Many parents will tell you that they can almost see the wheels of an infant’s mind turning, making connections, decisions, and observations. That’s not our imagination, brains grow and develop rapidly during infancy as described in Right From Birth: Building Your Child's Foundation for Life.  An article in the Detroit News discusses a recent symposium held at Harvard that addresses this time of intense brain-building during the early childhood years.

Research has discovered that, during the first 3 years of life, the brain is at its optimal flexibility and plasticity, and its early circuits cannot later be rewired. Brains develop over time and build on what has been built before, so the ability to change decreases over time. Unconnected synapses are waiting in infants to be developed and told what to do, making the development between birth and age 3 even more critical.

The concept of “Serve and Return” governs cognitive and emotional growth, meaning that when infants interact with a nurturing and responsive adult, more synaptic connections are created. This process shapes circuit development in the developing brain; think of how when your baby smiles and you smile back as a way of increasing brain cell connections.

Brain development, while influenced in large part by genetics, is also influenced heavily by experiences and environment in early childhood. The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child states that this can “either weaken or strengthen the initial blueprint; … the circumstances in which [the brain is] built are every bit as important as the … framework handed down by genetics."

Optimal neural growth is fostered by secure and nurturing early relationships, and parents and caregivers who understand that these relationships are essential to healthy development can do a lot to promote the well-being of children.

Early childhood policies can be positively affected by these new findings; state policies can help by promoting early education and childcare services devoted to young children.