3P25 Deletion Syndrome.

3P25 Deletion Syndrome. - Today we welcomed back a two year old little girl for her second
assessment. She has an exceptionally rare genetic disorder known as 3p25 deletion syndrome. This is so rare that since the first person was reported in the medical literature in 1978, only around 50 people with a 3p25 deletion involving no other chromosome(s) have been described in the medical literature. Today after 10 months on the Snowdrop programme she had made some very significant developmental gains. Her visual ability has moved from the 4 month level to the 12 month level. Her auditory development has moved from the 8 month level to the 18 month level. Gross motor skills have improved from not even sitting, to standing against furniture, - she is well on the way to developing a standing balance. Language has moved from the 7 month level of babbling, to the 14 month level of possessing two words of speech, - 'dada' and 'go.' Socialisation has moved from the 8 month level to the 18 month level. It just shows that genetic expression can be fought against. Well done to mum and dad who have brought about this dramatic change!

Learning with Music Helps Boost Changes in Brain Structure.

I have understood the importance of music for some time now, how it can influence the plasticity of the brain and how in particular it can influence the development of spoken language.  This is why there is a musical element to all Snowdrop Programmes, whether that be through offering clients access to the 'EASE' programme, the 'Listening Programme,' or whether it is using music to calm a child.  Now we have evidence that we can use music to stimulate better motor performance.  This will be immediately implemented and incorporated into our programmes.  With thanks to domain-b.com.  Learning with Music Helps Boost Changes in Brain Structure 

The link between music and language development.

This is the reason why exposure to music is a primary factor within the Snowdrop programme for brain injured children.  With thanks to 'Medical News Today.'

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Contrary to the prevailing theories that music and language are cognitively separate or that music is a byproduct of language, theorists at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music and the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) advocate that music underlies the ability to acquire language. 

"Spoken language is a special type of music," said Anthony Brandt, co-author of a theory paper published online this month in the journal Frontiers in Cognitive Auditory Neuroscience. "Language is typically viewed as fundamental to human intelligence, and music is often treated as being dependent on or derived from language. But from a developmental perspective, we argue that music comes first and language arises from music." 

Brandt, associate professor of composition and theory at the Shepherd School, co-authored the paper with Shepherd School graduate student Molly Gebrian and L. Robert Slevc, UMCP assistant professor of psychology and director of the Language and Music Cognition Lab. 

"Infants listen first to sounds of language and only later to its meaning," Brandt said. He noted that newborns' extensive abilities in different aspects of speech perception depend on the discrimination of the sounds of language - "the most musical aspects of speech." 

The paper cites various studies that show what the newborn brain is capable of, such as the ability to distinguish the phonemes, or basic distinctive units of speech sound, and such attributes as pitch, rhythm and timbre. 

The authors define music as "creative play with sound." They said the term "music" implies an attention to the acoustic features of sound irrespective of any referential function. As adults, people focus primarily on the meaning of speech. But babies begin by hearing language as "an intentional and often repetitive vocal performance," Brandt said. "They listen to it not only for its emotional content but also for its rhythmic and phonemic patterns and consistencies. The meaning of words comes later." 

Brandt and his co-authors challenge the prevailing view that music cognition matures more slowly than language cognition and is more difficult. "We show that music and language develop along similar time lines," he said. 

Infants initially don't distinguish well between their native language and all the languages of the world, Brandt said. Throughout the first year of life, they gradually hone in on their native language. Similarly, infants initially don't distinguish well between their native musical traditions and those of other cultures; they start to hone in on their own musical culture at the same time that they hone in on their native language, he said. 

The paper explores many connections between listening to speech and music. For example, recognizing the sound of different consonants requires rapid processing in the temporal lobe of the brain. Similarly, recognizing the timbre of different instruments requires temporal processing at the same speed - a feature of musical hearing that has often been overlooked, Brandt said. 

"You can't distinguish between a piano and a trumpet if you can't process what you're hearing at the same speed that you listen for the difference between 'ba' and 'da,'" he said. "In this and many other ways, listening to music and speech overlap." The authors argue that from a musical perspective, speech is a concert of phonemes and syllables. 

"While music and language may be cognitively and neurally distinct in adults, we suggest that language is simply a subset of music from a child's view," Brandt said. "We conclude that music merits a central place in our understanding of human development." 

Brandt said more research on this topic might lead to a better understanding of why music therapy is helpful for people with reading and speech disorders. People with dyslexia often have problems with the performance of musical rhythm. "A lot of people with language deficits also have musical deficits," Brandt said. 

More research could also shed light on rehabilitation for people who have suffered a stroke. "Music helps them reacquire language, because that may be how they acquired language in the first place," Brandt said. 

How do Babies Learn?

So which is it? Are babies mindless beings who only eat, sleep and cry? Or are they little geniuses, ready for academic pursuits? The truth is probably half way between the two. There is no doubt that the brain of a baby is like a sponge which eagerly soaks up information and that brain plasticity in young babies is at it's peak. What we must also realise however is that young babies need a secure, loving environment in order to utilise this inherent neuroplasticity.

In evolutionary terms, babies have not changed a great deal over the last 50,000 years. However, what we know about them has changed a great deal.

