By Melissa Healy
Los Angeles - Anyone who's seen a toddler "at work" can tell that the learning style is a study in chaos.
But when it comes to mastering language, that child is a turbo-charged learning machine.
An article published last week in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science suggests credit for that ability should go to what a child this age lacks - a fully formed prefrontal cortex, that thing that makes a parent good at getting things done.
Babies are born with the foremost part of the brain - the prefrontal cortex - almost completely undeveloped. For most children, it takes about four years for the "seat of higher reasoning" to catch up with the rest of the brain. This would explain why toddlers are inattentive and live in the moment. When developed, the prefrontal cortex plays a key role in suppressing impulses, focusing on the task at hand.
Yet by four, the typical child will have learned to speak and will have learned cause-and-effect connections.
In those crucial four years, a toddler's accumulation of knowledge may be unhampered by the discipline imposed by the prefrontal cortex, suggest neuroscientists from the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University.
A toddler's prefrontal cortex doesn't try to keep the child "on task". And underdeveloped powers of attention will keep the child's mind from getting bogged down by exceptions to rules of grammar or syntax.
The theory is evolution may have favoured a delay in the maturation of the brain's "braking system" as a means of allowing rough-but-rapid learning of language and social conventions.
This theory may help teachers find the best windows for teaching young children and those with developmental differences. - Los Angeles Times