn the meanings of words. They can distinguish different kinds of words like nouns and verbs by information in that sound stream."
http://io9.com/5867029/babies-understand-grammar-long-before-they-learn-how-to-speak
Left-brain/right-brain learning
Cambridge University "Cambridge Primary Review"
Recent neuroscience research shows that learning depends on the development of multi-sensory networks of neurons distributed across the entire brain.
For example, a concept in science may depend on neurons being simultaneously active in visual, spatial, memory, deductive and kinaesthetic regions, in both brain hemispheres.
Ideas such as left-brain/right-brain learning, or unisensory ‘learning styles’ (visual, auditory or kinaesthetic) are not supported by the brain
science of learning.
http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/Downloads/Int_Reps/4.Children_development-learning/Primary_Review_2-1a_briefing_Cognitive_development_learning_071214.pdf
Recent neuroscience research shows that learning depends on the development of multi-sensory networks of neurons distributed across the entire brain.
For example, a concept in science may depend on neurons being simultaneously active in visual, spatial, memory, deductive and kinaesthetic regions, in both brain hemispheres.
Ideas such as left-brain/right-brain learning, or unisensory ‘learning styles’ (visual, auditory or kinaesthetic) are not supported by the brain
science of learning.
http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/Downloads/Int_Reps/4.Children_development-learning/Primary_Review_2-1a_briefing_Cognitive_development_learning_071214.pdf
9.12.11
Languages lead to higher levels of academic and cognitive attainment
In the past, parents were discouraged from exposing their kids to two or three languages assuming it would delay language acquision and create confusion.
Today, many American parents realize the benefit of bilingualism and introduce their kids to another langauge as early as possible.
Most researchers agree that not only can young kids handle the input, but learning two or three languages can provide a mental exercise with long-term benefits.
The Center for Applied Linguistics offers some additional insight into second language acquisition:
-- Use of two languages in the same conversation indicates a mastery of both languages.
-- Many parents rely heavily on television to teach a second language; yet research shows that human interaction is the best method.
-- Parents can expect their bilingual children to gain a greater understanding of language as an abstract system. Fluent bilingual students generally reach higher levels of academic and cognitive functioning than their monolingual peers.
http://www.aupaircare.com/blog/tags/language-acquisition
Today, many American parents realize the benefit of bilingualism and introduce their kids to another langauge as early as possible.
Most researchers agree that not only can young kids handle the input, but learning two or three languages can provide a mental exercise with long-term benefits.
The Center for Applied Linguistics offers some additional insight into second language acquisition:
-- Use of two languages in the same conversation indicates a mastery of both languages.
-- Many parents rely heavily on television to teach a second language; yet research shows that human interaction is the best method.
-- Parents can expect their bilingual children to gain a greater understanding of language as an abstract system. Fluent bilingual students generally reach higher levels of academic and cognitive functioning than their monolingual peers.
http://www.aupaircare.com/blog/tags/language-acquisition
8.12.11
Shanghai top maths, science and reading tests
Eyebrows were raised when the results of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's international maths, science and reading tests - the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests - were published.
Shanghai, taking part for the first time, came top in all three subjects.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong which was performing well in the last decade of British rule, has gone from good to great. In this global ranking, it came fourth in reading, second in maths and third in science.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14812822
Shanghai, taking part for the first time, came top in all three subjects.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong which was performing well in the last decade of British rule, has gone from good to great. In this global ranking, it came fourth in reading, second in maths and third in science.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14812822
5.12.11
Correspondence with a parent
Thank you for being so supportive. And thank you for your brilliant idea of a seasonal package.
Le Beaumont's primary objective is to decipher the secret code in learning a foreign language in order to help HK students better master English.
We have achieved this:
1. start early, from infancy, with native teachers, by immersion;
2. empower teachers to be led by the interest of the students, be spontaneous, drop dictation, add phonics; and
3. make sure that students enjoy the process of learning English, through play, discussion, drama and speech training.
We have further achieved the following: brain and personality development through languages.
Only 15% of our parents fully appreciate the power of our multi-disciplinary R & D that spans over a period of 7 1/2 years, and the impact of our cutting-edged program by sending their beloved child to Le Beaumont in the 2nd or 3rd month after birth, 4 to 5 times a week.
They are all richly rewarded with a gifted child that excels in languages, with higher IQ & EQ and a brain architecture with a passion for active learning that is going to last for life.
The psychologist conducting IQ tests for a couple of our kids have enrolled both her children in our program, 4 times a week.
