Reading Teaching the brain: The new science of Education

When we went to the Yolanda phonics course, she talked about a few books that might be helpful to understand how children develop phonological awareness and learnt to read and write. One of the books that she talked about was called 'Teaching the brain'.

Here are some notes about what I have learnt from reading the book.

Function of the brain

Left hemisphere of the brain: learning process including reading, writing, maths, and spelling. 

Brain weighs about 1.5kgs, there are about 80-120 neuron cells.  

Frontal lobes: muscle movement including production of speech, and output. Planning, reasoning, judgement, impulse control and memory. Long term memory -emotional links. Reward, attention, planning and motivation.

Parietal lobe: sensory systems, movement and space. Visual objects in space.

Temporal lobes: hearing, both speech and auditory signals. Comprehension and naming. Visual recognition making up part of a 'what' stream. Face and word recognition. Converting short term memory into long term memory. 

Occipital lobes: Visual processing

Cerebellum: motor control-timing, and sensory systems-spinal cord, cognitive processing (language and attention) 

The speaking brain 

Infants use the left side temporal region when they listen to speech whereas both sides are activated when listening to music. Mother's voice enhances the activity. -mother's voice is very important to develop a child's language acquisition. 

Three processes-phonology (Sound), meaning (semantic), syntax(structure). 

Small unit of sound is called a phoneme.  

Bilingualism: selection of correct language for use-develop great focus and resistant for distractions. 

Use daily opportunities with an infant to speak, and communicate. Always let the baby know what you are going to do before physically move the baby. Wait for the response from the baby. 

Singing songs, rhymes are important for language learning. Action songs- clapping, pat knees, stamp feet.