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Training, Maturation, and Genetic Influences on the Development of Executive Attentio - OECD - 10-10-2005
PLOS Biology has just published an article on "Training, Maturation, and Genetic Influences on the Development of Executive Attention" which mentions our teach-the-brain website. If you would like to look at it, and if you have any comments on it, they would be welcome.
See: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/60/53/35467621.pdf
Training, Maturation, and Genetic Influences on the Development of Executive Attentio - Catherine - 10-10-2005
Fundamental Question:
Can we improve attention in preschool ages and can that be helpful?
I am the daughter of a lawyer and a cultural anthropologist. Emphasis on the value of education was always expressed in my childhood home – regularly.
When I had two children of my own, two years apart, they were born into poverty. But that did not deter me from providing them with any educational opportunity that I could think of or possibly afford.
Before they were born, I read aloud to them in the womb. I read from books like the History of Religion, and The Fundamentals of Logic. I recited addition and multiplication tables over and over to them, thinking that somehow they would pick up the rhythm and logic of mathematics from the patterns they were hearing.
When my children born, they were exposed to changing lights to strengthen their eyes, and to all types of music to enrich their minds and to build upon the mathematical foundation I was trying to give them. I exposed them to every foreign language I could get my hands on so they could hear the inflections, clicks, and sounds before our immediate environmental speech patterns were burned into their minds. All of this was done daily before they were 6 months old.
When they turned 6 months old, we started school. I read children’s books to them over and over again each day. I ran picture flash cards in front of them pointing to each picture and saying each identifying word as correctly as possible. I sat them in a high chair in front of Sesame Street and watched them absorb what was presented to them. I stood beside the TV and treated it like a book, pointing to items of interest as the program progressed. When their attention wandered from the screen, I brought their attention back by asking them questions about what was going on and pointing again to the focus point in the presentation. Each time we watched together they were able to focus a bit longer than the previous day.
When my children were 9 months old they were crawling to the book case and crawling back with the books they wanted me to read. We typically read 30 children’s books a day – some over and over again. At 9 months they were able to sit through a whole hour of Sesame Street without any assistance from me. They enjoyed it. They were glued to it.
Both children were reading long before kindergarten. By the time they entered school they were doing simple mathematics, they were able to write short letters, they were able to sit focused throughout an entire movie in a theatre without ever fidgeting, and most importantly they were able to apply intellectual knowledge they had been exposed to in books and film to the real world around them. When my daughter was barely 2 years old, she was being tested to see if she was anemic and she asked the nurse “Are you seeing if I have bad blood, just like Louis Pasteur?†The nurse was dumbfounded. My son at three observed the behavior of an odd stranger in the market, and commented “He’s a regular Quasi Motto!â€. I was dumbfounded.
Each child was met with challenges when they entered public school – but not the challenges experienced by most children. My children struggled to stay focused because school was a waste of time. It was an exercise in babysitting – not in learning. Poverty made it impossible to afford private school for our children, and public school failed each of my children miserably in their first two years of exposure. Fortunately, in our area there was a gifted program in the public schools that took in the top 2% across the district and funneled them all into one class for each grade from grade 2 through grade 5. Both children excelled in this program, but then they were mainstreamed back into regular public school after the 5th grade, and the uselessness of the public school system destroyed their momentum. They were made to re-learn things they already knew because it was in the curriculum. They were forced to write papers and turn in homework on subjects they already knew. Their free time was consumed with make-work assignments that wasted their time, frustrated them, and changed their attitudes about school.
You ask a fundamental question: “Can we improve attention in preschool ages and can that be helpful?†I have an answer for you. Yes, the attention span in children can be lengthened, and the ability for children to absorb, digest and apply knowledge can be enhanced through dedicated, repeated exposure to increasingly difficult subject matter. Yes, this can be done at a very young age – much younger than preschool.
