...Identifying factors that influence critical periods Bombarded with sensory information, the developing brain works to sort relevant from irrelevant details as it begins to make sense of the world. It does so by forming new connections (or strengthening existing ones) between some cells and pruning the connections between others — a process termed synaptic plasticity. Increased plasticity is a hallmark of critical periods. As the brain ages, however, it becomes less “plastic,” or easily modifiable, marking the closure of critical periods. While this decrease in plasticity is a key step toward the maturation of communication networks in the nervous system, researchers realized it might be possible to reopen critical period windows to improve sensory development in people who experienced early sensory deprivation. http://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_key_brainFAQ The human brain begins forming very early in prenatal life (just three weeks after conception), but in many ways, brain development is a lifelong project. That is because the same events that shape the brain during development are also responsible for storing information—new skills and memories—throughout life. The major difference between brain development in a child versus learning an adult is a matter of degree: the brain is far more impressionable (neuroscientists use the term plastic) in early life than in maturity. This plasticity has both a positive and a negative side. On the positive...
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...However, recent developments in neuroscience have given way to a possible cause: Neuroplasticity, the structural and functional changes in the brain driven by training, experience, or even injury13. It implies that the brain does not cease developing, and continues to change throughout the entire lifetime. In context to the critical period, neuroplasticity is maximal in the first few years in a human's lifetime, with the average human having around 7500 synapses at birth, rapidly increasing in the next two years to around double the amount of an adult's synapses, then decreasing gradually due to apoptosis13. Neuroplasticity also is present after the first few years, albeit at a reduced condition. Thus, neuroplasticity had a great impact on the importance of learning during the first 3 years of child development. In addition to cognition, children also exhibit a greater capacity to recover from brain injury compared to adults13, which even Lenneberg's data on the damage to the areas of the brain involved in communication,...
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...Technology in the Critical Period Stimulating Cognitive & Emotional Development in Children. (n.d.). Retrieved May 9, 2015, http://childcarefinders.org/stimulating-cognitive-emotional-development-in-children.htm Decurtis, L. (n.d.). The ASHA Leader. Retrieved May 10, 2015, from http://www.asha.org/ Publications/leader/2011/110920/Toddlers-and-Technology.htm Definition of technology in English:. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2015, from http:// www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/technology Digital Story Helps Dual Language Learner Connect with Classmates | National Association for the Education of Young Children | NAEYC. (n.d.). Retrieved May 9, 2015, from http:// www.naeyc.org/technology/digital-story-helps-dual-language-learner Technology in the Critical Period Technology is defined as “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry”(Oxford). The use of technology over the previous century and especially over the past 10 years has grown tremendously. Companies including Microsoft and Apple have virtually made anything possible through the use of their gadgets. Speculation has arose over use of these, although technology has opened connections and opportunities that people would not have otherwise. Social connections are one of the most primary examples of the advantages that technology provides. Ages zero to about six is an extremely critical period for a child to develop essential motor skills...
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...Health Critical Review Abstract In this critical review, the newspaper article being reviewed is Infant mental health: Giving children the best head start, is described and summarized. The topic being discussed is infant mental health and how they should be receiving satisfactory care from their caregivers at an early age. Infant mental health can be defined as a field that studies the parent caregiver relationships and inner lives of infants. In agreement with this article, five scholarly academic sources arguments and findings are observed. This paper shows a critical review of infant mental health; the brain’s plasticity through a critical period and the importance of supportive infant-caregiver relationships that produce positive experiences for infants and further their developmental capabilities ultimately, helping them grow better. It also highlights the reality that the society as a whole is involved in providing better environmental influences for infants in order to supply them with a better future. Recommendations for future research and unanswered questions in infant mental health are made in response to the need of support of caregivers and the society. The news article, Infant mental health: Giving children the best head start, emphasizes the importance of the first 1000 days of an infant’s life (2015). Adulthood is shaped and impacted by our early experiences (D’alton, 2015). Professor Kevin Nugent is an expert of early child development, specifically...
