ConnectED 2017 Southwell School
Nathan Wallis (Keynote)
The Fascinating Brain (Ka Tikaka o Ka Roro)
Brain development researcher.
The first thousand days of your life (from conception to 2.6) are the critical
years for brain development. Intelligence isn't inherited. Its the data we
gather in the first thousand days of life that dictate intelligence. Later
intelligence links back to those first thousand days.
There are no genes that transmit intelligence.
Epigenetics - how genes respond to the environment.
Example of epigenetics - an increase in physical size and IQ is evident in each
generation. This isn't evolutionary because genes take thousands of years
to change. Epigenetics makes you taller and have a higher IQ because of
improved nourishment, easier physical living, more stimulating intellectual
environment.
Intelligence doesn't come from genes, so where does it come
from?
Firstborn children often are the most
successful.
The number of words spoken to them per day from
day one has a profound impact on stimulating the brain and developing the
cognitive processes.
Processing language is the most complex thing
your brain does.
For the first year of life language is most
important with their primary caregiver (mother).
Babies have to attune to someone to learn
language. Only words being directly addressed to the baby are taken in.
Brain develops most in the first year through
engaging with the primary caregiver. The first six months are about attachment
to mother. Having your baby facing out rather than towards you in the
pram means they have a smaller amount of brain activity than if they are
looking at you.
Dyslexia and Autism have a strong genetic
component. ADHD is more environmentally influenced.
Risk and resilience - risk factors - poverty, alcoholism etc at one end
of the spectrum, at the other best outcomes from the quality
Risk factors - parents in prison, no education, no family
connection, violence, large families. having a child put on a sleep programme
in the first 18 months of life. Having a child in childcare in the first three
years.
Resiliency - biggest factor is mother staying home for the first
year of life. Others involve playing a musical instrument, speaking your first
language, having a close relationship with grandparents.
Resiliency comes in the third brain - the lymbic
system. We are inclined to push through to get the frontal cortex engaging
before it is ready to fire up.
Most kids will have risk factors!
(for every dollar you spend on children in
the first thousand days you save 17 later in life)
The research says that a child who is
at home with his mother even if she gives him minimal attention, he is better
off than if he is in a highly qualified early childcare centre.
if they do need to go into childcare, it is
better to have it happen in the child's own home.
Cortisol is a stress chemical the brain
produces. 80% engagment with mother keeps cortisol low.
Neurophysical aspects
Our brain is made up of four brains - the fourth
one, the frontal cortex, is the most critical one - it does everything
that a human can do that a dog can't do. Language for example happens is in the
frontal cortex. Also includes empathy, controlling emotions etc.
Brain one is the brain stem - survival - keeps
you breathing.
Brain two is about movement.
Brain three (lymbic system) the mammal brain -
the parenting brain, the emotional brain, procreating, protecting your
offspring.
The brain is fully grown by age twelve but it
doesn't fully mature until later. Over time we have pushed out the time it
takes to reach full development. Now it is seen as not reaching full maturity
until the late twenties, or early thirties.
Gender has different results. One matures faster than the other. Female
brains develop faster.
The majority of females reach maturity between
18 and 24. Men up to 32.
Birth order has an effect. First born girls are
closer to 18 reaching adulthood than later siblings.
Having a girl first then a boy is disadvantaging
for the boy rather than the other way round, where a boy is born first. Girls
have a double advantage of being first born and having a faster maturing brain.
If a boy is born first he has the advantage of being first born.
Boys are not ready for literacy and numeracy
learning before the age of seven. Yet we are pushing this from age five.
Frontal cortex comes into its
Nathan Wallis
own at the age of seven.
Three year olds don't need to learn colours and
numbers or reading. Early cognitive skills are not beneficial to a child. No
matter how early you start to learn cognitive skills, they will plateau aged
eight. At this age a child who started learning aged seven will be at the same
level aged eight.
You don't get a better seven year old by
preparing them age three.
Te Whariki is a highly effective curriculum for early learning. It is about
the whole child. It doesn't have a list of things that a child should be able
to do when they start school. What matters under age seven is a child's
disposition towards themselves as a learner.
You can't tell how successful a person will be
at 32 depending on how developed their cognitive skills are age
five.
It is about emotion and attitudes when children
start school.
For children under age seven what matters is how
clever they think they are. Not what they already know. Often
a child pushed into learning before they are ready feels a sense of lack. They
might be able to count to 100 but they think they shuld be able to count beyond
it.
