An “aerial” view of Manuel sucking my gumboot!

Jj is for Jottings 21. A Bit more of the Other Side of the Coin.

I thought I’d finished with this topic, but last week I was listening to lectures on autism, and came across some reinforcement from Bob Doman, a very well-respected and experienced educator who works in child development in the U.S. This also ties in nicely with early Jottings on repetition and learning. He states that the foundation of brain development is neuroplasticity – i.e. the brain develops according to its input. eg. When the brain of a deceased pianist is examined, there are many more nerve nets and connections in the part of the brain which corresponds to finger movement. (This was not Bob’s example.) Bob was very insistent on “specific input with sufficient frequency, intensity and duration”. As soon as we stop the input it begins to fade from the brain, so to really advance we need to keep coming in with that specific input until it is firmly in place. The more specific it is, the greater the impact it will have.
This is exactly what I was saying in Jottings 20 – there must be sufficient frequency, intensity and duration for learning of the new skill – whatever it is – to occur. Nice for my message to be reinforced in such a timely manner by a world-renowned professional.