Human brain grows rapidly before birth and throughout infancy. The two years old child’s brain is already 75 %of what it will be in adulthood, and the 6 years old child’s brain is 90% of adult weight. In this case most of the brain is present and functioning by the age of six. Then the question is what remains to develop?
Information processing and memory building is one of the main developmental actions that happens throughout our lives. Memory is the ability by which the mind stores and remembers information.
Memory is fragile in early years of life and improves with age. It needs revision, review, practice. Most adults rarely remember things that happened before they were three year old. That doesn’t mean memory is absent, the fact is memory fades with time. At the same time, if an adult sees a picture of his young age with his friends he probably will remember the friend’s name. Certain amount of brain maturation is required in order to process and recall. More we practice and recall, the brain will retain more information and memory will increase.
Memories are more apparent with motivation and strong emotion. People remember things associated with achievements, awards, presents as well as surprises, love, happy moments, sadness. That is why it is important to motivate the child while repetition.
Memories are formed and strengthened by repetition. That is why it is important at a young age to repeat actions, words, sounds, visuals again and again to develop a meaningful skill. Along with repetition, maturity of the brain and body is also important.
Both sides of the brain are usually involved in every skill, as children grow their connections of the two sides of the brain become stronger, and result is mastery in the skill. For example- Most of the balancing acts are much more achievable with age. It might be difficult for a 2 or 3 year child to hop on one foot, but for the six year old child it is not challenging. That is why school approaches age appropriate curriculum.
Young children show development of gross motor skills faster. Mastery of the fine motor skills results with the maturation of the brain and also from wide-ranging active play. Fine motor skills are harder to master than gross motor skills. That is why making certain sounds, writing skills, whistling, and winking are difficult at a young age.
Many fine motor skills involve two hands and thus the child uses both sides of the brain. Some of the simple examples of fine motor skills activities in young children are pouring a juice in a cup, cutting the food with a knife, art activities more than scribbling and most importantly writing. When children write make sure one hand steadies the paper while the other writes.
Traditional academic learning depends on fine motor skills and body control. Writing requires finger control, coloring and reading requires eye control.
Many studies find that fine motor skills correlate with later school performance. Fine motor skills can also be the result of motivation and practice.
Practice and repetition builds muscle memory. Muscle memory is the ability to reproduce a particular movement without conscious thought, acquired.
To enhance physical performance and skill retention, consider the benefits of muscle memory:
· Improved Skill Retention: Muscle memory allows skills to be performed automatically, reducing the need for conscious thought.
· Faster Learning Curve: Repeated practice leads to quicker achievement of new skills.
· Increased Efficiency: Movements become smoother and more coordinated, enhancing overall performance.
· Reduced Fatigue: Familiarity with movements decreases energy expenditure during performance.
· Enhanced Precision: Muscle memory improves accuracy in tasks requiring fine motor skills.
· Long-lasting Skills: Once established, muscle memory can retain skills for extended periods, even with infrequent practice.
This concludes why repetitions are important. Providing young children with many activities with eye hand coordination will improve the brain development and repetition will build the skill.
Prism Learning 