The Brain & Education Argument
1. From age 3 to 10 years, the brain has more synaptic connections than it will every have again.
2. This is a critical period for brain development, when learning is easiest and most efficient.
3. During this critical period, enriched environments can have the most profound and permanent effect on brain development and intelligence.
Yes, but there is no simple relation
between synaptic numbers,
intelligence, and ability to learn.
Experience may neither cause
these synapses to form nor keep
Critical periods are not confined to this age range and probably do not apply to school learning.
Environmental enrichment and experience affect the brain throughout our life times. The human brain remains plastic well into adulthood.