Brain Facts

·      Your brain uses 20% of your body’s energy, but it makes up only 2% of your body’s weight.

·      Your cerebral cortex is about as thick as a tongue depressor.  It grows thicker as you learn and use it.

·      The brain feels like a ripe avocado and looks pink because of the blood flowing through it.

·      Your brain generates 25 watts of power while you’re awake…enough to illuminate a light bulb.

·   Parts of the brain of a severely abused and neglected child can be substantially smaller then that of a healthy child.

·      It is estimated that a baby loses about half their neurons before they are born.  This process is sometimes referred to as pruning and may eliminate neurons that do not receive sufficient input from other neurons.

·      During the first month of life, the number of connections or synapses, dramatically increases from 50 trillion to 1 quadrillion.  If an infant's body grew at a comparable rate,

Imaging Study Shows Brain Maturing

"The brain's center of reasoning and problem solving is among the last to mature, a new study graphically reveals.  The decade-long magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of normal brain development, from ages 4 to 21... shows that such 'higher-order' brain centers, such as the prefrontal cortex, don't fully develop until young adulthood."  So, when your teenager does something stupid, and you say "What were you thinking???!", we now know.... he/she wasn't!!

From the National Institute of Mental Health website http://www.nimh.nih.gov

Ways to Reduce the Impact of Stress in the Classroom

By Jerome J. Schultz, Ph.D.

Teach kids how to recognize the signs of stress

Teach kids about the nature of their learning disability

Help kids anticipate what events will increase stress

Teach kids how to deal more effectively with stress in general, and specifically, as it relates to assignments and tasks

Create learning environments with lower "SQ" (stress quotient)

Increase the use of humor and fun in the classroom and in out of class assignments

Teachers and other professionals must "read" certain behaviors has "stress markers" and help to interpret these to kids and parents