Thursday, January 30, 2014

"Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recovered at will."

Scientific community is finally catching up, to what every Parent KNEW!

This morning I woke up to an interesting link on my facebook account.  I must thank Dara! What she had posted is just another, in many, many articles about the human mind.  The title "Researchers study how babies think.  Click here http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/articles/2011/03/28/researchers_study_how_babies_think/?page=2

“Even something that looks like random, exploratory play can help children to learn and in some cases help them to learn better.’’ Alison Gopnik. 
This statement alone should turn the academic world back to re-research the curriculums presently in modern day school rooms.  Essentially, something most parents already know, our baby brains are capable of learning amazing amounts of information in a relatively short time.  Hence the everyday parental question; "When did he/she learn THAT?!!!!" and as they get older; "Who taught you that?!".  The reality is your baby is capable of making incredible inferences about their world faster that most adults CAN.    


When I was a baby, as I have been told, my mother would put me under the mulberry tree in the backyard in my playpen.  She be off working on cleaning her gardens, planting, hanging laundry, mowing the lawn.  She would periodically, look over at me, and say, "What are you singing about?" With the mind music research and the creation of Little Folk's Music, I might now have the ability to answer her question.  EVERYTHING!  
"It turns out that the baby brain actually contains more brain cells, or neurons, than the adult brain: The instant we open our eyes, our neurons start the "pruning process," which involves the elimination of seemingly unnecessary neural connections. Furthermore, the distinct parts of the baby cortex - the center of sensation and higher thought - are better connected than the adult cortex, with more links between disparate regions. These anatomical differences aren't simply a sign of immaturity: They're an important tool that provides babies with the ability to assimilate vast amounts of information with ease." 1
The infant mind is loaded with seemingly fleeting thoughts and stray sensations but these thoughts and sensations are a highly developed intellectual source. " I think she knows something and just can't tell me." 


I could continue with how the frontal cortex differs between infancy and adulthood but Little Folk's Music encourages the differences, for many reasons.  One being the mirror I hold up in front of my own face or in a class the child that reflects who I am or was.  


Although babies are born utterly helpless, within a few years they've mastered everything from language - a toddler learns 10 new words every day - to complex motor skills such as walking. According to this new view of the baby brain, many of the mental traits that used to seem like developmental shortcomings, such as infants' inability to focus their attention, are actually crucial assets in the learning process.  Gopnik argues that, in many respects, babies are more conscious than adults. She compares the experience of being a baby with that of watching a riveting movie, or being a tourist in a foreign city, where even the most mundane activities seem new and exciting. 
"For a baby, every day is like going to Paris for the first time," 


Little Folk's Music has always encouraged the alure of activities that ARE exciting and NEW maybe to you,,, mundane. ..  constant beats can change everything!  It's all perception.