Astute observers of human development have always believed that the early years were critical to developing potential and this view is supported by evidence that children exposed to highly enriched environments develop bigger, superior brains, whilst children who are exposed to impoverished environments have smaller, less well developed brains. This is a view which began as early as the Greek philosopher Aristotle and was developed in the 11th century by the Persian philosopher, Ibn Sina (known as "Avicenna" in the West. He argued that the "human intellect at birth is rather like a tabula rasa, a pure potentiality that is actualised through education and experience of the world and consequently ' “comes to know" '

While this information is exciting and hopeful, especially to the parents of children whose development has been adversely affected by brain injury or some ather retarding factor, it also poses a danger, as some professionals and parents think it means we should apply intensive and exhaustive programmes of stimulation to teaching both brain injured and 'well' children in order to maximise their potential. Enter the billion-dollar baby industrial complex to sell us videos and flash cards to make our babies "smarter and the clinics offering eight to ten hour day – long programmes of developmental stimulation to children with developmental problems.

But a number of researchers have found clear evidence that some promotion of early learning tasks can actually interfere with later learning. Not only that, but that ensuring that the child has plenty of 'downtime' actually improves the learning process. This recent study by Ellenbogen et al demonstrates that relational memory -- the ability to make logical "big picture" inferences from disparate pieces of information, and an essential part of learning - is dependent on taking plenty of breaks and even more important, getting a good night's sleep. I believe that this is where other rehabilitation centres have it worng and where Snowdrop have it right in relation to the programmes of developmental stimulation we provide for brain injured children.

So here's the dilemma: We know we're supposed to be doing something to take advantage of the early years of brain development, but what? The answers to this query may be simpler than we think. They require only the simplest understanding of how babies operate.

First, babies are wired for relationships. To paraphrase the great Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, everything children need to know comes to them through relationships which provide interaction with more skilled partners, relationships that mean something to them personally. From birth, they use their emerging skills to seek out those they can learn to trust. They flourish when they know they are secure. They fall apart and under-perform when they are stressed. Their behaviour is organised and meaningful. They communicate clearly when stressed if we will but pay attention to their cues. When their needs are met, they snuggle, coo and sleep. When they feel overwhelmed, they fuss, turn red and lose motor coordination.

So babies need to be cared for by their parents and grandparents and other caregivers in a way that "listens" to what they tell us with their behaviour. Responsive care-giving gives children evidence that their needs matter. It teaches them to respect themselves and others.

They need to be cared for by people who are emotionally available to them. They need to see a smile reflect their own and a look of concern in someone's face when they cry. When they make attempts at language, they need to be heard and responded to by someone who really wants to know what they have to say. They need opportunities to play with other children and figure out what works in human interaction. They need some freedom to choose their own play activities and interact with others in their own comfortable style.

When children are confident in their safety and acceptance, they can relax and learn. According to Bjorklund and other evolutionary psychologists, learning is inhibited by fear and anxiety but facilitated by security and the opportunity to choose. Children are born learning as a natural response to their interesting world. They only need our interest and support. We adults serve as guides to help them find their way.

Anyone wanting more information on Snowdrop's work should email info@snowdrop.cc, or go to our website at http://www.snowdrop.cc

Infants trained to concentrate benefit academically.

This is why the Snowdrop programme builds attentional abilities through processes such as training children to focus eye contact, partake in 'intensive interaction' and to build 'proto-conversations'  Regulation of attentional resources is an essential part of the developmental process.

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Although parents may have a hard time believing it, even infants can be trained to improve their concentration skills. What's more, training babies in this way leads to improvements on other, unrelated tasks.

The findings reported online on September 1 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, are in contrast to reports in adults showing that training at one task generally doesn't translate into improved performance on other, substantially different tasks. They also may have important implications for improving success in school, particularly for those children at risk of poor outcomes, the researchers say.

"Research suggests that differences in attentional control abilities emerge early in development and that children with better attentional control subsequently learn better in academic settings," said Sam Wass of the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at Birkbeck, University of London. "The connection is an intuitively obvious one: the better a child is at concentrating on one object, such as a book, and ignoring distractions, for instance people moving around a room, the better that child is going to learn. We show that attentional control abilities can be trained at a much earlier age than had previously been thought possible."

The researchers trained 11-month-old infants to direct their gaze toward images they observed on a computer screen. For example, in one task, a butterfly flew only as long as the babies kept their eyes on it while other distracting elements appeared on screen. Infants visited the lab five times over the course of 15 days. Half of the 42 babies took part in training, while the other half watched TV. Each child was tested for cognitive abilities at the beginning and end of the study.

Trained infants rapidly improved their ability to focus their attention for longer periods and to shift their attention from one point to another. They also showed improvements in their ability to spot patterns and small but significant changes in their spontaneous looking behavior while playing with toys.

"Our results appeared to show an improved ability to alter the frequency of eye movements in response to context," Wass said. "In the real world, sometimes we want to be able to focus on one object of interest and ignore distractions, and sometimes we want to be able to shift the focus of our attention rapidly around a room—for example, for language learning in social situations. This flexibility in the allocation of attention appeared to improve after training."

The fact that the babies' improvements in concentration transferred to a range of tasks supports the notion that there is greater plasticity in the unspecialized infant brain.

"In other words, if we want to substantially alter cognitive development, it may be that the earlier we start, the better," Wass said.

There is one caveat: It remains unclear whether babies' developing and "trainable" brains might tend to lose newfound skills just as readily as they gain them.