From an article in Daily Montessori, I read that “We now know through research conducted with rats’ brains that an enriched environment actually increases brain size. There is a new growing interest in developmental neuropsychology, or research in brain development.” And, “It has been discovered that the first six years of one’s life is significant for the brain to develop fully.” And, “There is new research that coincides with the discovery that the foundation of neural structures in the frontal lobes of the human brain isn’t fully developed until approximately the age of twenty-four.” (Diamond and Hopson, 1998).

So – What this extremely reliable and well-researched publication says to me is that we need to  keep studying brain growth and learning, we need to get these little rats’ brains growing, using DAP, and, that we need to use DAP not just for the birth to 6 brains, but the birth to 25-year-old brains, too.

Here are some ways to use DAP for building the skills of the Mind which include Intelligence, Language-Literacy, Math, Science, and Social Studies.

Intelligence – The skills of intelligence include things like an Infant or Baby looking up when he hears his name, a Two deciding to play with blocks rather than paint, a Three figuring out that a strainer doesn’t hold water, a Four making the connection between mouse action and computer screen action or a Five realizing that letters make words that translate ideas.

Learning to think, not just recall and parrot answers is the real goal of education. The Intelligence skills are usually attention span, recognition, identification and grasp of facts, memory, direction-following, and problem-solving, decision-making, taking action, reflecting, application, and technology. Please add humor to this list.

To develop these skills using DAP:

• Offer active, cooperative projects that call for thinking and problem-solving rather than one word answers to closed questions
• Encourage discovery and fact-finding and research rather than answering questions for children
• Allow experimentation that calls for trial-and-error, cause-and-effect, and learn-from-mistake experiences; use “what if’s”
• Ask for alternative endings to stories or alternative actions to behaviors; and ask questions and have conversations throughout the day
• Create schedules that are developmentally appropriate for the attention spans of the children, using a general ratio of one minute of focused attention to each year of age as a guideline. 
• Pay attention to signs of fatigue, boredom, or overstimulation; modify experiences when they are not effective; and developmentally lengthen time frames of experiences to increase attention span.
• Offer experiences in which children are given opportunities to recognize and identify common objects (actual, then pictorial, then by description) in both verbal and nonverbal indication. 

Offer DAILY opportunities for children to:                                                                                                                               

• make developmentally appropriate decisions and choices about play, materials, equipment, nutrition and behavior                                                                                                                      
• express developmentally appropriate recall of experiences through the use of words, gestures, artistic  expression                                                                     
• solve problems in individual, small or large group settings                                 
• use reason and logic; use facts to make inferences, conclusions, and predictions; experience cause and effect; answer open and closed questions; grasp new ideas and build new knowledge on learned facts
• engage in humor and to appreciate, understand, and create jokes

“Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.”   

                                                                                                                                   -Roger Lewin 

Next Blog: DAP for the Mind – Language & Literacy