The most common developmental disorder of the central nervous system of a child. About the stages of child brain development and their impact on social and emotional life

Some data demonstrating the stages of maturation of brain tissue. Various areas the brain matures into different time. Knowing this helps explain the emotional and intellectual changes in children, adolescents and young adults. Despite the fact that no two children develop identically, scientists, using magnetic resonance imaging performed on the same children over several years, have established a relationship between certain stages of child development and changes in brain tissue.

0 - 4 years
Early Development - In the first few years of life, areas of the brain associated with basic functions change most rapidly. By the age of 4, the areas responsible for basic senses and gross motor skills are almost fully developed. The child can walk, hold a pencil and eat independently.

Sensations - areas responsible for sensations, for example, tactile, are almost fully developed.

Vision - The areas of the brain that control vision are fully mature.

6 years

Language, the area of ​​the brain responsible for speech, is immature but continues to develop rapidly in children up to age 10. The brain is already beginning the process of “thinning”, destroying unnecessary connections. This process will intensify in subsequent years, which may be one of the explanations why young children, unlike adults, learn a new language so easily.

The mind, the part of the brain responsible for abstract thinking, rational thinking, and emotional maturity, has not yet developed. Their lack of maturity is one of the reasons why young children have difficulty accepting a large number of information and when presented with too many choices, children have tantrums.

9 years

Fine motor skills - If gross motor skills are well developed by the age of 5, then development fine motor skills It develops most actively between 8 and 9 years. It becomes easier for children to write, and their crafts reach a new level of accuracy.

Mathematics. By the age of 9, the parietal lobes of the brain begin to mature. Their development allows children to master mathematics and geometry skills. The speed of learning at this age is very fast.

13 years

Judgment - The prefrontal cortex is one of the last areas of the brain to mature. Until it develops, children lack the ability to adequately assess risk or make long-term plans.

Emotions - Deep in the limbic system, the ability to experience emotions grows. But this ability is not inhibited by the prefrontal cortex, which lags behind in development. This is why teenagers often find it so difficult to control their emotions.

Logic - At this age, the parietal lobes, which are indicated in blue in the figure, develop very quickly. The child’s intelligence and analytical abilities are growing.

15 years

Specialization - in adolescence the abundance of nerve connections continues to decrease. Underutilized connections will die to help more active connections develop. As a result, the child's brain becomes more specialized and efficient.

17 years

Abstract thinking - in late adolescence, children are able to deal with much more complicated things than in childhood. The development of these areas leads to a surge in social activity and expression of emotions among older adolescents. Planning, risk assessment and self-control become possible.

21 years old

Higher mental functions. Although, at first glance, the brain appears to be almost fully developed during adolescence, severe deficits in emotional maturity, impulse control, and decision-making affect well into adulthood.

Maturity - the brain of a 21 year old young man almost ripe. Even after we reach formal adulthood, there are still areas of our brains that have the potential for development. Emotional maturity and decision-making will continue to develop in subsequent years.

Diagnosis - Immaturity of the cerebral cortex. What does this mean physiologically and socially? How is she ( bark) matures and what does its maturation depend on? Will it (the bark) necessarily ripen?
The boy is now 3 years old. Since birth, Mishutka has been sleeping rather restlessly (only for the first 2 weeks he slept normally), but I chalked it up either to a lack of milk or to an addiction to “having to eat” (I woke up up to 8 times a night). I stopped breastfeeding at 1 year and 3 months, and I couldn’t sleep better without breastfeeding. He started talking quite early. At the age of 1 year and 8 months he went to kindergarten, he was the smallest there, but the most talkative. Even before the age of 2, I knew a lot of rhymes and verses. Now he almost doesn’t recite the poems that he knew, but instead composes words (“abracadabra”) and puts them into poems. He thinks in a rather mature manner and likes to talk about general topics. At the same time, there are conditions when you get turned on by a whim and cannot calm down. “Creates” impossible requests. For example: give me the porridge that Masha ate...
We were seen by a neurologist with a diagnosis of “sleep disorder”, and now we have established “ immaturity of the cortex»…

Answered by Komarovsky E. O.

