How Your Child's Brain Grows
Your child's brain grows the fastest in early childhood
A baby is born with roughly 86 billion brain cells
Almost all the brain cells a human brain will ever need
These brain cells, called neurons, are connected by some 50 trillion connections, called synapses
This synaptic network will ultimately determine how a child thinks and behaves
Synapses grow rapidly during the early years
But not all of them will remain as the brain grows
"Use It or Lost It"
Unused connections will eventually be eliminated. This is called synaptic pruning
This is why some skills are best learned during the critical period in brain development