Mindfulness is useful to settle the brain stem,
or the brain kids who have come from a traumatic home come to school with. We
need to calm our earlier brains in order to access our cognitive brains.
ConnectED 2017 Southwell School
The Fascinating Brain (Ka Tikaka o Ka Roro)
Brain development researcher.
The first thousand days of your life (from conception to 2.6) are the critical years for brain development. Intelligence isn't inherited. Its the data we gather in the first thousand days of life that dictate intelligence. Later intelligence links back to those first thousand days.
There are no genes that transmit intelligence.
Epigenetics - how genes respond to the environment.
Example of epigenetics - an increase in physical size and IQ is evident in each generation. This isn't evolutionary because genes take thousands of years to change. Epigenetics makes you taller and have a higher IQ because of improved nourishment, easier physical living, more stimulating intellectual environment.
Firstborn children often are the most successful.
The number of words spoken to them per day from day one has a profound impact on stimulating the brain and developing the cognitive processes.
Processing language is the most complex thing your brain does.
For the first year of life language is most important with their primary caregiver (mother).
Babies have to attune to someone to learn language. Only words being directly addressed to the baby are taken in.
Brain develops most in the first year through engaging with the primary caregiver. The first six months are about attachment to mother. Having your baby facing out rather than towards you in the pram means they have a smaller amount of brain activity than if they are looking at you.
Dyslexia and Autism have a strong genetic component. ADHD is more environmentally influenced.
Risk and resilience - risk factors - poverty, alcoholism etc at one end of the spectrum, at the other best outcomes from the quality
Risk factors - parents in prison, no education, no family connection, violence, large families. having a child put on a sleep programme in the first 18 months of life. Having a child in childcare in the first three years.
Resiliency - biggest factor is mother staying home for the first year of life. Others involve playing a musical instrument, speaking your first language, having a close relationship with grandparents.
Resiliency comes in the third brain - the lymbic system. We are inclined to push through to get the frontal cortex engaging before it is ready to fire up.
Most kids will have risk factors!
(for every dollar you spend on children in the first thousand days you save 17 later in life)
The research says that a child who is at home with his mother even if she gives him minimal attention, he is better off than if he is in a highly qualified early childcare centre.
if they do need to go into childcare, it is better to have it happen in the child's own home.
Cortisol is a stress chemical the brain produces. 80% engagment with mother keeps cortisol low.
Neurophysical aspects
Our brain is made up of four brains - the fourth one, the frontal cortex, is the most critical one - it does everything that a human can do that a dog can't do. Language for example happens is in the frontal cortex. Also includes empathy, controlling emotions etc.
Brain one is the brain stem - survival - keeps you breathing.
Brain two is about movement.
Brain three (lymbic system) the mammal brain - the parenting brain, the emotional brain, procreating, protecting your offspring.
The brain is fully grown by age twelve but it doesn't fully mature until later. Over time we have pushed out the time it takes to reach full development. Now it is seen as not reaching full maturity until the late twenties, or early thirties.
Gender has different results. One matures faster than the other. Female brains develop faster.
The majority of females reach maturity between 18 and 24. Men up to 32.
Birth order has an effect. First born girls are closer to 18 reaching adulthood than later siblings.
Having a girl first then a boy is disadvantaging for the boy rather than the other way round, where a boy is born first. Girls have a double advantage of being first born and having a faster maturing brain. If a boy is born first he has the advantage of being first born.
Boys are not ready for literacy and numeracy learning before the age of seven. Yet we are pushing this from age five. Frontal cortex comes into its
 |
| Nathan Wallis |
Three year olds don't need to learn colours and numbers or reading. Early cognitive skills are not beneficial to a child. No matter how early you start to learn cognitive skills, they will plateau aged eight. At this age a child who started learning aged seven will be at the same level aged eight.
You don't get a better seven year old by preparing them age three.
Te Whariki is a highly effective curriculum for early learning. It is about the whole child. It doesn't have a list of things that a child should be able to do when they start school. What matters under age seven is a child's disposition towards themselves as a learner.
You can't tell how successful a person will be at 32 depending on how developed their cognitive skills are age five.
It is about emotion and attitudes when children start school.
For children under age seven what matters is how clever they think they are. Not what they already know. Often a child pushed into learning before they are ready feels a sense of lack. They might be able to count to 100 but they think they shuld be able to count beyond it.
Mindfulness is useful to settle the brain stem, or the brain kids who have come from a traumatic home come to school with. We need to calm our earlier brains in order to access our cognitive brains.
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