Best regards,
Sam
Le Beaumont's primary objective is to decipher the secret code in learning a foreign language in order to help HK students better master English.
We have achieved this:
1. start early, from infancy, with native teachers, by immersion;
2. empower teachers to be led by the interest of the students, be spontaneous, drop dictation, add phonics; and
3. make sure that students enjoy the process of learning English, through play, discussion, drama and speech training.
We have further achieved the following: brain and personality development through languages.
Only 15% of our parents fully appreciate the power of our multi-disciplinary R & D that spans over a period of 7 1/2 years, and the impact of our cutting-edged program by sending their beloved child to Le Beaumont in the 2nd or 3rd month after birth, 4 to 5 times a week.
They are all richly rewarded with a gifted child that excels in languages, with higher IQ & EQ and a brain architecture with a passion for active learning that is going to last for life.
The psychologist conducting IQ tests for a couple of our kids have enrolled both her children in our program, 4 times a week.
Best regards,
Sam
Cambridge Primary Review - Cognitive development and learning
Recent neuroscience research shows that learning depends on the development of multi-sensory networks of neurons distributed across the entire brain. For example, a concept in science may depend on neurons being simultaneously active in visual, spatial, memory, deductive and kinaesthetic regions, in both brain hemispheres. Ideas such as left-brain/right-brain learning, or unisensory ‘learning styles’ (visual, auditory or kinaesthetic) are not supported by the brain science of learning.
Knowledge gained through active experience, language, pretend play and teaching are all important for the development of children’s causal explanatory systems.
Language is crucial for development but there is huge individual variation in language skills from an early age. Typically young children learn new words at an exponential rate, acquiring 10+ words daily. The median vocabulary is 55 words at 16 months, 225 words at 23 months and over 6000 words by age six, but the developmental range stretches from a vocabulary of 0 words to over 500 words at age two. Children who enter school with impoverished language skills require
immediate support.
Incremental experience is crucial for learning and knowledge construction. The brain learns from every experienced event, but because cognitive representations are distributed across networks of neurons, cumulative learning is crucial. There is stronger representation of what is common across learning experiences, and there are multiple representations of experience (e.g. motor and visual representations). This supports the value of multi-sensory approaches to teaching.
http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/Downloads/Int_Reps/4.Children_development-learning/Primary_Review_2-1a_briefing_Cognitive_development_learning_071214.pdf
Knowledge gained through active experience, language, pretend play and teaching are all important for the development of children’s causal explanatory systems.
Language is crucial for development but there is huge individual variation in language skills from an early age. Typically young children learn new words at an exponential rate, acquiring 10+ words daily. The median vocabulary is 55 words at 16 months, 225 words at 23 months and over 6000 words by age six, but the developmental range stretches from a vocabulary of 0 words to over 500 words at age two. Children who enter school with impoverished language skills require
immediate support.
Incremental experience is crucial for learning and knowledge construction. The brain learns from every experienced event, but because cognitive representations are distributed across networks of neurons, cumulative learning is crucial. There is stronger representation of what is common across learning experiences, and there are multiple representations of experience (e.g. motor and visual representations). This supports the value of multi-sensory approaches to teaching.
http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/Downloads/Int_Reps/4.Children_development-learning/Primary_Review_2-1a_briefing_Cognitive_development_learning_071214.pdf
Sending your child to a pre-nursery?
98. At 00:21am on 19 Oct 2009, Robert Toseland wrote:
I'm a Playworker ( Multi award winning, I might add as their is no character limit ) and playworkers work with children aged three to eleven. We work in Out of School Clubs, Holiday Clubs and even in some schools.
We always joke amongst ourselves that we can spot a teacher a mile off. We see them often as we usually work with children as they come out of school, or before they go in to school for the day if there is a breakfast club available. Teachers are trained to structure, structure, structure... I've met some fantastic teachers who can cope with an overly full classroom of pupils and motivate them and encourage them to join in, but at the end of the day, the structure is the problem.
I have worked with children who at school have daily report cards and usually a reputation that precedes them, as usually all of the school staff know them as a "problem child". Yet, when they attend our settings, they are the most polite, helpful children there. The difference is plainly obvious. Usually these children are violent towards other pupils in school and even teachers and other staff members. With us however, during our usual fire drill tests, they are the first to grab hold of a three or four year olds hand and help them to get outside calmly. Without prompting. It's amazing.
I put it down to our lack of structure. "Play is child driven" as they say. We don't put activities out, or force people to take part. They do anything they want, with our encouragement and help. We encourage children to be themselves and be confident in themselves, and it works. They flourish and learn through play. Yet in a class room, they are forced to conform and abide by the set curriculum and pupils who learn just a little slower than say another child are often left behind. This is one of the reasons a startling amount of children leave primary education unable to read.
