Why do children learn so quickly? Is it simply a necessity, or is a child' s brain more capable of taking in new information than an adult' s brain?
" It is a common way of thinking that ‘children are like sponges' and have the magical ability to learn new skills faster than an adult, but there are some misconceptions here, " said Debbie Raven, a researcher at the University of Chester. " A child' s cognitive (认知的) development is age-related and, naturally, children perform worse than their older peers in most areas. However, there are times when being young brings an advantage, and this is especially true around their earliest years.
This advantage is largely due to neuroplasticity, meaning the brain' s ability to form and change its connections, pathways and wiring based on experiences. Neuroplasticity is what gives children the capacity to learn-and, if necessary, unlearn-habits, routines, approaches and actions very quickly. This ability is most constant and rapid before a child' s fifth birthday, when much of what they encounter or experience is novel. " This ability to learn quickly is connected to several areas, including plasticity, their experiences with adults, their environment, and their biological drive to explore, " Raven said. " Childhood is a place where children spend their time catching up with adults' more sophisticated abilities. "
Language learning, in particular, is an area where children often have a huge advantage over adults. This is largely because " babies are able to tune in to the rhythm and sounds used in their native language, and can therefore become fluent speakers by the age of four. " This ability can help young children learn a second or third language with apparent ease, Raven said.
In a research paper, the authors suggest that " human babies are born seeing and hearing linguistic information that older children and adults miss, although they lose this ability with more experience in their environments. Moreover, babies can " discriminate speech sounds and tones used in al of the world' s languages, making them open to al input, regardless of the linguistic environment they are born into.