All about Brain Development in a child

I was amazed to read an article about the development of brain in babies by Nancy Slessenger, a brain expert; a baby’s brain develops from the time he/she is in the mother’s womb, though it is invisible to the naked eye. This article motivated me to share the information with one and all.

How a baby’s brain develops in the womb:

It is best understood that from the time of conception, the fetus develops both physically and mentally, with a baby’s brain making quarter a million new neurons and links every minute; making brain cells is hard and this accounts for the mother getting tired. Again it is significant to note that a baby’s memory is developed even before birth and he/she recognizes the mother. All this calls for expecting mothers to make healthy diet and lifestyle choices even when the baby in the womb.

The brain is incredibly elastic at this stage and throughout life; this is the reason why brains of babies whose mothers drink or smoke is different from others as the brain cells simply do not know where to go while your brain was forming. The same applies to those babies that have little ‘ectopic areas’ of their brain; they are sometimes linked with dyslexia or that their brains are wired up differently due to the factors they experienced while they were in their mother’s womb. 

Development of brain since birth:

1 out of 4 parts of the adult’s brain is developed at birth. It is found that the brains of babies whose mothers did not/consumed very less protein were less developed than mothers who consumed a lot of protein. It was also found that breastfeeding mothers that consumed a lot of protein did influence their babies’ brain development, but the extent was much less than when mothers consumed a high protein balanced diet during pregnancy. This emphasizes the important of protein for fetal brain growth and development.

Rapid brain development is seen in the first year of life with phenomenal changes in the child’s behavior, understanding and the way he/she interacts with the world. His/her brain looking like that of an adult, with twice the connections of an adult being forming by 3 years of age. During the first 10 years of life, a child develops billions and billions of connections at random, with connections no longer required withering out. The ages 3-10 bring about rapid intellectual, emotional and social development, with a child’s brain developing, changing and growing throughout life.

The differences in a boy and a girl’s brain:

Truly there are physical differences between a boy and a girl’s brain; boy’s brain develops from back towards the front, while girl’s brain develops from front to back. So boys develop   motor skills sooner than thinking, while girls develop thinking and language skills sooner.

Reasons why a child’s brain is more active than an adult: 

Children are continuously going through new experiences and gathering new information as they love to do new things. By the age of 11, the pruning of the child’s brain occurs and unused parts of the brain are pruned off.

As a final note it is however to be understood that some parts of the brain are always developing and the brain never stops developing and growing.

Image Courtesy: Google