The recent debate about scrapping formal was a fantastic idea. Children would do better spending time with Playworkers until they start a formal education. They can learn English, Maths and life skills while in a safe environment that encourages and supports them while they are in their comfort zone, giving them a chance to gain a personality and think for themselves.
Playwork is a massive field, no way near limited to the examples I've pointed out here. We also train in some cases for years to work especially with children with "Special Educational Needs", although I dislike this term personally as all children have needs.
In playwork children are respected as equals and given choice. This is something that lacks extremely in some schools I've had the misfortune to visit or work in. Children "kick off" because they feel they are being pressured and forced in to something, they might not feel comfortable doing. This is not always met with support, a shoulder to cry on or more encouragement. Sometimes this child is branded as problematic and forgotten.
In my professional and personal opinion formal lessons should be scrapped until children are mentally capable of dealing with the pressure and have spend plenty of time in a comfortable, safe setting such as a playwork setting.
Being more radical then the report, I think the formal education age should raise to eight or ten. This would have massive ramifications, including University entry. I am currently at University and twenty years old. I have worked out there in the real world before coming to University and I see eighteen year olds coming straight from college, no idea what the real world is like. University should be more like America, where older students attend, who are physically, mentally and ready to handle the extreme pressure that comes with the workload, as well as potentially having to work your way through university with a part time job.
I don't think the report went far enough with Primary education. The entire system should be re-examined and factor in the large number of Playworkers the country already has and even ships abroad to work with their children.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2009/10/is_primary_education_threatene.html
I'm a Playworker ( Multi award winning, I might add as their is no character limit ) and playworkers work with children aged three to eleven. We work in Out of School Clubs, Holiday Clubs and even in some schools.
We always joke amongst ourselves that we can spot a teacher a mile off. We see them often as we usually work with children as they come out of school, or before they go in to school for the day if there is a breakfast club available. Teachers are trained to structure, structure, structure... I've met some fantastic teachers who can cope with an overly full classroom of pupils and motivate them and encourage them to join in, but at the end of the day, the structure is the problem.
I have worked with children who at school have daily report cards and usually a reputation that precedes them, as usually all of the school staff know them as a "problem child". Yet, when they attend our settings, they are the most polite, helpful children there. The difference is plainly obvious. Usually these children are violent towards other pupils in school and even teachers and other staff members. With us however, during our usual fire drill tests, they are the first to grab hold of a three or four year olds hand and help them to get outside calmly. Without prompting. It's amazing.
I put it down to our lack of structure. "Play is child driven" as they say. We don't put activities out, or force people to take part. They do anything they want, with our encouragement and help. We encourage children to be themselves and be confident in themselves, and it works. They flourish and learn through play. Yet in a class room, they are forced to conform and abide by the set curriculum and pupils who learn just a little slower than say another child are often left behind. This is one of the reasons a startling amount of children leave primary education unable to read.
The recent debate about scrapping formal was a fantastic idea. Children would do better spending time with Playworkers until they start a formal education. They can learn English, Maths and life skills while in a safe environment that encourages and supports them while they are in their comfort zone, giving them a chance to gain a personality and think for themselves.
Playwork is a massive field, no way near limited to the examples I've pointed out here. We also train in some cases for years to work especially with children with "Special Educational Needs", although I dislike this term personally as all children have needs.
In playwork children are respected as equals and given choice. This is something that lacks extremely in some schools I've had the misfortune to visit or work in. Children "kick off" because they feel they are being pressured and forced in to something, they might not feel comfortable doing. This is not always met with support, a shoulder to cry on or more encouragement. Sometimes this child is branded as problematic and forgotten.
In my professional and personal opinion formal lessons should be scrapped until children are mentally capable of dealing with the pressure and have spend plenty of time in a comfortable, safe setting such as a playwork setting.
Being more radical then the report, I think the formal education age should raise to eight or ten. This would have massive ramifications, including University entry. I am currently at University and twenty years old. I have worked out there in the real world before coming to University and I see eighteen year olds coming straight from college, no idea what the real world is like. University should be more like America, where older students attend, who are physically, mentally and ready to handle the extreme pressure that comes with the workload, as well as potentially having to work your way through university with a part time job.
