What’s Going On Inside a Child’s Brain Infographic

What’s Going On Inside a Child’s Brain Infographic

A child’s brain and an adult’s brain have entirely different priorities, but that doesn’t come as much of a surprise. How often do we find ourselves unable to relate to our children’s concerns simply because they don’t seem like concerns to us? The What’s Going On Inside a Child’s Brain Infographic shows what is really happening in a child’s head and how this differs from adults.

Children vs Adult Brains

A child’s brain has completely different priorities than an adults. Children think, behave, and learn differently. Meaning parenting and teaching can be a challenge. Below we see how different sections of the brain trigger behaviors in children and adults.

Most Active Areas in Children

• Brain stem: The brain stem is the part of a child’s brain that controls heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature.
• Midbrain: The midbrain stimulates “arousal,” appetite/ satiety and sleep.

Most Active Areas in Adults

• Limbic system: The limbic system controls sexual behavior, emotional reactivity and motor regulation.
• Cortex: The cortex is responsible for concrete thought, affiliation and attachment.

The Brain Basics

• Neurons:
  - Building blocks of the brain
  - Nerve cells that specialize to form brain sections
  - Communicate messages throughout the brain
• Synapse:
  - A connection between 2 neurons
  - Each Neuron has thousands of synapses
  - Creates connections between thousands of neurons.
• Myelin:
  - An insulating sheath that covers the length of mature neurons
  - Necessary for clear, efficient, electrical transmission
  - Increasing connection effectiveness by 3000x

Brain Development throughout Stages of Life

• Age 21
  - Drink Alcohol
• Age 18
  - Vote
• Age 16
  - Drive a car
• Age 14
  - Myelination begins in the Frontal Lobe (higher learning)
  - Reasoning, planning, emotions, and problem-solving skills significantly develop
• Age 11 into adulthood: “Use it or Lose it”
  - Pruning: deleting lesser-used synapse connections making other pathways more efficient
• 4 through 10
  - Children’s brains are more than twice as active as adult’s brains.
  - Of the body’s total O2 intake, the adult brain consumes 20%
  - A child’s brain consumes up to 50%
  - Age 8: “Logic” abilities start to form
• By Age 3
  - Brain already weighs nearly 90% of it’s future adult weight
  - Explicit (conscious memory) develops
  - Future capacities for learning, social interaction, and emotional abilities are already largely established
• Toddlers
  - Need introduction to a variety of experiences
  - Brain develops up to 2,000,000 synapses per second
  - Building the architecture for future functioning
• Newborns
  - Developing automatic functions, the 5 senses, and motion
  - Brain is 25% of its future adult weight
  - Implicit (or unconscious) memory allows recognition of mother and family
• Age 23
  - Pruning completes
  - Nearly half of the child’s synapses have been deleted
• Age 25
  - Myelination completes
  - The brain is finally fully matured
  - Insurance rates drop – Not a coincidence
• Beyond: Brain Composition
  - Continually changes as learning occurs throughout lifespan
  - No matter what your age, when it comes to brain functions, it’s literally “use ‘em or lose ‘em”