Cutting edge scientific research has shown that exposure to the right kind of environment during the first years of life actually affects the physical structure of a child's brain, vastly increasing the number of neuron branches--the "magic trees of the mind"--that help us to learn, think, and remember. At each stage of development, the brain's ability to gain new skills and process information is refined.
As a leading researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, Marion Diamond has been a pioneer in this field of research. Now, Diamond and award-winning science writer Janet Hopson present a comprehensive enrichment program designed to help parents prepare their children for a lifetime of learning.
Magic Trees of the Mind
Prologue and Acknowledgments
Introduction: Experience Is the Best Sculptor
1: Trees That Grow So Fair: Neural Forests of the Mind
2: An Enchanted Thing: The Brain's Network of Connections
3: Feed My Brain: Influences in the Womb
An Enrichment Program for the Unborn Child
4: Dreaming Eyes of Wonder: Nurturing the Very Young
An Enrichment Program for Babies and Toddlers
5: These Become Part of the Child: Stimulating the Mind in the Preschool Years
An Enrichment Program for Preschool Children
6: Letting the Future In: The Power Of Experience in Middle Childhood
An Enrichment Program for Grade School Children
7: Plant Another Tree: Continuing Mental Development in Adolescence
An Enrichment Program for Teenagers
8: Learning Not by Chance: Enrichment in the Classroom
9: As Morning Shows the Day: How Social Factors Shape Future Minds
Resource Guide: Additional Tools for Enrichment
Articles / Books / Organizations / On-line Resources / Catalogs and Commercial Sources / Parent-Recommended Enrichment Tools
Notes
Index
