Neurodevelopment is the term used to describe how the human brain develops. It begins to form a lot of neurological pathways, and these pathways ultimately influence behaviour through the way they function. While a lot of this is largely genetic, there is also a lot of environmental influences that are going to act upon a human brain as it’s developing, which could end up causing a lot of good or a lot of harm.
In the early stages of fetal development, called embryonic development, the brain is built by genes, and they determine the formation and organization of all of the brain’s circuits. After birth, the way a child lives in the world is going to have a large influence on how the brain develops. This is why many parents choose child care to help their children develop well. However, most of the developing changes a lot after five years of age. Here’s what happens.
How the Brain Changes After 5 Years Old
A Brain on Its Own
For around the first three years of a child’s life, the brain is very busy. It’s busy developing the fundamental voluntary motor skills necessary for most humans, like walking, using their hands properly, using the bathroom, eating solid food, and talking. After five, however, the brain develops a lot more autonomy. The basic voluntary functions are pretty much mastered, and it’s on to learning and developing in new ways. Parents can attest to this fact, once their children hit about four years old and they’re too fast to keep up with! They have mastered this, now on to bigger and better stages. In a sense, the “child” is left behind, neurologically speaking.
Speech Improves
The next major change that takes place after five years of after-birth age (or around 70 months since embryonic stage development) is that a child’s vocabulary is going to greatly expand. They start speaking more because they start actually understanding what words mean. It’s not that they couldn’t ape and mimic the sounds before that age; it’s that they had no context as to what the words meant. They were only sounds to your child at that point. Now that your child knows what the words mean, he or she will start developing thousands of different words they can say with ease.
Formal Thinking Occurs
Your child will also start to develop formal thinking. You can think of this as rationalizing what’s going on. When your child was still a baby, and you left his or her presence, they may have cried just by realizing you were gone from their presence momentarily. They couldn’t rationalize that mommy or daddy was only going to the bathroom. This is the stage where they can start figuring those things out, and most break out of those crying fits and tantrum stages.
Nearly Full Size
After five years of age, the brain is nearly fully grown. Now, not all of the pathways have developed, and there is still a lot of migration that’s going to take place over the next few years. However, in terms of mass and gray matter, their brain is pretty much fully grown. This is setting up the stages for children to start developing identities and images of the “self.” But, you still have a few years to go before that kicks in, so enjoy that their innocence will be sticking around for a little longer.
Protecting the Child Until That Age
Knowing that your child is going to start their major brain development after five years of age, most parents want to do what they can to foster normal brain growth up until that point. Remember, pre-five are the years where children are picking up those voluntary skills, but they’re still very susceptible to myriad influences that can positively or negatively affect their neurodevelopment. This is why many parents choose quality child care. In many ways, a care service for children is like a school environment for really young children, like toddlers, where they will be helped along with motor skills, speech, and more.
If you want to send your child to a care facility, make sure you look carefully for a quality local facility that is well-reviewed and that will take great care of your children.