As to whether or not that can be helpful, I have a different answer for you. Someone has to ask the fundamental question – will this be helpful in the environment that is provided to the child, or will we set the children up for failure later on if we enhance their ability to focus, be attentive, and absorb beyond what their environment affords them.
I was never interested in raising good children. The goal was to raise fine, self sufficient, aware individuals who would contribute to this world. My children are now 18 & 20. Although each of my children could have received full scholarships for college had they “applied†themselves in high school, they dropped out of mainstream school and went to alternative high school. One finally earned a diploma and the other passed the High School Equivalency exam. They met their High School obligations, but both refused to entertain any notion of continuing on to higher education.
Something has to be done in this country to better what we offer our children in school. Global economics is not going to revert to isolated capitalism anytime soon, and without adequate learning opportunities, our children are toast.
Best regards,
Catherine
Training, Maturation, and Genetic Influences on the Development of Executive Attentio - geodob - 11-10-2005
Hi Catherine,
I would suggest that the real problem is that generally schooling has yet to effectively teach to children as a 'group'?
Where teaching is essentially directed towards the mythical 'average student'?
With minor accommodations for the majority who are either side of 'average'?
What is needed, is an approach that effectively teaches to the group as individuals?
Which fully recognises and works with the complex variations of developmental stages within each student.
Expel the mythical average student?
Geoff.
Training, Maturation, and Genetic Influences on the Development of Executive Attentio - geodob - 11-10-2005
OECD Wrote:PLOS Biology has just published an article on "Training, Maturation, and Genetic Influences on the Development of Executive Attention" which mentions our teach-the-brain website. If you would like to look at it, and if you have any comments on it, they would be welcome.
See: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/60/53/35467621.pdf
Thanks for the article from PLOS Biology.
Whilst the study is concerned with Executive Attention.
I was particularly interested in the actual exercises used in the study.
Where the exercises were primarily based on the use of Visual working memory, and in turn visual-spatial skills, and importantly mental imaging skills.
Equally the effective working relationship with Proprioception and fine motor skills, with visual working memory.
I have a particular interest in the remedial effect of exercises which enhance these skills, which are in fact fundamental to most learning.
Literacy and Numeracy skills are 2 basic abilities that rely on these above-mentioned skills.
Though this study identifies the broader outcome of such exercises, in their effect on Executive Attention.
As an adjunct to the study, I would have liked to run a third parallel group, where the group used learning to 'Juggle' as an alternative to computer based exercises?
Though perhaps the value of juggling could be introduced into computer exercises, if both left and right handed mice/ joysticks were used.
Where crucially this would stimulate greater lateralization, left- right brain coordination.
I could mention 'foot-pads/mice' as well?
Anyway, thanks for the article!
Geoff.
Training, Maturation, and Genetic Influences on the Development of Executive Attentio - John Nicholson - 11-10-2005
Catherine
I read with interest your dedicated teaching approach; your children have been exposed to the most intensive personal pre school training program that I have ever heard off.
I also read the recommended report
"Training, Maturation, and Genetic Influences on the Development of Executive Attention"
My first observation is this, whatever happens to any child during its early years, the child accepts as normal behaviour, your children were lucky they had the most dedicated parent to teach them, what I describe as the teacher of most importance (mother) although you appear to be frustrated with their progress through the state system, there is little wonder they felt no further need for intensive education.
Very few children will leave university with the ability your children will already possess.
No normal education system would be able to take over your intensive preschool training and improve on it, only personal reading and hobbies would be available to relieve the boredom of school.
I have only just been able to use broadband, only just watched Howard Gardner speak on
Education, “we have to teach less to learn more” from a thread on this sight.
WE HAVE TO LOOK AT WHAT IS VITAL TO BE TAUGHT
Mathematic ability is vital in every subject in every child, where it is not directly utilized in the subject itself “Brain Bloom” (brain development) is as of as much importance in English or any language as reading itself is.
