During the past decade or so, improving technology has made it possible to better understand how children's brains develop.
Discoveries have confirmed what moms and teachers and social workers already suspected: Tremendous, important growth takes place inside the heads of babies and little kids. Eighty-five to 90 percent of a child's brain has developed by the time he is 5 years old — along with his personality, his intellect and his social skills.
Motivated by these findings, experts are encouraging the expansion of early childhood literacy. Doctors' offices are giving away books; lawmakers are considering funding public preschools; day-care center libraries are being established and parents are being urged to read to their kids.
I'm convinced, however — after having spent 25 years living with my own toddlers and babies, interacting with their playgroups and preschools and volunteering in kindergartens and church nurseries — that as important as emerging pre-literacy skills are, the effective nurturing of baby brains requires far more than exposure to books and flash cards.
Parents — and other caregivers — also must provide children with a wide variety of experiences, with opportunities to broaden their language skills and with plenty of solitary time for imaginative play.
Developing brains absorb the world by participating in real-life, real-time action. Screen-delivered information just doesn't soak in, and the minutes and hours kids spend occupied by TVs, video games and computer programs — no matter how "educational" their offerings — is time when they are not involved with the truly educational real world.
On the other hand, when parents and caregivers include little ones in whatever they're doing — from cooking dinner to unplugging a toilet — they're furnishing young brains with the nourishing raw material of reality. In fact, watching Daddy shave or Mommy put on her makeup is a far more valuable early-morning opportunity than watching Barney or Bugs Bunny.
Language is the portal to learning. A baby recognizes the unique tones of his mother's voice from birth; her words start building his infant brain even before he can smile or grasp. Little kids not only learn from what they're taught and told, simply listening to language — from the pages of a book, from conversations, descriptions and questions — expands their vocabularies and gives meaning to their thoughts.
Little children's brains need time to ponder and process everything their senses deliver. It is while children are alone — building block castles, swinging on the swings, contemplating the clouds — that conclusions are drawn, ideas gel and the tentative tentacles of brain growth connect.
Educators worry about the increasing number of 5-year-olds arriving at the schoolhouse door unprepared. Elementary school failure, however, is just the presenting symptom of poor early-childhood learning. Other troubling mental deficits that become apparent later on — poor communication skills, inability to analyze and solve problems, difficulty making the jump from concrete to abstract thought — curse high school students and create college dropouts.