Environmental and

Chemical Factors

A quick exploration of what we can do to help our children in and out of the classroom.

How environmental and neurochemical factors can be supported in and out of the classroom.

• Fischer & Immordino-Yang (2008)., health and sickness of the brain and body is linked. What happens at home affects school and what is happening at school effects home behavior as well.

• Be involved as “adequate access to emotional, social and moreal feedback, in effect the important elements of culture, learning cannot inform real-world functioning as effectively (Fischer & Immordino-Yang, 2008).“

• In short, your childs brain is always paying attention to something. Even if you do not think he/she has noticed. What your child is involved with and how she/he reacts, along with your reactions to situations causes foundational changes within their brains, which will lead to future actions.

Environmental and Neurochemical Factors

Keeping the last slide in mind, please think of the television, music, movies and video games your family views: do you set time aside to discuss or review content? You should.According to Christensen & Myford (2014)., episodes emphasized social-awareness and interpersonal skills, not to mention decision-making skills and speaking to children about what they have seen affects their self-awareness and behavioral management skills.As teachers prepare lesson plans for the year, we ask parents to take the same care with the quality of the materials seen as home as well. Try BrainWare Safari as a family affair video game challenge. (Wolfe, 2010).

The relationship between the various neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin, and acetylcholine) and learning and memory.

Exercise – Physical Movement and LearningJensen (2005)., there are strong connections between physical education, movement, breaks, recess, energizing activities, and improved cognition. It demonstrates that movement can be an effective cognitive strategy to (1) strengthen learning, (2) improve memory and retrieval, and (3) enhance learner motivation and morale.

Beyond Jensen’s statement Raine, Lee, Saliba, Chaddock-Heyman, Hillman, & Kramer, (2013)., state that there were no differences in performance at initial learning between higher fit and lower fit participants. However, it is in the retention of information that the higher fit children outperformed lower fit children. The study shows a higher increase in this fact when the initial learning of skills are involved. This novel data to suggest that fitness can boost learning and memory of children.

Go for a Sunday activity instead of an Ice Cream Sundae.

Wolfe (2010)., memories give meaning to new information review new skills often with your children. Remember, there is a strong link between healthy bodies and a healthy brain. Making a meal high in good fats, {cold-water fish, flax seed, eggs} high in omega-3’s lead to better use of dopamine and serotonin in the brain (Chudler, 2001).

Start the mornings off with a nutritious breakfast.

Learners who ate breakfast and regular meals filled with healthy foods have shown increases in test scores, improvement in math, reading, vocabulary and kept their brain healthy into adulthood. (Wolfe, 2010).

Learning and Neuroplasticity.

• It is the use of technology with a deeper understanding of how it effects learning and neuroplasticity that had lead us to this point. Wolfe (2010)., understanding that an effective learning climate allows learners to naturally increase the dopamine, serotonin and acetycholine thus making the learning experience more pleasurable and rewarding.

• Great lessons start with solid sleeping patterns, healthy meals, exercise and over all good health.

As seen in the next slide, not having enough sleep impairs the brain to the point of sending your child to school after consuming enough alcohol to be legally intoxicated in some states. (Vartanian, O., Bouak, F., Caldwell, J., Cheung, B., Cupchik, G., Jobidon, M., et al. 2014). How many of us would do that to our children or students? Yet, we do when we allow them to go to school day after day without the proper amount of sleep we set them up for failure. Wolfe (2010)., suggests that sleep strongly contributes to memory formation.

Sleep is Important

Sleep is important to learning:

(Vartanian, O., Bouak, F., Caldwell, J., Cheung, B., Cupchik, G., Jobidon, M., et al. 2014).

“Lim and Dinges’ (2010) recent meta-analysis, which demonstrated that short-term sleep deprivation impairs a wide host of cognitive outcome variables including simple attention, complex attention, processing speed, WM, and short-term memory (Vartanian, O., Bouak, F., Caldwell, J., Cheung, B., Cupchik, G., Jobidon, M., et al. 2014). “

StressLowering stress and decreasing violence is as important as getting enough sleep. Studies have be done that link the above to killing off brain cells and “critical areas” within the brain that diminish learning and memory. Even more telling is the effects of stress that are transferred to the children. Stressed and depressed children have higher chances for behavioral problems. What you do and say does affect your children, along with what they see and watch. (Fischer &Immordino-Yang, 2008).

A Word of Warning: (Hudson, Miller, & Seikel (2014).;

Infants and young children drink, eat, and breathe more as compared to adults on a per-body-weight basis (U.S. EPA, 2008). Exposure to the neurotoxicant lead may cause irreparable

cognitive, behavioral, and neurological damage (Eubig, Aguiar, & Schantz, 2010; HUD, 2003).

Recent studies (Becquemin et al., 2010; Matt et al., 2011)., have found adverse health effects from thirdhand smoke, or residues from smoking that persist on furniture, clothing, hair, and surfaces visited by smokers (Sleiman et al., 2010).

Young children are uniquely vulnerable to environmental contaminant that can cause irreparable damage to neurological, immune, respiratory and endocrine systems.

Recap• Do:• Reduce stress• Increase sleep• Eat healthy meals and snacks {Omega 3’s}• Pay attention to everything that goes into your child• Play BrainWare Safari • Play out doors• Laugh• Take a break• Take a nap• Read a good book, together, out loud• “The brain is not sitting in the head totally separated from the rest

of the body (Wolfe, 2010).

Christensen, C. G., & Myford, C. M. (2014). Measuring social and emotional content in children's television: An instrument development study.

Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 58(1), 21-41. doi:10.1080/08838151.2013.875024

Earnshaw, O. (2014). Learning to be a child: A conceptual analysis of youth empowerment. Educational & Child Psychology, 31(1), 13-21.

Fischer , K. W., Immordino-Yang, M. H., & , (2008). The jossey-bass reader on the brain and learning. (1st ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Hudson, G., Miller, G. G., & Seikel, K. (2014). Regulations, policies, and guidelines addressing environmental exposures in early learning

environments: A Review. Journal Of Environmental Health, 76(7), 24-34.

Jensen, E. (2005). Teaching with the Brain in Mind, 2nd Edition (2nd ed.). Alexandria: ASCD.

Raine, L. B., Lee, H., Saliba, B. J., Chaddock-Heyman, L., Hillman, C. H., & Kramer, A. F. (2013). The influence of childhood aerobic Fftness on

learning and memory. Plos ONE, 8(9), 1-6. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0072666

Vartanian, O., Bouak, F., Caldwell, J., Cheung, B., Cupchik, G., Jobidon, M., et al. (2014). The effects of a single night of sleep deprivation on fluency

and prefrontal cortex function during divergent thinking. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00214 Retrieved

fromhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4001002/

Wolfe, P. (2010). Brain matters: Translating research into classroom practice. (2nd ed.). Alexandria,V A: Association for Supervision & Curriculum

Development.

References