Overview of early brain development

OK, so you said we’re going to start right at the beginning, but honestly, I don’t remember anything from when I was a baby, so I guess my question is, what is happening developmentally, and if I can’t remember it, how important is it? It is really important even though we can remember few if any memories from our early childhood. These experiences are really important in laying the foundation for our early brain development and SEL. When a baby is born, the brain is already about 1/4 of the size as it will be when they’re adults. This means they’re ready to start learning from day one.

By the time there, about three years old, the brain is already about 80% of its adult volume. Baby’s brains are made up of billions and billions of cells called neurons. Babies brains are constantly forming connections and pathways between these cells. These pathways and connections are what make learning possible and there shaped by the experiences that babies and toddlers have. You’re talking about neurons and connections and pathways and I’m getting a little confused. It might help to think of the pathways and connections in the brain like pathways through a forest. At first there might be lots and lots of different winding and narrow routes through the forest.

These pathways might be quite confusing to walk along, and you might even get lost along the way. And different people might take different routes through the forest to get to the same destination, but not always taking the most direct and efficient route. But as more and more people walk along, the more direct pathways, these will become clearer and more defined. And these narrow and winding pathways aren’t really used very often will just fade away, leaving these clear and direct pathways. The forest analogy was super helpful. So now that we have the basics of early childhood brain development, in the next step, we’re going to talk about early childhood, social and emotional development.