Cortex- this is what is responsible for social functions- thoughts, words, behavior, i.e. precisely because man differs from animals. The bark is ripening usually towards the end of puberty. So seriously discuss the topic immaturity of the cortex At this age, it’s somehow out of my hands. There are situations when there is a clear developmental delay, i.e. immaturity of the cortex brain- Not age norm, but obvious pathology. But when a child at 3 years old composes poetry, “thinks in a rather mature way, likes to talk about general topics” - the word “immaturity” somehow does not fit with such things. I would rather talk about advanced development. Summary: the social functions we mentioned, in principle, cannot be mature at this age. Therefore, the thoughts and behavior of children are strikingly different from those of adults. These differences often lead to conflicts based on parental pedagogical mistakes and the lack of popular and accessible information on child psychology and pedagogy. The main paradox is that there are practically no places in the country where parents can get affordable advice on pedagogical and psychological issues, but in every clinic there is a pediatric neurologist to whom crowds of parents come with complaints of disobedience, hysterics, misbehavior and so on. The neuropathologist does not have the opportunity to send him further away (to a teacher, to a psychologist) and is forced to come up with meaningless diagnoses, typical example which is " immaturity of the cerebral cortex».

(click to play)

Different areas of the brain mature at different times. Knowing this helps explain the emotional and intellectual changes in children, adolescents and young adults. Although no two children develop identically, scientists have used magnetic resonance imaging scans of the same children over several years to establish a relationship between certain stages of child development and changes in brain tissue.

To see how the brain matures, click on the flash animation. The color scale indicates the maturation of brain tissue, from red, orange and yellow to green, blue and violet.

0 – 4 years

Early development– In the first few years of life, the areas of the brain associated with basic functions change most rapidly. By the age of 4, the areas responsible for basic senses and gross motor skills are almost fully developed. The child can walk, hold a pencil and eat independently.

Feel– areas responsible for sensations, for example, tactile, are almost fully developed.

Vision– The areas of the brain that control vision are fully mature.

6 years

Language– the area of ​​the brain responsible for speech is immature and colored orange, but continues to develop rapidly in children up to 10 years of age. The brain is already beginning the process of “thinning”, destroying unnecessary connections. This process will intensify in subsequent years, which may be one of the explanations why young children, unlike adults, learn a new language so easily.

Intelligence– yellow and red areas of the prefrontal cortex indicate that these parts of the brain are responsible for abstract thinking, the ability to think rationally and emotional maturity have not yet developed. Their lack of maturity is one of the reasons why young children have difficulty absorbing large amounts of information and have tantrums when presented with too many choices.

9 years

Fine motor skills– If general motor skills are well developed by the age of 5, then the development of fine motor skills develops most actively between 8 and 9 years. It becomes easier for children to write, and their crafts reach a new level of accuracy.

Mathematics– By the age of 9, the parietal lobes of the brain begin to mature. Their development allows children to master mathematics and geometry skills. The speed of learning at this age is very fast.

13 years

Discretion– The prefrontal cortex is one of the last areas of the brain to mature. Until it develops, children lack the ability to adequately assess risk or make long-term plans.

Emotions– deep in the limbic system, the ability to experience emotions grows. But this ability is not inhibited by the prefrontal cortex, which lags behind in development. This is why teenagers often find it so difficult to control their emotions.

Logic - At this age, the parietal lobes, which are indicated in blue in the figure, develop very quickly. The child’s intelligence and analytical abilities are growing.

15 years

Specialization– During adolescence, the abundance of nerve connections continues to decrease. Underutilized connections will die to help more active connections develop. As a result, the child's brain becomes more specialized and efficient.

