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accelerated learning pioneer Colin Rose: "It's true throughout
life that if you think you are a poor learner, you'll probably be a poor
learner." But the real question is how that thought pattern is
programmed. American research has shown that most children, from a very
early age, receive at least six negative comments to every one of
positive encouragement.7
Comments like "Don't do that," or "You didn't do that
very well," are where the problem starts.
Research has also established beyond
doubt the importance of every child growing in an enriched environment.
Berkeley scientists in California
have been experimenting for many years with rats - and comparing their
brain growth with humans. "Very simply," says Professor Marian
Diamond, "we've found with our rats that all the nerve cells in the
key outer layers of the brain are present at birth. At birth the
interconnecting dendrites start to grow. For the first month the growth
is prolific. Then it starts to go down.
"If we put the rats in
enriched environments, we can keep the dendrite growth up. But if we put
them in impoverished environments, then dendrite growth goes down fast.
"In enrichment cages, rats live
together and have access to toys. They have ladders, wheels and other
playthings. They can climb, explore and interact with their toys. Then
we compare them with rats in impoverished environments: one rat to a
cage, no toys, no interaction. Again very simply: we've found that the
rat brain cells increase in size in the enriched environment - and the
number of dendrites increases dramatically. In the impoverished
environment, the opposite."
The rats then take an
"intelligence test": they're put in a maze, and left to find
food in another part of the maze. The "enriched" rats do so
easily. The others don't.
Obviously, scientists can't cut up
human brains to test the impact of early stimulation. But they can check
with radioactive glucose. "And these checks," says Diamond,
"show that the vital glucose uptake is extremely rapid for the
first two years of life - provided the child has a good diet and
adequate stimulation. It continues rapidly until five years. It
continues very slowly from five to ten. By about ten years of age,
brain-growth has reached its peak - although the good news is this: the
human brain can keep on growing dendrites till the end of life, so long
as it is being stimulated. Very simply, the human brain cell, like the
rat's, is designed to receive stimulation - and to grow from it."
Contents
Page Preface
Introduction
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