Brain Talk

After hearing Carole Joy Seid speak on Saturday, I've been tooling around on the Internet looking at some of the sources she cited and basically making sure they all say what she claimed. That probably says a lot about me. Anyway, I read the first chapter of Jane M. Healy's Endangered Minds on the Internet today.

Healy is an educational psychologist and teacher who has written at length about current brain research. The book begins:

"Kids' brains must be different these days," I remarked half jokingly as I graded student essays in the faculty room late one afternoon.

"If I didn't think it was impossible, I would agree with you," chimed in a colleague who had experienced a particularly frustrating day with his English classes. "These kids are so sharp, but sometimes I think their minds are different from the ones I used to teach. I've had to change my teaching a lot recently, and I still wonder how much they're learning. But a human brain is a human brain. They don't change much from generation to generation — do they?"

"Changing brains?" mumbled a math teacher, putting on her coat. "Maybe that accounts for it."

And so began Healy's quest to discover if the brains of children are actually different today from those of years past. Absolutely fascinating reading.

Seid suggested at the home school seminar that television viewing actually causes brain damage. She said that research conducted by neurologists served as the catalyst for the American Academy of Pediatric's statement in 1999 recommending that children under 2 years of age not watch any television or videos.

In 1995 I attempted to write a paper for my communications class in college proving that television was detrimental to children, but I couldn't find enough research to support my theory. I ended up changing my paper to focus on the so-called "benefits" of educational television (I didn't believe a word of it, but I made the concession in order to write a well-researched and documented essay).

Since we've been married (eight years on October 7!), James and I have never owned a television. I've tried as much as possible not to expose Judah to television, and I refrained from showing him videos until his 2nd birthday. I knew about the moral implications, the attention-span connections, the tendency toward violent and aggresive behavior, etc., but I didn't make the brain "damage" connection until this week. I re-read the AAP warning and noticed their positive spin, which implies brain damage, but focuses on healthy brain development:

Here's the AAP recommendation:
Pediatricians should urge parents to avoid television viewing for children under the age of 2 years. Although certain television programs may be promoted to this age group, research on early brain development shows that babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other significant care givers (eg, child care providers) for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Therefore, exposing such young children to television programs should be discouraged.
(bold type mine--see the spin?)

Interestingly enough, a friend whose daughter participates in research at Vanderbilt e-mailed me with this yesterday:

"I got a pamphlet explaining the results of one of the experiments she was involved with. One day they came and showed her a video of someone playing with a toy, then came back the next day to see how she would play with it. (See if she would learn from the video how to use it.) Turns out that kids that watched the video (with repetition in it) understood how to play with it better than kids that didn't receive any instruction on the toys, but did not understand it as well as kids that watched a live person play with it only once. Interesting. Real-life, hands-on is a better teacher than watching something over and over on TV. I'm sure that doesn't surprise you."

This is exactly what Healy focuses on in the second chapter of her book. She says, "As we shall see in the next chapter, the power of children's brains can indeed be increased by good nutrition, adult companionship, and the stimulation of active play, toys, books, and games."

Basically, if you turn off media and spend time with your kids reading aloud (and don't stop when they learn to read--continue to read aloud even through high school), listening to them work out their ideas (let your little ones finish their sentences--don't interrupt them), showing them how to use paint or clay or instruments, taking them on walks, holding them and cuddling with them, feeding them nutritious fare (don't sweat it if they won't always eat what you're eating--and don't feed them junk just to get them to eat something--they'll eat the good stuff when they're hungry), teaching them to do all the stuff you do around the house and in the yard, and investing in them with your time and attention, your child will be well above average.

According to Healy, only 10% of Americans are reading 80% of the books. If you want your kids to be in the top 10%, turn off the TV and get into a good book. Oh, and don't worry about whether or not they're sitting down to read. Let them get up, move about, use their hands. As long as they're quiet, they're benefitting. And perhaps they will be among our nation's--and our world's--leaders.

I've been told by complete strangers on several different occasions that Judah is a mini Winston Churchill, that he's going to be a politician, that he's going to bring about great change. His middle name means, "one who enacts social change." Charles Stock prophesied over him before he was born, "Praise, proclamation, joy, and social change." When I think about Martin Luther King, Jr., I think of how eloquent he was. He put words to the great struggle for equality. If not for his great speeches, his letters, his life, where might we be?