17 years

Abstract thinking– Dark blue and purple mature areas of the prefrontal cortex show why children in late adolescence are able to deal with much more complex things than in childhood. The development of these areas leads to a surge in social activity and expression of emotions among older adolescents. Planning, risk assessment and self-control become possible.

21 years old

Higher mental functions“Although, at first glance, the brain appears to be almost fully developed during adolescence, the dark blue and purple areas in this picture show that severe deficits in emotional maturity, impulse control, and decision-making affect well into adulthood.

Maturity– the brain of a 21-year-old young man is almost mature. But the green areas indicate that even after we reach official adulthood, we still have areas in our brains that have the potential to develop. Emotional maturity and decision-making will continue to develop in subsequent years.

Olga Pisarik

Russification of animation – Mriya Savitskaya

Flash animator – Irina Matsenko

As the cerebral cortex matures, neurons migrate from its depths to the outer layers. Two proteins help neurons pass through the thickness of already formed zones, one of them belongs to the class of cadherin proteins, which resist all cell migrations. One of the largest and interesting riddles in biology it is associated with the process of migration of germ cells in the developing embryo. It is obvious that in order to form an organ, cells must be arranged in a certain order. If we take into account that new cells are formed not “at their destination”, but in special zones, from where they then travel to their “ workplace", it becomes clear how important role routing and control of the movement of such cells plays a role. An incorrectly indicated direction of migration will lead to defects in the structure and functioning of tissues and organs. Actually, there is a whole class of developmental defects associated with impaired “navigation” of cells in the embryo.

Different organs are sometimes formed very different ways. Scientists from the Center basic research cell division Hutchinson (USA) attempted to find out the details of the formation of the cerebral cortex.

Rice.

Mature bark is like a layer cake: it is presented in horizontal layers nerve cells; neurons in different layers differ in the functions assigned to them, but are combined into vertical conductive circuits. If, during the formation of the cortex, a neuron enters the wrong layer, then in the future there may be disturbances in the correct transmission of the signal, up to the development of diseases such as epilepsy, schizophrenia and autism.

In the fetus, the brain is formed, as if turning inside out: new neurons are formed in the depths of the maturing cortex and then make their way through the thickets of already fully differentiated neurons in the overlying layers. Having reached the top, they calm down, lose signs of immaturity and form another layer. It was the details of the neuron journey that remained for a long time a mystery for researchers.

In a paper published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists describe a signaling system that guides embryonic neurons in the right direction. At first, nerve cells move purposefully toward the surface of the cortex until they reach a special zone in the embryonic brain called the intermediate zone. There are few neurons themselves, but many long conducting processes of nerve cells - axons. Once in this zone, migrating neurons seem to lose orientation and begin to wander in different directions. But above the intermediate zone there are layers of mature nerve cells, and if a “lost” neuron ends up in such a layer, it again acquires a clear direction of movement.

A special protein called Reelin helps young nerve cells get on the right path. It is produced by neurons in the overlying nerve layers and thus, as it were, lights a signal beacon for those wandering in the intermediate zone. Mutations in its gene cause disruption in the formation of nerve layers in the cortex of rodents and humans, but until now it was not clear what exactly this protein does there.

Reelin is synthesized most top layer neurons and diffuses down through all layers to the intermediate zone. But at the same time, it does not itself lead young nerve cells upward, but acts through an intermediary in the form of another protein, N-cadherin. This is a membrane protein that is actually responsible for communication, stabilization, and bonding of cells to each other. Due to cadherins, cells remain in place (these proteins actually prevent migration), so the effect of N-cadherin on cell movements was a big surprise. Under the influence of Reelin, the cadherin content in the neuronal membrane increases, and this plays a decisive role in choosing the direction of movement.

The child’s brain begins to actively develop even during its intrauterine development. About 70% of the entire brain framework is formed before the baby is born, and only the remaining 30% after. The first year of life is the time of the most peak changes. Never more people will not experience as many changes as during the first 12 months of life. The child’s brain also undergoes great changes.

