Word: bruer
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...book to be published next month makes clear, neurologists know very little about how the brain develops in the first few years of life. In The Myth of the First Three Years, John Bruer, president of the McDonnell Foundation, based in St. Louis, Mo., argues that much of the advice parents are getting about how to make their very young kids smarter and more talented is based on gross exaggerations of brain science. So, he says, is the notion, suggested by some advocacy groups, that brain development all but shuts down after age three. Too much focus on this...
Surprisingly, most of his targets agree with Bruer--to a point. "It's quite true," says Dr. Charles Nelson, a neuroscientist at the University of Minnesota, "that there aren't any studies looking at brain development in young children." And Matthew Melmed, executive director of Zero to Three, an educational organization whose advice-laden website is a target of Bruer's ire, acknowledges that "there have been some who have stretched the science...
...experts point out that Bruer too has stretched his arguments far beyond what makes sense. "We may not have neuroscience research to back up a lot of what we believe about child development," says Dr. Patricia Kuhl, an expert on speech and hearing at the University of Washington. "But we do have a wealth of data over the past 40 years from developmental and cognitive psychology that tell us those early years are hugely important...
...just because sensory and emotional deprivation leads to damage, argues Bruer, that doesn't mean extra stimulation will make a child better than normal. And on that too just about everyone agrees. "The assumption that if a normally stimulating environment is good, a 'superenvironment' must be better," says Nelson, "has no basis in science." In fact, argues Melmed, it can be worse: "If you try to give your baby more stimulation than she can handle, she'll shut down...
...problem most experts have with Bruer is that by taking a reasonable point and pushing it too far, he does just what he accuses others of doing. A quick visit to one of his favorite targets, the "I Am Your Child" website, makes that clear. The basic guidelines for zero- to three-year-olds outlined on the site's introductory page read as follows: "Be warm, loving and responsive. Respond to the child's cues and clues. Talk, read and sing to your child. Establish routines and rituals. Encourage safe exploration and play. Make TV watching selective. Use discipline...