The
advocacy message I would like to send is one that empathizes the importance and
severity of education geared toward the development of children’ brains.
Familes and teachers do not always realize how crucial the first few years in a
child’s life are, when it comes to the development of the brain.
According to Zero To Three
(2014a), the
first three years of life are a period of incredible growth in all areas of a baby's
development. A newborn's brain is about 25 percent of its approximate adult
weight. But by age 3, it has grown dramatically by producing billions of cells and
hundreds of trillions of connections, or synapses, between these cells.
Simply because of this, there are
many reasons why understanding brain development is critical to understanding
how important children’s earliest experiences are to their overall well-being.
Understanding this may help us learn how experiences truly affect children. It
may also help us learn when experiences affect children. Knowledge of these two
examples could help us in aiding us to prevent damage that could potentially
occur, as well as understanding patterns that could help us in interventions
for the children (The Urban Child Institute, 2015).
Waiting until a child is in
school is too late to begin to educate parents on the importance of brain
development because of the obvious development that has already taken place. I
do feel, however, that early childhood teachers should be educated on this and
that kindergarten and first grade teachers should attend training and be given
information on this topic since they’re the teachers who work with them early
on in their academic lives. If teachers and daycare providers are not educated
on this, then they cannot truly understand the importance level and how it will
help them with educating, as well as understanding their students.
A related advocacy message I would
like to address is the importance that parents play in the role of not only
brain development, but teaching their children the importance of empathy. This
is character trait that is taught by parents and also has to do with brains and
learning things when children are young.
This
topic is of importance to me because I have seen the lack of participation from
parents in the 10 years that I have been teaching. I would love for parents to
make more of an effort in partnering with me, the person who spends more than 8
hours a day with their child, to improve their learning and self-efficacy.
The
Urban Child Institute. (2015). Baby’s brain begins now: Conception to age 3.
Retrieved
Zero
to Three. (2014a). Brain development. Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/child-
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