Brain tissue is formed at the very beginning of pregnancy, in its first weeks. This is the period of the birth of neurons - nerve cells, which carry out signal transmission. After the second month of development inside the womb, differentiation and division of the brain into functional parts begins to occur. By the end of pregnancy, the cerebral cortex is formed, which in its level of development and functionality can be compared with the adult cortex.

As the child’s brain develops, it goes through several stages:

• Intrauterine;
• Infant, which has two subgroups. The first of which corresponds to the age of 1-8 weeks and is marked by the formation of visualization functions. Its violation leads to poor development of neurons;
• Childhood years;
• Youth.

Each stage is unique. In any of them, the brain undergoes great changes. Which means childhood requires especially reverent and careful attitude to the child due to the fact that Negative influence may cause problems with the baby's brain development.

When the brain is formed, it goes through strictly defined stages. Initially, all nervous system represented only by a plate, which step by step becomes a tube. This tube gives rise to brain bubbles. At the beginning, 2 of them are formed, but gradually the number reaches 5. Each bubble is a prototype of important structures of the adult brain. One way or another, the brainstem develops first, turning into the spinal cord; the last transformations concern the cerebral cortex.

The formation of each bubble is a crucial moment during pregnancy. Indeed, in the future, it is the prototypes of these bubbles that will be responsible for everything vitally important functions human body. The vesicle, which gives rise to the brain stem, is responsible for regulating temperature and blood pressure, respiratory systems. Above it is the midbrain, which controls sleep and appetite, as well as motor activity.

Behind the brainstem is the cerebellum, which is responsible for balance and coordination, as well as speed of thought. And the central part, the limbic system, is responsible for memory and the ability to adapt, emotional experiences. The cortex, the most evolutionarily developed part of the brain, covers it on top. Its thickness does not exceed 5 mm and regulates the process of decision-making, thinking and speech. It is in the cortex that the majority of neurons are concentrated - about 80% of their total number.

Formation of a neural network in a child's brain

Due to the fact that a child is born with a practically formed brain, the period of his growing up is associated only with the improvement of his initial capabilities. Literally every minute new connections between neurons are created in the brain. Like bridges, they are laid between nerve cells, which determines the acquisition of new skills, the acquisition of knowledge, and the assimilation of information. The connection between them strengthens especially strongly during the first 3 years of life. As a result, at the age of 3, children have a slightly smaller brain volume than an adult. So, they differ in mass by only 15%.

Initially, the child is given a huge supply of neurons. Their number exceeds approximately 20 times the total population of the globe. Neurons in human brain 10 times more than stars in Milky Way. They are nothing more than the core of the brain. The connections between neurons are so diverse and multifaceted that each of them is able to communicate with 15,000 of their own kind. It is these connections that determine the basis of a person’s thoughts, his mind, consciousness and memories. So, a three-year-old baby has about 1000 trillion neural connections.

After a child reaches the age of 3 years, the rate of development of his brain slows down. Its physiological formation ends by the age of 6 years. That is why the age of 6-7 years serves as the starting point for school. The child becomes physiologically capable of assimilating information adequate mental activity like an adult.

The influence of the environment on the development of a child's brain

However, stable brain development requires the creation certain conditions. Environment filled with positive emotions and calmness, it is conducive to timely and harmonious development. In such conditions, it will be easier for the child to stimulate and activate the development of brain tissue. The first years of a child’s life serve as a springboard for him to develop a future base of adaptation to life and the formation of various skills.

The task of parents is not only to take care of physical condition child, but also in providing assistance in the formation of a harmonious brain activity baby. Favorable stimulation is through various sounds and images, smells and touches. According to the study scientific community conducted in 2008, factors that negatively affect the development of a baby’s brain include:

• The education level of the child's mother is below average;
• An incomplete family in which one of the parents died or a divorce occurred between them;
• Mental problems in one of the parents or close relatives;
• Low standard of living of the family, poverty and misery, lack of Money for essentials;
• Cruelty or indifference on the part of adults towards children.