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...Critical Period Hypothesis Early childhood development occurs in stages and may be influenced by the individuals’ environment. After reading “Critical-Period Hypothesis” by James V. McConnell (Understanding Behavior, Copyright 1974), it raised some questions in my mind regarding early childhood development such as how a young child’s speech develops, how they learn to walk and how they learn to use the bathroom. All three developments normally occur by a certain age. However in my experience I know that these developments can be delayed or not occur normally due to environmental obstacles. I have even seen cases in my personal experience that delays occurred due to emotional problems. In the Critical-Period Hypothesis, there is some debate as to whether humans can “catch up” if there is a delay in development. However, as the article states that by being born without strong innate behavior patterns (such as imprinting), we seem better able to adjust and survive, or “catch up”. It also mentions that children appear to have a tendency to imitate behaviors. I was an employee of New York State as a Developmental Aide for 20+ years. I worked with developmentally disabled children, and had extensive training on the cause and effects of mental retardation. I was amazed to learn that many of the patients had become “environmentally retarded”. I had always thought that someone with those types of disabilities must have been born that way. I was saddened to find...
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...UNIVERSIDAD DE BELGRANO FACULTAD DE LENGUAS Y ESTUDIOS EXTRANJEROS TRADUCTORADO PÚBLICO, LITERARIO Y CIENT. TEC. DE INGLÉS PROF. ALEJANDRO PARINI “PIDGINS, CREOLES AND THE CRITICAL PERIOD HYPOTHESIS” SAMANTHA VÁSQUEZ 7517 INTRODUCTION In this paper I am going to talk about pidgins and creoles from the point of view of language acquisition. Creolistics (short form for pidgin and creole linguistics) have provided some revealing and controversial insights into language evolution, acquisition and use; though disagreements exist over what languages or varieties can be labelled as 'creole' or as 'pidgin', and debate continues over the nature of creolization, the 'life cycle' of pidgins and creoles and the origin of grammatical structures in creoles which are absent in any preceding pidgin. PIDGIN LANGUAGES A pidgin language is a language which is based on another language or to be precise on several other languages. A pidgin language develops among people and becomes a means of communication among people who speak different native languages, but in contrast to normal natural languages a pidgin language shows a very poor grammar and a sharply curtailed vocabulary. The major ingredients of a pidgin language come from the native languages of the pidgin speakers. The language with the strongest influence on the pidgin is called the superstrate language and all other contributing languages are called the substrate...
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...accustomed to. In the case of Genie, research suggested that although some effects of privation were reversible; as she was observed forming attachments with her carers and the positive development of her social skills. It was unfortunately down to the prolonged negative cognitive effects of her privation, which ultimately ended any possibility of her resocialisation. Genie had missed the critical period according to the theory of attachment. This theory by John Bowlby a psychoanalyst, suggested that all children are born with an innate instinct to form attachments in order to survive. He believed that a child must form a monotropic relationship or else severe consequences in social development could occur. The result would be irreversible developmental problems in the form of reduced intelligence, aggression or depression. A flaw in Bowlby’s theory was the fact he didn’t recognise the differences between privation and deprivation. Treating both as an equal entity, adding doubt to his 44 thieves experiment (1944). Harry Harlow on the other hand recognised the difference between privation/deprivation. Harlow, contributed work to Bowlby’s theory, with his controversial research on rhesus monkeys. Harlow basically thought that the relationship with caregivers was an important role in a child’s development, which impacted on their normal functioning and relationships throughout their lives. During one of his experiments that involved removing the monkey from its mother at birth and...
