Understanding Our Child’s Mind and Brain from Birth through the First Years of Life






    

Create your parent-digm shift.

All site content and photographs are copyrighted material. Copyright 2009 Lu Hanessian. All rights reserved. Photos by Lisa Trakis for WYSH, LLC. No part of this site may be reproduced without prior written permission from Lu Hanessian.

BRAIN DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN

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There are more than a trillion neurons in a baby’s brain just before birth. In the months and first few years after birth, parents and caregivers have an extraordinary opportunity to promote the growth of a child’s brain through touch, movement and attuned relationship. Holding, responding, rocking and practicing empathy with our baby have very real, scientifically-proven effects on the development of our child’s brain and nervous system, as well as a child’s growing psychological sense of trust, self and security. The mid prefrontal cortex (a fancy phrase for the stuff behind your forehead) is an astounding place. When psychiatrist and brain scientist Dr. Dan Siegel talks about creating an” integrated” mind in his books The Developing Mind, Parenting from the Inside Out and Mindsight, he refers to 9 amazing functions of this area of the brain. If we know that attunement and empathy promote brain growth (what Dr. Siegel calls integration), we can use this crucial information to inform and guide our parenting, and dismantle the myths of spoiling and early independence. In this tele-class, we discover what happens in our child’s brain when we hold and soothe, respond and cultivate attuned communication (or don’t), and how we can promote healthy attachment as we actually shape the brain for optimal health and resilience.

Illustration by Tanya Leonello

Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.

Insight Intuition Morality Empathy Attunement Body regulation Emotional balance Ability to mitigate fear Ability to reflect before reacting
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