If a child’s development is associated with one or more of the listed factors, the formation of his brain suffers from certain deformations and may be delayed. If a child is in living conditions that combine all factors, his brain develops 50-70% lower than that of his peers. The difference between a child developing in normal conditions and a baby whose childhood is burdened negative factors, is reflected in his ability to express his thoughts verbally.

Such children are usually very poor lexicon. Often, the antisocial lifestyle of parents leads to the fact that the baby lags behind in mental development. Rarely, already at the age of 3 years, a child is able to understand that the environment around him at home is abnormal. These kids strive to fill the gap necessary development communication with peers in kindergarten or on the street.

An important role in the formation of the baby’s brain and psyche during pregnancy and breastfeeding child plays proper nutrition and the mother's lifestyle. Therefore, it is so important for mom to eat healthy and well-known foods rich in proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Must be adhered to strict diet, suggested by the doctor, so that the mother’s nutrition does not negatively affect the child.

Lifestyle has a particularly strong influence on the formation of a child’s brain tissue. Bad habits, such as drinking alcohol and smoking, negatively affect the baby’s developing brain. Its cells experience oppression, as a result of which they develop inadequately. Such children are often retarded in mental development and have abnormalities.

Facts about baby brain development

Summarizing the above, we can cite several interesting facts regarding the development of the child’s brain:

• In the first year of life, the brain of children increases in size by about 2 times and reaches a weight of about 1 kg, while the adult brain weighs about one and a half kilograms;
• The weight of the brain increases due to the formation and strengthening of connections between neurons. And new connections are formed when the child gains new experiences. Moreover, it is important that this experience is consolidated and the child repeats it again;
• The brain of a newborn baby has about 150-200 billion neurons, and the brain of an adult can boast of an amount that is about 2 times less. These neurons either unite into connections or die off due to uselessness;
• A newborn has a more developed amygdala, which is responsible for emotions, compared to its frontal lobe, which deals with reasoning. Because of this, babies are only able to show their emotions, but not control them. It is this fact that suggests that children often tend to react to situations with tears and screaming. This also explains why it is important to first develop emotional sphere the child and his senses, and only then engage in the development of his intellectual capabilities;
• During the first 6 months of life, the most active formation of new connections between neurons occurs. Most of all, this affects color perception, the primary skills of early socialization, as well as the sense of smell;
• The most durable are neural connections both hemispheres. And crawling is the best way to synchronize both hemispheres. As the child grows up, such means may include playing musical instruments, as well as swimming;
• The mass of the cerebellum of a newborn baby is about 21–23 grams. This part of the brain grows intensively between 5 and 11 months of life, at the moment when the baby is just learning to sit and walk. So, at one year old, a child’s cerebellum is about 85–95 grams, and at 15 years old it reaches about 150;
• Class physical activity increases speed chemical reactions in the hippocampus, as well as the number of nerve cells, which allows you to master cognitive skills;
• The most fruitful years in terms of brain development of a child are the first three years of his life. After all, it is during this period that children easily learn their native language. Later learning is less effective, as the pace of learning new material slows down. But this does not mean that up to 3 years of age it is only necessary to develop the child’s abilities. Throughout his growing up, this necessary condition for the full formation of the brain;
• The moment of conversation with a child who does not yet know how to speak lays the foundations of his language proficiency.

The modern world, full of statistical data, methods aimed at improvement and improvement, allows us to compile best plan for the development of your child. One has only to listen to doctors, take an interest in additional literature, and the development of the baby’s brain will no longer seem such a difficult task. It should be remembered that the genome laid down at conception does not completely determine the development of the brain. Stimulate your child, interest him in everything new, create conditions for normal life, and, of course, do not forget to allow him to be a child and enjoy his childhood.