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...Introduction Malnutrition as defined is the lack of a sufficient quantity or quality of nutrients to maintain the body system at some definable level of functioning. It has been estimated that 37-80 percent of all pre-school children in the developing countries like Philippines suffer from protein calorie malnutrition as assessed by the manifestation of syndromes, nutritional indexes, and weight deviations (Bengoa, 1974). Mild to moderate malnutrition, also called chronic under nutrition, is much more common than severe forms, and is often difficult to recognize. The severe forms are either due to insufficient protein and calories (marasmus) or to an acute protein loss or deprivation (kwashiorkor). At present, when increasing investment in our educational programs is being made to improve the performance of the schoolchildren however, to some extent this are being wasted. Children are not reaching their full intellectual potential consequently, predispose to school failure. In public elementary schools particularly the Kalibo Elementary School I, where malnutrition is prevalent among schoolchildren, it is observed that children has low attention-span, lack interest and decreased ability to focus on tasks, and restlessness. These likely to interfere with their learning ability and in this way resulted to their poor school performance. However, this has yet be proven, whether malnutrition impair the learning ability and school performance of schoolchildren. It is for this reason...
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...Life span Development paper LiveDream Susan Cohen PSY/375 06/22/15 Introduction The development of Infancy and Early Childhood is a combination of biological, psychological and emotional changes that are developed in an individual between the time of birth and to the end of adolescence. During this span of birth and early childhood the most critical stages of development are at work laying down the foundation that will affect the learning skills and social, cognitive and emotional development. Aspects that surround an individual during this very important time will either nurture or hinder their progress of development. The aspects that are detrimental to infancy and early childhood development are the environment of one’s family, cognitive development through early childhood education and parenting styles. Families Affect The Development of Infants And Young Children. “Families are the first to teach infants and young children, which fosters development during infancy and early childhood. Early relationships help infants develop a working model, a set of assumptions that become a frame of reference for later life” (Berger, 2011, p. 189). During infancy and early childhood the effects of the family environment is the most influential part of an individual’s development. The culture and environment of the family bring the infant experiences that that either nurture or set back their development. An infant that lives in an environment where he or she receives expectations...
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...know what she can do to help deliver a healthy baby and how to care for the newborn. Here are some advices and activities offered to a prenatal, postpartum, and future development of a child includes healthy foods, consumption of adequate water, exercise, medication awareness, and emotions. One of the important factors that will positively affect the developing fetus is nutritional habit of the mother. Nutritional status with consumption of healthy food is the driving force behind attaining a healthy baby. A prenatal and postpartum woman would be advised to cultivate the habit of consuming healthy food because malnutrition in early state of pregnancy can affect the embryo’s ability to survive and poor nutrition in latter half of the pregnancy can affect the growth of the fetus. As noted in the text also that “prenatal care reduces the incidence of low birthweight, which is associated with poor nutrition, multiple births, and drug use” (Berger, 2010 p. 71). Examples of food incudes low fat milk, pasta, fruits, cereals, rice, and vegetables. Energy is needed for the ability of pregnant woman to carry the fetus, care for the newborn, and the source of the energy is from calories consumed. According to American Pregnancy Association, good hydration is extremely important for a healthy pregnancy and postpartum period. During pregnancy blood volume will increase and water is necessary for this process. Also to create...
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...www.plymouth.ac.uk/learn learn@plymouth.ac.uk 01752 587676 8. Critical Thinking In this study guide: What is critical thinking? Structure: organising your thoughts and materials Generating critical thinking Critical questions – a linear model Description, analysis and evaluation Developing an argument For further information and the full range of study guides go to: http://www.learningdevelopment.plymouth.ac.uk What is critical thinking? This guide to critical thinking stresses the importance of asking and answering questions. In everyday life the term „critical‟ is often seen as negative or destructive. Being critical in academic life, however, does not mean questioning things randomly, or for the sake of „nit-picking‟. Instead, academic work aims to get as near as possible to the truth. Critical thinking in any subject or discipline is the way in which this is done, along with the more specialised applications of theory, the methods and techniques, which have been developed for the subject. Critical thinking then, is the attempt to ask and answer questions systematically. This means asking the most useful questions in the most productive sequence in order to yield a coherent and credible „story‟ So thinking critically means asking questions. Instead of accepting „at face value‟ what you read or hear, critical thinkers look for evidence and for good reasons before believing something to be true. This is at the heart of what it means to be a scientist, researcher...
