10/12 "The Brain: A User's Guide"

Prompt: Imagine that you are writing several paragraphs in a book called "The Brain: A User's Guide." What are the three most important insights about the early development of the human brain (from birth to the teenage years) that you would include? Explain each of your choices in detail, and why these ideas were of particular interest to you.

I think that there is an important insight that comes from each stage of life: baby, child, and teenager. For a baby I think it is most important to realize that vision is the last thing to develop in a human. I think everyone around a newborn must understand that at first babies see the world through what looks like a foggy photograph. This is something that parents and other family members must take into account when they interact with their child or try to teach them new things. It is also very important that because vision is the something so important to detect issues with because any damage done could become life-long.
The most important thing to understand about a child is the extreme plasticity of the brain at a young age. It is so important for parents to know this because this aspect of a child's development can either work for or against them. If parents provide a loving environment for the child to grow up in, he will develop properly. However, if parents fail to care for their child in a compassionate, welcoming world, that will serve as a huge detriment for the future of the child.
Finally, the most important fact to be understood about a teenager is that every single one's brain is not yet fully developed. I think teenagers are often misunderstood because it is expected that they can all make adult decisions. It is very interesting to learn that it's not that teens choose not to make appropriate choices, they are physically incapable because their frontal cortex (the station for proper decision making) is not fully developed. This leaves adolescents most susceptible to diseases like schizophrenia.