JoAnn Deak – How the latest Information in Brain Research Informs Us On Best Practices In Teaching and Parenting.
(*NB: All facts and figures per JoAnn Deak. Author does not have access to information sources.)
Reflection by Chantal Ferrini (Sienna’s mom, EW)
Last week WNS, co-sponsored with Wildwood School, hosted an audience with JoAnn Deak, the author of “Your Fantastic Elastic Brain”, “How Girls Thrive” and “Girls will be Girls”. She gave the most compelling and engaging talk that left me exiting the hall feeling empowered as the “neuro sculptor” for my children.
JoAnn, a most personable character, introduced us to the different parts of the brain, their varying functions and the time windows of opportunities to maximize the potential of each of them.
As with other muscles in the human body, every person is different and is born with a brain made up compartments of differing sizes and maximum potentials. To simplify the biology, JoAnn referred to these different areas as a collection of rubber bands – parts that allow us to see, recognize, feel, receive and process language, hear etc. And obviously, the more you use each part, the more elasticity there is for maximizing intellect and potential. This is how I too will refer to them.
JoAnn first talked about the language centers of the brain of which there are two, on each side. She said girls have both active left and right sides of the brain, whereas boys just the right. JoAnn went on to reveal that she had spent time with the WNS children the day prior and had asked them a series of questions. Parents in the room were asked to share feedback from their children replaying their conversations with JoAnn. We were given the caveat that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of the brain is half the size as a child compared to a full grown adult and as a result what is said is not always what they hear. Sound familiar….?
An example given, one parent said, “my daughter said all you talked to her about was sex!” In reality, JoAnn had spent maybe 30 seconds on telling the girl that the female face is 4 x’s more sensitive than a male and that a kiss would be felt that much more!
Another parent said, “My child said that you advised that we should have assigned seating during lunch”. JoAnn’s response – in fact – we should have assigned seating throughout the day that should be switched up every few days. This way, children get to use the “rubber bands” within the brain that allow us to read, know and increase our acceptance of different types of folks and cultures – and at 4/5 yrs we already know whom we like and whom we want to spend time with. A notable life-skill, which allows us to read and adjust ourselves in the world. Having such an exposure to lots of different people, allows our children to know how to deal with the “Chantal’s of the world” and their “rubber bands” of dealing with them increases. If we wait until adolescence, it is harder to change the elasticity of the band. This is based on the latest research conducted on changing the brain for learning.
With reference to teaching, JoAnn told us that keeping children engaged in learning is of upmost priority. (The Amygdala is a tightly packed group of cells deep within the center of the brain that controls our emotions.) It only takes a child to be bored for longer than 2-3 consecutive minutes to manifest into potential learning disabilities. 80% of public schools report boredom in adolescence.
JoAnn went on to describe the most opportune windows of learning for children. These are broken down into 2 vital segments. Birth – 10 yrs. and then 10-20 yrs. old.
Birth to 10 yrs. indicates the highest level of neuro sensitivity. Within this, between birth to 3 yrs. if we hear a native language uninterrupted, then our language development in the long term is maximized to its fullest potential for that individual. Whereas, if language is interrupted, language aquisition is slowed.
Between birth – 5 yrs., the areas of input into our brain need the most stretching. All of which need to be stretched equally to enable a “well-rounded child.” However, our generation receives 47% visual input. Turn off the TV! Get books on tape! Read! Talk! For the next 5 yrs. that is what we need to do as parents to expand the input, to maximize the processing and application within the brain.
JoAnn touched on how learning should be approached like a series of building blocks. Listening, talking and problem solving is all naturally occurring within the brain, we have areas that can understand them. Reading, writing, Latin and soccer for example, are where the brain needs to use artificial blocks. And for Math there is no brain blocks – we have to use a combination of about 10 different areas to be effective.
We want the “bands” to work individually until they are developmentally ready – so block building is key for our children! Based on this, we do not want our children to specialize in anything before college level (20yrs) because we do not know what their brain is capable of doing. So the more different subjects (without adding stress, the Chantal’s of the world add) the better!
Next up – you don’t get to choose what parts of your brain you have – visual or audio. Less than 50% of the brain recognizes phonetics.
JoAnn then talked about learning environments. The best ones for our children being ones that have a community and core philosophy that allows and accepts children taking risks, making mistakes and learning from all of it. The “ACC” is the part of the brain that becomes active when we make mistakes. It is kind of our survival mode and is a learning enhancer from species past.
We were then shown a video of a 6-week-old girl and 6-week-old boy, where all things were equal for an experiment. Each child was sat upright in front of a screen, where a piece of string was placed in their right hand and every time they pulled the string, the image on the screen changed. Both kids figured out the connection after a set time, then the string was unplugged and the pulling motion no longer changed the screen image. Interestingly, the girl stopped straight away once the string was unplugged and started to cry. The boy, however, pulled again and again. Harder with one hand, then with both hands and then a leg on top of both hands…..if one keeps trying, one creates and employs more methods of attaining the goal.
As a side note, JoAnn then added another example; Eskimos know 80 gradations of white. The average American female 6-8 and the average male 3-5.
