Early Childhood Research Paper

During early childhood, the brain retains the ability to re-learn sounds it has discarded, so young children typically learn new languages easily and without an accent. After about age 10, however, plasticity for this function is greatly diminished; therefore, most people find it difficult to learn to speak a foreign language as well as a native speaker if they only begin to learn it in adolescence or adulthood(Hart, B. & Risley, T. (1995) Pruning takes place throughout life but is far more common in early childhood. Animal studies have also shown that there are certain windows of time during which the young are especially sensitive to their environment studies in monkeys have revealred that they need consistent social contact during the first six months or they will end up extremely emotionally disturbed. All of this tells us that our brains shape and reshape themselves in ways that depend on what we use them for throughout our lives. The quality of experiences and relationships in the first three years of life has a deep and lasting impact on how the brain develops. The richer the environment, the greater the number of interconnections that are made.(Schiller, P. (2001) More importantly, early experiences can determine how proficient a child becomes in a particular skill. Researchers found that when mothers frequently spoke
Each step influences the next" (Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1995)). In other words, experience can alter the structure of the brain. More specifically, the brain can be "rewired" to alter intelligence and ultimately, behavior. As Newsweek reported on February 19, 1996, "Early-childhood experiences exert a dramatic and precise impact, physically determining how the intricate neural circuits of the brain are wired" (Hart, B., & Risley, T. R.