A child is a reflection of the world they experience, as they grow and develop. Our job as a parent or caregiver is to provide them a nurturing, caring, consistent, predictable, stimulating, and enriching environment where their neurons can grow and thrive. Dr. Bruce Perry, the head of The Trauma center.org, which is based in Houston, Texas! explains how, although only 25% is developed when the baby is born, the brain grows and develops rapidly during the first four years of a child’s life. By age 4, it’s 90% adult brain. Dr. Perry explains that the connection between neurons increases and strengthens” through repetition.”
Early life experiences are crucial to laying a firm foundation. His seven-slide series is worth watching to gain knowledge about how the brain grows and develops from the brainstem outward, and inwards. Knowledge to set up flexible, supportive, and nurturing routines in your family life is crucial to give that boost to your child’s developing neurons.
Dr. Dan Siegel talks about the function of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, he says that the right side is early developing, nonverbal, and expresses raw emotion. When a parent follows and responds in a caring and responsive manner, there can be tremendous growth of strong neurons because the early cues the baby gives are all nonverbal, they feel gratified when they are responded to in a timely manner. Otherwise they get stressed easily.
The left brain is later developing. It’s linguistic, linear, logical and literal. It is very important for a parent and primary caregiver to understand the two regions of the brain, while looking deeply at their own left and right modes! Understanding that either can be more dominant than the other is essential. Experts say that if this is not known to a parent, there is disconnect and rigidity and leads to chaos. The key is to find the balance within ourselves and provide an environment to your child where they can thrive .