JoAnn then went on to talk about the way teachers are teaching in schools today. In our schooling days, memorization was the best tool to take in huge amounts of information, usually crammed in the days before a test and then spit it out for the test and then what happens? Most of us would admit that the bulk of it would be forgotten. Nowadays however, we need to have more social and emotional life skills rather than just academia alone. We don’t need to know when the war of 1850 started but instead, what led up to it, what the motivations and strategies of the people were….
China is a great example of dramatically changing their education systems to harness this thinking, focusing much needed resource in order to do this effectively. In the US, public schools are doing the opposite.
The “ACC” (to reiterate is the part that recognizes mistakes in the brain) is connected to the Amygdala (which is the learning detail. I talked earlier about how girls have both left and right functionality and boys just the right hand side). As a result, girls feel more fear, anxiety, and depression and have a greater attention to detail. Boys feel more frustration and exhilaration.
Should we pose the request to both boys and girls – “Repel down that 400ft cliff.” A girl’s response would be to think through the detail…. “What if I fall, I wont be able to walk, how will I function easily and independently in a wheelchair?…..NO!” A boy’s likely thought process and action response would be: “SWEEEEEEEET!”
JoAnn then said she wanted to do therapy with using a dog as a support for children. In order to do this, as a team, JoAnn and the dog would have to pass a series of high-level obedience tests together. What should she do, get a male or a bitch Labrador, she posed to the audience? Most people confidently raised their hand to signify a girl dog…based on the above materials that she would be more sensitive and a quicker learner. But, JoAnn pointed out, the opposite is true. Because when a bitch is corrected, her sensitivity results in pouting. And when a male dog is corrected, he would think; “OK, what next…??”
We then build on that to talk about “risk taking”. How it increases our children’s ability to be better prepare for problem solving, increasing their level of intelligence and therefore resilience.
Our resilience is also linked to our temperament, which is fueled by the inner part of the brain, surrounded by the bands of learning. On each end of the resilience continuum are “ducks” whom are not bothered by much (water rolling off a duck’s back) to way over on the other side of the scale, the “warriors” (if they feel wind, for example, it’s going to be a category 8 hurricane on the horizon….help!). Ducks need to build resilience and warriors, sensitivity. Which one are you?!
As parents, the best way to enable the stretching of the “resilience” band, when developmentally appropriate, is to let them struggle and have the space to fall. In summary, we want our children to “hug the monster” – don’t allow them to just do or learn what they are good at / interested in. Let them struggle. Doing things that they do not want to do outfits the brain nicely for the first 20 yrs. of life.
This band is a hard one to change – where ducks never become warriors and visa versa. Coddling or “titer totter” parenting is the worst thing that we can do for our children.
How about teaching things that children don’t want to do? Without making them feel like idiots or fearful? We take the lead. We do not allow for trauma. We do not set them up for failure. I will give being a kid’s swim coach as an example. You build trust, talk to them constantly, and tell them that you will not let anything bad happen. Gradually, sensitively and empathetically you take the lead with words of recognition of their actions and improvements.
We then transitioned into hearing about “sympathy” and “empathy”. Our generation of children is seeing the LEAST amount of both, ever in history! Gulp! After the age of 10 yrs., if you do not have a grasp of these, then it will be hard to integrate into your persona.
Next up, JoAnn talked about the “RTPJ”. A part of the brain, which is just above the right ear. This band helps you to understand others. It starts to grow if you see a reaction to an action, one that is meaningful and attached to an emotion. For example, for a biting child to understand his action, he needs to see and understand the reaction of the child being bitten. (Ref: Ted.com Rebecca Saxe).
With our children growing up in a strong social networking / Avatar age, research shows that children are doing things without connection and therefore without remorse. An example that was given, one kid uploaded a movie of a gay boy having sex, which ultimately resulted in him jumping off the George Washington Bridge due to the amount of attention and downloads it generated. (Ref: formspring.net) So, this research shows that such social networking children are not dealing with social consequence.
Children of today are also using these networks to make decisions, from texting: ‘what color socks should I wear today?’ Yes, really.
The best thing we can do as parents is to take cell phones away, unplug routers at bedtime. Most activity of this nature happens between 12 mid-night and 6am. So if we take away the stress of social networking, kids are given permission to build their compassion levels, so allowing for their intelligence levels to also increase.
JoAnn then began to summarize her key points:
Is there too much stress in our children’s formative years?
Schools need to take the stress of hours of homework away, family groups need to moderate the modules of stress they can handle and most importantly we need to spend MORE time with our children. We need to spend more time getting them ready for the day to set the tone for the day. The quantity of time that we spend has a massive impact on our children’s growing brains. It builds resilience for them.
As parents, we need to find a school that has a social savvy climate, because if you pay the price in the culture then your child is not going to want to make a mistake and so not stretch his bands.
Ideally, by the age of 10 yrs, your children should have a passion. A north star. So, in times of trouble, they can go to their north star (eg: playing the piano). However, to reiterate, if they spend all their time going to that one thing, other bands are not going to stretch to their full potential.
Ultimately, as parents, we are the “neuro sculptors” of our children. Take it seriously. Keep up with the research!
JoAnn extended an invitation to the audience to email her, should they want any additional information.
Dr. JoAnn Deak 1329 B Lake Shore Dr. Columbus, OH 43204 330.701.7945