Brain Research shows brilliance

By Amy Welch

Managing Editor, Florida State Times

"Parlez-vous Français?"

Dorothy Routh hopes that when anybody says that, your child will say "oui!"

Routh, FSU's director of the Center for Educational Enhancement and Development, has traveled across Florida since 1995 teaching 200 parents and educators about infant brain research released by neuroscientists two years ago.

Among many other findings, researchers now know that reading foreign-language books and playing classical music to young children will make them smarter when they're older.

Those activities actually make the neurons, or cells, in the brain connect in a more complex form than if the child were not exposed to them.

Sponsored by the Starting Steps Initiative, a national campaign on brain development in infants, Routh and her staff have trained parents, child care providers and government leaders (including Gov. Lawton Chiles) on the new research, and those trained have spread the word to at least 20,000 more people in the state.

The results of the research were fascinating to Routh, who discovered that infants are born with 100 billion neurons ready for complex brain activity, and can actually learn a lot more than scientists had ever thought before.

She found that the best time for the brain to take in and retain information is from the ages of zero to three; emotions develop between eight and 18 months; and consistently nurturing the child will enhance brain activity.

Gov. Chiles, who used most of the findings of the research in his State of the State address this year, is using the new findings to help state educators.

"We must greatly improve our education product," Chiles said in his State of the State address. "But in this quest for improving education, where do we start? Many would say first grade or kindergarten. Some would say pre-kindergarten. I submit to you the evidence is overwhelming. Education must start at gestation."

If an infant or young child frequently hears a foreign language, it will retain those sounds and will learn foreign languages faster than a child who did not.

"Neural pathways, like exercising any part of the body, if strengthened early in life, can be called upon later in life," Routh said.

But if the brain and senses are not nurtured in youth, children may have problems learning when they are older.

Routh said scientists have found that if ear infections in babies are not taken care of right away, they may block language development. If cataracts are not removed in an infant, the child will go blind because there is no brain activity in that area.

Through Position Emission Technology (PET) scans, neuroscientists can now look into the brains of infants and see where the activity is, Routh said. Before a couple of years ago scientists could never do that.

"Neuroscientists have found that the development of the cortex is very dependent upon a child's early experiences," Routh said. "Those early experiences really make or break a child's ability to learn when it is older."

Gov. Chiles and his staff are trying to use the research to change policy in Florida.

Mary Bryant, special assistant to the governor on children's issues, said public money for children is spent later than it should be.

"If we invested the money up front, like in good natal care, we'd see an improvement in other programs like juvenile justice," she said. "...Florida is the only state that has taken on brain training."

Now Routh and her staff will travel to states across the country to change the way parents and educators teach young children.

Their program continues through a grant from the Carnegie Foundation of New York.

"The good news is most parents and child-care providers are doing the right thing - nurturing the child and making it feel secure," Routh said. "Consistent care over a period of time is very important."

"Tout va bien," your child may say. "Je suis content parce que j´écoutais de la musique quand j'étais petit."

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