What is early childhood development?
Early childhood development (ECD) and education is a new, practically oriented neuroscience that has emerged from the exciting discoveries in neuro-psychology and molecular biology of the past 30 years.
It explores the rapid development of the nervous system from before birth to the third year of every individual, uncovering complex processes and stages such as primary reflexes, senses, needs and skills, stimuli, first learning, initial bonding with mother, father, and the world, and more.
This radically changes perspectives on caregiving, upbringing, and education in nurseries, preschools, schools, and at home, as well as in the offices of speech therapists and psychotherapists.
It’s astonishing, for example, that ALL experiences and habits of the child literally transform into neural networks of knowledge and skills, which remain and can potentially influence the quality and duration of the life cycle to varying degrees.
The brain of a young child creates more than 1 million connections (synapses) every second until the age of three, and is born with approximately 2,500 synapses per neuron. Studies show that around 15,000 synapses per neuron are formed by the age of two or three. In total, the active brain of a young child has about 1,000 trillion synapses. In contrast, the brain of an adult can synthesize a maximum of 300 synapses on a good day.
It’s like being a supercomputer that absorbs and processes a tremendous amount of information every day, something completely impossible for an adult.
That is why this science seeks to identify the developmental and vital experiences and the right knowledge.
Primary reflexes, for example, are fundamental automatic reactions of a healthy nervous system with fundamentally important functions – to awaken the brain for learning through movement.
When properly stimulated, they lead to productive skills ranging from basic coordination, mobile/static balance, dexterity, and strength to sociability, emotional intelligence, and analytical thinking. All these skills, along with others, depend on the gradual development of neural connections between different areas of the brain, always starting from the “foundation” – the brainstem – and extending upwards to the “roof,” which is the cerebral cortex with its higher functions.
Without a stable foundation, when primary reflexes do not flow and integrate in a timely manner, they begin to interfere – daily life becomes filled with stress and exhaustion
And if they are integrated on time and combined with other psychological practices, the manifestations are surprising intelligence, talent, athleticism, and “maturity.”
In fact, Evolution hints to us that much more is possible, easier, and more enjoyable.
And this is where my work comes in.
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