The First Seven Years
Children’s brains can uniquely absorb information during this critical phase.
If intelligence is defined as the ability to learn, children between the ages of 2 and 7 may be the most intelligent humans on the planet.
0 - 1 Years
At birth, the average baby’s brain is about a quarter of the size of the average adult brain. Incredibly, it doubles in size in the first year to about 50% of adult size.
- At birth, the brain has 200 billion neurons.
- The brain grows 1.7 grams a day during baby's first year.
- More than 1 million connections are formed every second in a baby's growing brain.
1 - 2 Years
As litte ones get bigger they soak up everything that’s going on around them as they lay the foundation of who they will become.
- Between 1 and 2 children start to tell simple stories.
- At age 2 children can complete sentences and rhymes in familiar books.
- Children in this age group will begin to show that they understand the concepts of right and wrong.
2 - 5 Years
Most children at this age are beginning to become more independent and self-confident. They play with their toys for longer, are eager to try new things, and are better able to express their emotions.
- They share and take turns, at least most of the time, and understand rules of games.
- They get the difference between make-believe and reality.
- By now children also understand everyday things like food and money.
5 - 7 Years
Around the age of seven, give or take a year, children enter a developmental phase known as the age of reason.
It’s the time when a child starts to truly grasp the difference between right and wrong, and begins to realize that other people have their own feelings that might not match theirs.
- Seven year olds become more sophisticated in handling their feelings and attach more words to those feelings.
- Begin to understand concepts of the life cycle like yesterday, today, and tomorrow .. life and death.
- They begin to reason and argue.
“Your children’s genes reflect only their potential, not their destiny. It is up to you to provide the environment that allows them to develop to their highest potential.”
Bruce H. Lipton
"Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man"
Aristotle
Aristotle said, “Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man.”
The first years are the most important in life of every child as they set the basis for overall success in life. The fact that children are affected by their surroundings is too obvious to bear repeating. There’s no doubt genes are important. Genes are the blueprint of life. However, environmental stimuli (nurture) are just as important.
These early years are the best opportunity for a child’s brain to develop important, higher-level abilities like motivation, self-regulation, problem solving and communication. These abilities are formed in these early years – or not formed. It’s much harder for these essential brain connections to be formed later in life.
A child’s relationships with the adults in their life are the most important influences on their brain development. Loving relationships with responsive, dependable adults are essential to a child’s healthy development. These relationships begin at home, with parents and family, but also include child care providers, teachers and other members of the community.
