Thinking cap records electrical signals from the brain of one-year-old Elise Hardwick, who is helping scientists figure out how the youngest children process sounds that make up the building blocks of language.
Image: Photograph by Andrew Hetherington
In Brief
- The technology and research methods of the neuroscientist have started to reveal, at the most basic level, what happens in the brain when we learn something new.
- As these studies mature, it may become possible for a preschooler or even an infant to engage in simple exercises to ensure that the child is cognitively equipped for school.
- If successful, such interventions could potentially have a huge effect on educational practices by dramatically reducing the incidence of various learning disabilities.
- Scientists, educators and parents must also beware overstated claims for brain-training methods that purport to help youngsters but have not been proved to work.
More In This Article
Eight-month-old Lucas Kronmiller has just had the surface of his largely hairless head fitted with a cap of 128 electrodes. A research assistant in front of him is frantically blowing bubbles to entertain him. But Lucas seems calm and content. He has, after all, come here, to the Infancy Studies Laboratory at Rutgers University, repeatedly since he was just four months old, so today is nothing unusual. He—like more than 1,000 other youngsters over the past 15 years—is helping April A. Benasich and her colleagues to find out whether, even at the earliest age, it is possible to ascertain if a child will go on to experience difficulties in language that will prove a burdensome handicap when first entering elementary school.
Benasich is one of a cadre of researchers employing brain-recording techniques to understand the essential processes that underlie learning. The new science of neuroeducation seeks the answers to questions that have always perplexed cognitive psychologists and pedagogues.
This article was originally published with the title How to Build a Better Learner.
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3 Comments
Add CommentWhen I was a child I was often offended by being treated like I was stupid; adults would patronise me & act like I was less conscious than I was (& adults at large still do that with children). It hurt my feelings... just thought I'd share that so it might happen less.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat's true. Being quiet doesn't necessarily mean stupid or slow. Some need time to develop and above all simple playing possibilities. The idea of training smart kids seems like preasure. What you want to achieve is curiosity and courage to try and this is much harder to achieve because it needs the right balance. I wonder if this also means more variation in teaching materials and educational models. The emphasis on reading and not on experience has already created a disbalance in education for many children for which books are not the most appropriate way to learn.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article is an embarassment to the magazine.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's useless; it doesn't say anything.
"Might", "may", "could",...nearly every statement is qualified, since there are no hard facts to report. I presume the names are right, and there's some kind of facility in NJ, but the rest is supposition.
I'm disgusted. You know better.
Somebody owed a big favor? Is this about the author's girlfriend?