Is your child headed in the right direction?
As a parent it is important for you to understand child development and how your own child is developing.
In this video I talk about lateralization, also known as cerebral dominance.
During the first three years babies heads grow at an enormous rate. They are bigger than any other time of their life, it is called neurogenesis. As the child is being exposed to its environment, it is creating new neurons and it is practicing efficient pathways in order for it to process information about what is going on in their vision and how they are interpreting sound.
When babies come into this world they only pick up low frequency sounds. It takes the first three years of a baby’s life to acquire the middle ranges and the high ranges. Meanwhile in the anatomy, babies are actually repositioning the low frequency sounds all the way from the base to the apex, laying down all the other frequencies that they are able to hear.
When a child is learning how to perform a motor milestone, we look at gross motor, fine motor, social skills, communication, and adaptation. Adaptation really relates back to that sympathetic nervous system.
Milestones are a sequence of events. It is absolutely necessary to go from one event to the other. Even if a child misses one of their steps, we should understand that it actually changes interpretation or adaptation of the neurology.
It does matter if your child is moving through things too quickly or if your child is delayed. Being right on time or within a month is ideal.
If you have noticed that your child is moving too quickly or is delayed it is time to get them evaluated.
Cerebral dominance is about the organization of all function in the brain.
For example you have everything on both sides of your brain. The need to talk is on your right, the work of talk is on your left. In order to have a conversation there has to be the right communication between both hemispheres. You have to be organized. The way to tell if your child is organized you want to be able to see what side do they prefer.
By the third birthday your child will go through the process called pruning. What is going to happen during pruning is whatever pathway is not efficient is going to be taken away. What is left over is the declaration of dominance on one side or the other. It really does matter because it represents organization.
This is also what is associated with the label of dyslexia. Dyslexia is not just about seeing something backwards it is about not using the most efficient pathway in order to communicate all information in your brain.
Watch the video and see the test you can perform on your child to make sure they are developmentally on track!
