Potential Effects of Lower Brain Development on Academic Performance

http://images.medicaldaily.com

The academic setting is demanding in many ways.  A child's performance expectations are high and they seem to be continually rising each year.  School curriculum is written with the expectation that each child's brain is fully developed.  However, this is not always the case.  At times,the demands may outweigh a child's developmental capabilities, causing them to struggle within the classroom. 

There are so many areas of our brain functioning at once during any given moment.  Ultimately, the goal is to be able to achieve higher functioning tasks while also completing more automatic tasks (example: standing still without falling over while talking to someone).  In an underdeveloped brain, multi-tasking may be very difficult.  If the brain was already busy working hard at another job, then it has to "drop what it was doing" to come help out with the new challenge.  

Imagine if you were trying to load the dishwasher and your child bumped his elbow.  He is crying and requires your full attention to put a bandaid on his wound, give him a hug, and comfort him.  Meanwhile, the dishwasher has not loaded itself and all of the dirty dishes remain where you left them.  An underdeveloped brain can resemble this scenario.  A child who is focusing really hard on sitting still in her desk and then gets called on in class, now has to divert her attention to answering the question and she may slouch or lean over in her chair.  This change in posture may lead the teacher to believe that the student is "lazy" or "disinterested" when really it is just her brain's way of compensating. 

I have been completing an online course as part of my professional rotation which looks at some of the possible physical explanations for why it may be difficulty for some children to pay attention in the classroom.  Attributes of decreased attention may include retained primitive reflexes, incomplete pons and midbrain development (lower centers of the brain), or poor sensory processing.  Some children may have underdevelopment in multiple areas of the brain, making it difficulty for them to respond appropriately when you ask them to "pay attention".  Tasks that require bilateral coordination, fine motor control, visual motor integration, visual perception, visual tracking, eye teaming, proprioception, and vestibular processing may be difficult if the lower brain is not fully developed.  Within an academic setting, deficits in these areas can impact handwriting, pencil grasp, reading, attention, gross motor skills, and much more.  

This video from Brain Highways provides teachers with student feedback regarding individual brain processing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTMLzXzgB_s

For more information related to the Brain Highways online program, please visit www.brainhighways.com. 

Stay tuned to this blog for more specific information regarding the Brain Highways screener and what detected deficits may tell us about areas of academic difficulty.