1. What’s Going On Up There?
Significant Brain Development Research
1. Brains are developing pathways for learning
ACTIVITY:
Making connections with crepe paper, string, or yarn to imitate creation of neural pathways in brain

2. What’s Going On Up There?
Bodies -- cells
Brains -- connections between cells
At birth, the body is small. As the body grows more cells, the body gets bigger.
The brain gets bigger, too, as it grows more cells. Forming connections between the brain cells is critical when children are very young.

3. What’s Going On Up There?
Brain has ~100 billion cells at birth
Like little towns with no roads
Needs roads or “pathways” between cells.

4. What’s Going On Up There?
Pathway development:
Before birth
Sensory stimulation
Electrical impulses
Pathways
Repetition = strength
Pathway development:
Begins before birth
Occurs with sensory stimulation
Stimulation causes electrical impulses
Impulses cause pathways
Repetition of impulses = strong pathways
Image from

5. What’s Going On Up There?
Make brain pathways!
See
Touch
Activities that stimulate the senses help create brain pathways.
Repeating these activities strengthens the pathways.
Hear
Taste
Smell

6. What’s Going On Up There?
Unstimumlated brains:
Few pathways
Pruning
Pathway development slows
Around age 5, the brain starts “pruning” away the brain cells that don’t have connections to other brain cells. It’s like destroying little towns that have no roads connecting them to other little towns.
Pathway development slows down after early childhood years
“Brain Cell Connections” image from

7. What’s Going On Up There?
Window of opportunity:
Build brain pathways:
Ages birth - 5
Sensory activities
Repetition
We have a “window of opportunity” to help children build strong brain pathways from birth – age 5 by engaging them repeatedly in activities that stimulate the senses.