"Training, Maturation, and Genetic Influences on the Development of Executive Attention"
Nothing on earth develops the logical young brain more effectively then mathematics,
Nothing on earth develops the brain of a young child in mathematics then an abacus.
My three column written in words abacus and ten universal symbols, provide the multiple intelligences with the possibilities of universal mathematic ability without the presence of a professional teacher.
Once the basic mental arithmetic is automatically mentally conceived by any child, simple computer assisted teaching can be developed to take any interested pupil to the heights of mathematic knowledge them selves, very few of us will equal the ability of Archimedes
Who had little besides his abacus and his brain and a father with a mathematic bent.
Catherine you are an exceptional teacher but every human is geared to teach and learn daily, human existence depends on it.
GOOD BASIC SKILLS ABILITY ARE THE RIGHT OF EVERY CHILD BORN
WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO READ THERE IS A VAST AREA OF COMMON KNOWLEDGE DENIED.
WE ONLY NEED TO TEACH OUR CHILDREN TO TEACH THEMSELVES
But as the old farmer said to my father when he despaired of me, don’t worry Brearey when my son was twenty he was always telling me what to do, but now he has got to fifty, he is always asking me what to do.
John
http://www.abacusandalphabet.com/home.htm
Training, Maturation, and Genetic Influences on the Development of Executive Attentio - elpida - 11-10-2005
To Catherine:
I read your story ... the sequence you describe and your childrens' outcomes are truly tragic. Unfortunately, too, they are more prevalent than anyone in the educational system would care to admit.
I am both a special educator (early childhood special education) as well as the parent of two children adopted from Russia, who are on diametrically opposite ends of the cognitive processing and behavioral attribute spectra, and who fall outside of the range of students that public schools perceive they are addressing. After two incredibly frustrating years of trying to help the local school system understand the neurological differences/deficits (and therefore instructional needs) of our older son (now in third grade), we yanked him out and were fortunate to find a parochial school which, as a regular part of their practice, could provide the basic environment and instructional strategies that he needed. We are now going through the same thing with our daughter (1st grade), who for whatever reason (genetics? environment? who knows) learns very quickly and intuitively, and thrives on the "high" that learning gives her. She has channeled her boredom and frustration into passive/aggressive behaviors in the classroom, for which we have been called in by the teacher to respond. Either educators truly don't "get it," or they have become so jaded by the environment in which they work (the frog in water syndrome) that they have lost sight of their mission and have become totally unresponsive to the folks they are serving.
If you've got the time, there's a fairly good book, Shaking Up the Schoolhouse(2001), by Philip Schlechty, that discusses some of the sociological/demographic shifts in our society that have resulted in the methods and practices of our current educational system becoming obsolete. I question, however, whether the mass of our existing system is simply so large and engrained/vested in its ways to incorporate the paradigm shift that needs to be done in order to make a difference.
Another interesting book is An Elusive Science: The Troubling History of Educaiton Research (2000), by Ellen Condliffe Lagemann. This might be an interesting resource for those who are trying to bring a scientific (i.e. neurologically-based) approach to the education community.
From the "for what it's worth" department.
Vicki :-)
Training, Maturation, and Genetic Influences on the Development of Executive Attentio - jbriggs - 11-10-2005
I read the article on attention training with interest as I am a senior supervisor at Play Attention (http://www.playattention.com). We've been in this field since 1994 having adapted NASA technology that astronauts had used (still use) to increase attention.
We have been working in the field of education for over ten years. Play Attention is used in over 450 school systems in the US, thousands of homes, psychologist's offices, learning centers, etc. as a primary tool to train attention and increase cognitive performance. We must confirm that executive functioning can be increased significantly through cognitive computer exercises. It seems the only limitation is our imagination, i.e., our ability to create exercises specific to the needs of the deficit network. Since this training is distinctly operant conditioning, it is imperative that the exercises be directed to specific weaknesses in a particular network. It is also imperative to sedulously work to promote transfer and generalization.