Child Development and the Brain

Information for lecturers

Chapter outlines

 

Each chapter in the book explores a different aspect of development. It provides an overview of the understanding we have gained, primarily from developmental psychology, and then explores the ways in which neuroscience has extended, or sometimes changed, this understanding. We have provided references for the studies we discuss and a full bibliography at the end of the book. Each chapter also contains section summaries where appropriate. At the end of most of the chapters there are also a number of discussion questions. As neuroscience is full of technical language, we have presented key words in bold and listed them in a glossary towards the end of the book. 

 

Chapter One: Beginnings and Basics

This introduces the structure and workings of the brain. We look at the ways in which the outer part of the brain, the cerebral cortex, is often divided up, and also introduce some of the main parts of the lower or subcortical brain as well as the way in which neurons and other cells work within the central nervous system. This chapter also describes the process of building a brain, including prenatal and postnatal developments.

 

Chapter Two: Developing visual perception

Our second chapter looks the development of visual perception and the areas of the brain that are related to this. We consider the development of visual acuity, the ways in which babies develop their ability to focus and how the brain begins to process images so that they become three dimensional. This chapter also looks at the way in which infants learn to process faces and the idea that specialised parts of the brain are devoted to this specific task.

 

Chapter Three: Development of thinking

This chapter begins by considering the work of the developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, particularly his ideas on object permanence; it considers this in terms of what we now know about cognitive processing and short-term memory. The chapter also look at more contemporary theories of cognitive processing and examine how knowledge about the frontal cortex is changing our understanding of cognitive development. 

 

Chapter Four: Emotional Development

This chapter examines emotional development as well as ideas about attachment and the effects of emotional and physical abuse. We consider ideas about how emotions develop and the time-scale over which this happens. We consider the process of emotional regulation and the process of attachment. We look at the work of Allan Schore, who presents a wealth of evidence from neuroscience to consider how brain development correlates with the development of affect regulation, or the ability to manage and control our feelings. 

 

Chapter Five: Language and Literacy

This chapter presents aspects of language development. It reviews the work of the classic twentieth-century theorists such as Skinner, Chomsky and Bruner and then considers the ways in which neuroscience is changing our understanding of how children and even babies process the language sounds they hear around them in order to become competent users of language.  The chapter also looks at literacy and what insights neuroscience is giving us into developmental dyslexia.

 

Chapter Six: Learning and Memory

This chapter probes our understanding of how memory works. It looks at the different types of memory and how these develop during childhood. It considers how memory is stored in the brain, particularly the working of the hippocampus and surrounding areas. In the second part of the chapter we look at how our knowledge about learning is changing. We conclude this chapter by discussing some common neuromyths, specifically ideas about learning styles, left and right brains and brain gym.

 

Chapter Seven: Genetics and neurodevelopmental disorders

In this chapter we look at a number of neurodevelopmental disorders. These include ADHD, autism, Downs Syndrome, Fragile X, Williams Syndrome and a number others. We present an account of our current knowledge of each of these conditions and then consider how brain science is adding to this knowledge. In this chapter we also give the names of organisations where you can find out more about the conditions discussed. 

 

Chapter Eight: The future:

In this chapter we look into the future and discuss which areas of knowledge about child development are likely to be enriched by improvements in brain science, and also consider some of the practical and ethical difficulties that need to be overcome. We look at a number of studies that are considering our current understanding of neuroscience and which speculate on future developments.

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Discussion questions

Chapter One: Beginnings and Basics

1. What are the advantages of being born with an unfinished brain? 

2. Should mothers continue to take prescribed medicines such as anti-depressants when they are pregnant?

3. Is it OK to drink just small amounts of alcohol while pregnant?

4. What advice would you give to pregnant mothers about how to best help their baby’s brain? 

5. What is the relationship between what is genetically encoded (nature) in the brain and what is determined by the environment (nature)? How is our understanding of this relationship changing? 

