Today many parents and teachers pretend to know more than they really know. Socrates, however, easily admitted his ignorance. In fact, the recognition of this nognition is what distinguishes him from other thinkers: S that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing Recognizing that we don't know anything about the brain is the first step to start learning what happens. By Koncha Pinos-Pey for MIMIND Space.
A life without examining, it is not worth being lived . Socrates
Four words can revolutionize the current way we see and help neurodiverse children: the brain can change. This is a powerful statement with great implications.
Only two decades ago, scientists were convinced that the brain did not change; but thanks to the new PET technology ( Positron Emission Tomography) the opposite was demonstrated. With the same certainty that we know that the sun rises every day, we now know that the brain has the capacity to change, to grow and to organize again. This phenomenon is called neuroplasticity .
But what does that mean for a family with an autistic child, with ADD, dyslexia or any other diagnosis? Well, these children do not have to spend their entire lives in a special education classroom. It means that it is possible to inhibit retained primitive reflexes and complete lower brain development, even if these neural networks have not been established during the first year of life. It means that it is possible to experience a completely different life, once the brain is organized and functioning in another way.
In simple words, our way of acting, thinking, feeling or being is not necessarily a reflection of what we are meant to be. Because what we are is not determined, nor finished. We are a process under construction . In fact, it could only be an indicator of how our brain is currently connected. Our synapses and conectomas can change.
We know that the organization of the brain in the first year of life sets the stage for the entire future design of brain development. If babies are placed face down for most of that time, the brain has a better chance of making key neuronal connections. This anticipation network forms an important basis on which the brain continues to develop and organize efficiently.
What happens if that development is incomplete? Well, the child continues to receive information, but without many of the basic brain functions related to early development. This later becomes a problem because such functions are meant to be automatic every time the child interacts with others, writes, reads, performs processes and does everything else in his life.
In addition, as these basic functions are important and related to survival, the upper centers of the brain or neocortex try to find compensatory forms of the missing functions. Could that be the cause of chaos? Suppose someone asks us to do the work of another - and that we are not trained to do so - while also waiting for us to continue doing our good. What can happen? Surely, we will not succeed in our work and that there will also be a decrease in overall performance. We have suddenly become incompetent. Not only are we being torn apart by the trauma of being useless, but we can no longer do what we were doing. This is what happens to a child who is trying to function with a neocortex that tries to replace the functions of an incomplete early brain development.
The error of "not trying hard enough"
Is there still someone who doubts the connection between the behavior and the incomplete development of the lower centers of the brain? When a child does not get enough, it seems that it is because he "does not try hard enough." However, nothing could be further from the truth; is that early brain development is not complete. That means that those children are most likely “working harder” than the rest. This is why parents and teachers would have to know something about neuroplasticity.
If given the opportunity, the brain of these children is able to finish what early development could not. Even, as it is intelligent, it will form new alternative routes or synapses, if necessary. It is possible to organize the brain at any age to function efficiently. And once the brain is organized, a spectrum of possibilities shines in the mind. What was previously impossible, is now brilliant.
It is very difficult to convince parents and teachers that the brain can really change, and even think about the possibility of "a different intelligence for their child." Many have already lost all hope, and they only have "the diagnosis." Disappointed and sad they come to us and say: “We no longer know what to do. "Well, do nothing, " I tell them.
So we find a defensive attitude, nothing open, old, that does not help the child. We can affirm and document in our research on neuroplasticity that people with supposed “learning disabilities” could change their brain.
I invite parents and teachers not to remain in ignorance or darkness anymore. May they be able to pick up the books again and study how to apply this brain phenomenon to their child's happiness. Isn't it great that a child “with special needs” can show his family and his teachers that his brain can change and live fully?
The brain can change
