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So What Do We Do Now...

Use rhythm, rhyme and music......Remember Mickey Mouse.

Encourage children to use language (talking out loud increases cognition by 50%).

Understand the brain can only consciously process one train of thought at a time. A child cannot focus on meaning and sounding out a word at the same time.

Give children books with rhythm, rhyme and repetition. Read those books over and over again.

Understand that emotion and cognition cannot be separated.

Encourage children to use language and movement to increase learning by 90%.

Know that we are either growing dendrites or killing them, depending on our environment:

Stressful environments can double the damage - as opposed to the gains made in an enriched environment.

The best environment is "in the wild," a natural play environment that is relatively stress free.

Chronic stress destroys memory cells and shuts down the immune system. Children need a non-threatening environment for learning.

A child cannot understand anything unless it is linked to something they already know. Experience is not the best teacher, it is the only teacher!

The brain is not a rational brain - it is an emotional brain. If something doesn't speak to the child emotionally, the child's brain ignores it.

The child must physically interact in order to understand something.

Encourage visual-spatial activities that involve touching, feeling, holding or exploring objects or getting the feel of one's body in space - encourage spinning!

Base curriculum on active exploration and investigation.

Let children repeat activities over and over and over again.

Support learning - don't control it. Follow the children's leads.

Play a variety of music ... don't forget Mozart.

Communicate with children.

Let children get messy.

Let children see, touch, smell, hear and taste.

Support problem solving - stop rescuing children.

Encourage new challenges and then stay out of the way.