 

Chapter Two: Developing visual perception

1. What markers would you look for to see if an infant’s visual development was proceeding well? 

2. Are children born with innate capacities for depth perception?

3. Can we be sure that experimental methods show us what infants are looking at?

4. How do we know that infants know that an object is the same object through time and space?

5. How have neural imaging studies helped us to understand how children learn to see faces clearly?

6. What experiences do you have of infants when they are looking at members of their family? 

 

Chapter Three: Development of thinking

1. Can we say that young infants do not think about object permanence? 

2. How has our understanding of the significance of object permanence changed since Piaget first proposed this idea? 

3. In what ways have neuroscientific studies helped us to understand cognitive development in infancy and early childhood? 

4. How does the developing brain allow children to control their natural responses to respond impulsively?

5. To what extent can infants think about their thoughts and actions? 

 

Chapter Four: Emotional Development

1. Is it possible to separate emotions from other aspects of the human psyche? Are thinking and feeling separate processes, with separate neural substrates and developmental paths? 

2. To what extent does your experience support the notion that emotional development is highly dependent on the sorts of social interactions the child has with parents and carers? 

3. Can professional childcare ever be a sufficient replacement for the kind of sensitive and responsive parenting that some brain research sees as being ideal for young infants?

4. To what extent do studies of cortisol levels in young children serve as a warning about protecting children from unnecessary levels of stress?

5. What sort of experiences of nurture and care do you see as being essential for young children?

6. Two brains or one? To what extent are children guided by the processes in their subcortical brains? At what age do we start to learn to control at least some of our emotional responses? 

 

Chapter Five: Language and Literacy

1. To what extent can social scientists make use of findings from neuroscience in relation to language and literacy development?

2. The nativist vs empiricist debate is an old one that resonates through most areas of language development. Does our understanding of how the brain acquires language help this debate?

3. The difficulties of subjecting children to brain scans mean that the number of children involved in brain studies is very small. What problems does this pose for social scientists as they try to understand the implications of neuroscience research and what it tells us about language and literacy development?

4. We now understand that babies have an inbuilt capacity to categorise the sounds of language. From six months onwards they start to specialise in languages that they hear spoken around them. How might this understanding influence how we approach multilingualism?

5. What would be the impact of identifying the neural substrates for developmental dyslexia? 

 

Chapter Six: Learning and Memory

1. Do you think you learn in the same way now as you did when you were a child?

2. How in your experience does meta-cognition affect the way in which we learn? How does this change as we grow older?

3. What’s the best way of helping children improve their long-term memory?

4. Given the evidence presented in the book, what is your assessment of the usefulness of ideas about learning styles? 

 

Chapter Seven: Genetics and neurodevelopmental disorders

1. Are designer babies ethically acceptable?

2. How do you think our growing understanding of genetics will affect our ability to treat childhood illness?

3. Should we try and “cure” conditions such as autism and Asperger syndrome?

 

Chapter Eight: The future:

1. What, in your view, has been the most significant contribution that developmental neuroscience has made to our understanding of how children develop?

2. What is the next most likely big discovery likely to be?

3.  What are the ethical issues around researching children’s brains that we will need to resolve in the next few years? 

4. What is the most beneficial contribution to knowledge that developmental neuroscience is likely to make in the next ten years?

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Essay questions

1. To what extent has cognitive developmental neuroscience challenged Piaget’s ideas on object permanence? 

2. To what extent does the evidence from cognitive neuroscience support the idea that in Western societies children often begin their formal education far too early? 

3. Happy and contented childhoods lead to happy and content adulthood. Discuss in relation to the evidence from neuroscience. 

4. To what extent are ideas about learning styles helpful in the classroom?

5. How do studies of ADHD reveal the complex interplay that exists between genetics and the environment? 

6. To what extent can we argue that infant perception is innate?

7. Evaluate the evidence that suggests increasing metacognitive skills, executive function and working memory in infancy.

8. How does neuroscience help researchers to understand the cognitive and social development of children with differential developmental pathways? 

 

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