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...“learner” to a “critical thinker” requires the doctoral student to ascertain an individual perspective of how best to obtain and synthesize knowledge for the purpose of creating new knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to determine how important developmental social networks (both academic and non-academic) and critical thinking are to new doctoral students. Weidman and Stein (2003) analyzed the effect of the social climate between students and faculty at academic departments on the overall development of professional identity among Ph.D. students. Baker and Lattuca (2003) analyzed developmental network theory and the theory of sociocultural perspectives on learning to theorize that an interdisciplinary approach of learning and socialization was the best model for promoting positive professional identity development. Visser, Visser and Schlosser (2003) examined the importance and impact of social networks in the development of critical thinking skills among students by contrasting distance learners with traditional classroom learners at the university level. Comparison of Research Questions In their studies, the authors tackle how doctoral students can best prepare for a doctoral education and how developing social relationships and networks within their chosen academic programs helps doctoral students with developing a professional academic identity. Visser et. al. (2003) analyzed the first part of that journey – the pre-doctoral program preparation period. In their study...
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...Perspective Paper Historically, the philosophy of human development has stemmed from the Biblical understanding of original sin, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s intimations of innate goodness, and John Locke’s postulation that we are born with a psychological blank slate (Boyd & Bee, 2006). However, in the 19th century the study of human development was given legs to its already well-defined frame in the form of the theory of evolution, as put forth by Charles Darwin. With the idea of evolutionary stages in place, G. Stanley Hall of Clark University was able to formulate his theory of norms, which hypothesize that human development can be segregated into identifiable phases, and Arnold Gesell was able to suggest his theory of maturation, which was largely dependent on genetic predisposition. From these beginnings the lifespan development perspective of human psychology has been largely concerned with the physiological, psychological, cultural, genetic, and environmental context of individual human development from conception to old age (Baltes & Staudinger, 1999; Boyd & Bee, 2006). Moreover, the lifespan perspective (LSP) of development can be put into context through the models of both human development domains and developmental periods, the major characteristics of LSP, and the contemporary concerns about LSP. Human Development Domains LSP is concerned with three separate, but principally overlapping, domains of human development: physical domain (ontogenesis), cognitive domain...
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...Critical Theory concerns conflicting logics- a social concern versus a language one. In the pathways of developments in theory, there are two diverging points- one, the obsession with language, communication systems and, two the focus on social construction. On one hand, Critical Theory of society emerged to deal with those aspects of social reality which Marx and his followers downplayed and neglected. It takes a specialized sense, describing the work of the Frankfurt School. On the other hand, it is concerned with the dominance of language to explain all phenomena. The term ‘Critical Theory’ was coined in 1930s. The concept of language and culture being linked has been discussed for a long period. However, in the twentieth century, Critical theory marks a linguistic turn; a whole new approach to language, literature and interpretation. During this period one witnessed the rise of an astonishing number of theories that used language as a basis for thinking about every kind of human experience. There were ‘new’ ways of looking at psychology, sexuality, philosophy, politics, technology— and, of course, literature. The major theories that spawned in critical theory ranged from formalism, structuralism, semiotics, psychoanalysis, and deconstruction, to the responses and critiques posed by race and gender theory, cultural studies, post colonialism, and new media. At the very crux of literary theory is language. Books are made of language; the question 20th century critical theory...
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...AFRICOM now sits in a prime position from which lasting results can be achieved. After four years of forging relationships and developing trust among its associated partners and working with leading Intergovernmental organizations (IGO) and Non-governmental organizations (NGO), AFRICOM should now adjust its approach to achieving security and stability by taking a new concentrated approach in terms of “One Nation One Year”. Security and stability are directly linked to development. Underdeveloped nations create safe haven areas where terrorist organizations can flourish which is a major concern as it directly has the potential to threaten United States national security and world prosperity. AFRICOM must remain proactive towards fostering the development of countries in Africa and continue to provide training to host nations’ military forces in order to meet the United States national security concerns. In order for AFRICOM to be successful in terms of establishing an environment that allows for development assistance, econ omic growth, and the establishment of security and...
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