Schooling Years
The preschool years
At birth, both motor and sensory systems of the brain are already up and running. A newborn infant has enough motor control to feed and move away from painful or other unpleasant stimuli. Although visual and auditory systems are present at birth, they continue to develop the first few months of life as the brain reacts to the environment (Hynd & Willis, 1988: Semrud-Clikeman, 2006).
In healthy children, motor and sensory systems continue to develop during toddlerhood and the preschool years. Auditory and visual sk improve during this time too. Since brain development after birth is influenced by inputs from the environment, and because those inpu are unique to each child, every human brain is unique.
The early elementary years
During the early elementary years, fibers continue to grow between neurons and the white matter of the brain (also called myelin The growing neural networks of connected neurons and fibers are essential to the transmission of information throughout the brain. As th brain matures, more and more fibers grow and the brain becomes increasingly interconnected. These interconnected networks of neurons are very important to the formation of memories and the connection of new learning to previous learning.
The late elementary and middle school years
From late elementary school into middle school, inferential thinking becomes more emphasized in schools, while rote learning de-emphasized. This shift in focus is supported by the increased connectivity in the brain and by chemical changes in the neuronal pathway that support both short and long term memory. These chemical changes can continue for hours, days and even weeks after the initia learning takes place (Gazzaniga, Ivry, & Magnun, 2002). Learning becomes more consolidated, as it is stored in long-term memory.
