Childhood is critical. Numerous studies and neuroscience have shown that brain development and rewiring don’t finish until the age of 25 or the early 30s for boys.

 

During the first few years of a child’s life, hundreds of new neural connections are formed every second. These connections build an architectural structure in the brain that will support that child’s future health, emotional, intellectual growth, social communication and integration.

 

Hebbian theory speaks eloquently on the concept of changing neuron connections:

 

“What fires together wires together.”

 

With the advance of MRI scans, we know that brain development is a biological process that adjusts the strength of connections between neurons, and those connections are built based on experience.  As spike-timing-dependent plasticity suggests, our brains develop gradually over a long period of time and certain parts of the brain develop at certain time peaks if the right stimulus (learning opportunities) is provided.   

 

However, if any important learning such as social skills, impulse control or moral judgment is missing, the individual will have a harder time  acquiring those skills later on in life.  This is why it is important to respond quickly and appropriately when a child encounters issues that undermine the foundations of these early years, issues such as learning disorders, developmental disabilities, emotional trauma or unsettling periods of change.