I don't think the report went far enough with Primary education. The entire system should be re-examined and factor in the large number of Playworkers the country already has and even ships abroad to work with their children.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2009/10/is_primary_education_threatene.html
3.12.11
Neural bases of language
PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 2, 2011 - The international jury under the presidency of Prof. Albert Galaburda (Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA) awarded on November 29th, 2011 the 20th Jean-Louis Signoret Neuropsychology Prize of the Fondation Ipsen (Paris:IPN) (20.000€) to Prof.Patricia K. Kuhl (University of Washington, Seattle, USA) for her work that played a major role in the understanding of language acquisition and the neural bases of language.
Infants are born with innate abilities to easily identify every sound of every language, however, by the end of the first year of life, infants show a perceptual narrowing of their language skills. Their ability to discern differences in the sounds that make up words in the world’s languages shrinks. Nonnative sounds are no longer differentiated.
This developmental transition is caused by two interacting factors: the child’s computational skills and their social brains. Computational skills allow rapid statistical learning and social interaction is necessary for this computational learning process to occur.
Neuroimaging using Magnetoencephalography (MEG) may help explain the neuroplasticity of the child’s mind versus the more expert (but less open) mind of the adult, and account for the “critical period” for language.
She also studied the early development of the brain of bilingual children. By 10 to 12 months bilingual infants do not show the perceptual narrowing of the monolingual children. This is another piece of evidence that experiences shape the brain.
http://www.pharmalive.com/News/Index.cfm?articleid=816351
Sam: Research in Le Beaumont reveals that language acquisition involves 3 stages,
1. voice recognition(birth to 9 months) & production(13 to 14th month);
2. vocabulary spurt (15-20th month);
3. pattern recognition (24-36th month).
The first stage (0 to 9th month) involves the development of a software program for voice recognition in the brain. The person can only recognize voices found in the voice recognition system. A foreign voice not found in the system is diverted to the nearest sound in the system. This distortion of sounds, arising from voice recognition, causes ascents. [Share your views with sam@beaumont.hk]
Infants are born with innate abilities to easily identify every sound of every language, however, by the end of the first year of life, infants show a perceptual narrowing of their language skills. Their ability to discern differences in the sounds that make up words in the world’s languages shrinks. Nonnative sounds are no longer differentiated.
This developmental transition is caused by two interacting factors: the child’s computational skills and their social brains. Computational skills allow rapid statistical learning and social interaction is necessary for this computational learning process to occur.
Neuroimaging using Magnetoencephalography (MEG) may help explain the neuroplasticity of the child’s mind versus the more expert (but less open) mind of the adult, and account for the “critical period” for language.
She also studied the early development of the brain of bilingual children. By 10 to 12 months bilingual infants do not show the perceptual narrowing of the monolingual children. This is another piece of evidence that experiences shape the brain.
http://www.pharmalive.com/News/Index.cfm?articleid=816351
Sam: Research in Le Beaumont reveals that language acquisition involves 3 stages,
1. voice recognition(birth to 9 months) & production(13 to 14th month);
2. vocabulary spurt (15-20th month);
3. pattern recognition (24-36th month).
The first stage (0 to 9th month) involves the development of a software program for voice recognition in the brain. The person can only recognize voices found in the voice recognition system. A foreign voice not found in the system is diverted to the nearest sound in the system. This distortion of sounds, arising from voice recognition, causes ascents. [Share your views with sam@beaumont.hk]
Task-based, face-to-face interactions
Teresa Pica championed the idea that students learn best when using a second language in task-based, face-to-face interactions. Although it flew in the face of thinking in the 1980s, that concept is now at the core of teaching and research, said Nancy Hornberger, a professor of education at Penn.
http://www.philly.com/philly/obituaries/134880788.html
http://www.philly.com/philly/obituaries/134880788.html
2.12.11
First three years of life
The quality of early experiences sets a trajectory of lifelong learning. The human brain physically changes in response to experience most efficiently during the first three years of life, compared to any other three-year period. Because brain architecture is more difficult to alter in later childhood, policies need to reflect current best evidence on how to ensure all children have access to high quality environments from before birth.
http://ilabs.washington.edu/i-labs-news/connecting-science-early-learning-policy
http://ilabs.washington.edu/i-labs-news/connecting-science-early-learning-policy
The critical first 2,000 days from birth
“There is a growing synergy between advances in developmental neuroscience and the formulation of innovative and effective policies to improve the lives of all children, starting in the critical first 2,000 days from birth to Kindergarten.”
http://blog.senatedemocrats.wa.gov/frockt/connect-early-learning-with-brain-science-uw-i-labs/
http://blog.senatedemocrats.wa.gov/frockt/connect-early-learning-with-brain-science-uw-i-labs/
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