By using each of the six metaphors, separately and together, you can help parents, carers and communities understand how to build a healthy environment in which children’s brains can develop. Interactions between a child and an adult is like playing a game of tennis. When adults ‘return’ the child’s ‘serve’ with a positive response, a ‘rally’ is created. What research tells us about risk, impact and what works to help children and families who need additional support. Shonkoff, J.P. et al (2014), Excessive stress disrupts the architecture of the developing brain: working paper 3 (PDF). Cambridge: Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University.

Children’s Minds by Margaret Donaldson | Goodreads Children’s Minds by Margaret Donaldson | Goodreads

We all have good days and bad days, but when negative thoughts and feelings start to affect your daily life and stop you doing the things you enjoy, or your ability to feel ok, this means you probably need some support with your mental health. For example, nearly everyone gets anxious before an exam, a job interview or a first date. But if we feel anxious all the time, constantly worrying that the worst could happen, and this stops us sleeping well or meeting up with friends, we might benefit from some help. Find out more about mental health. To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Help children foster decision making and cognitive skills within playful situations appropriate to their age and ability: encourage the child to make choices and ‘direct their own activities with decreasing adult supervision over time’ (Shonkoff et al, 2011, p.6). I liked the way Donaldson defines the type of language necessary for the type of mental representation required for such sophisticated thinking, what Piaget terms 'formal operational' and Bruner 'symbolic'--'disembedded' language. What a lovely concrete way to describe abstraction, and what a wonderful way to remind us to initially 'embed' the language we employ in teaching children, before we push them to 'disembed.' Children have a natural curiosity to explore experiences. Non-verbal and verbal creative expression must be valued and noticed.When you’re living with a mental health problem, or supporting someone who is, access to the right information is vital. To learn and grow appropriately, a baby’s brain has to be healthy and protected from diseases and other risks. Promoting the development of a healthy brain can start even before pregnancy. For example, a healthy diet and the right nutrientslike sufficient folic acid will promote a healthy pregnancy and a healthy nervous system in the growing baby. Vaccinations can protect pregnant women from infectionsthat can harm the brain of the unborn baby. Use strips of paper or white boards and pens to allow the children to experiment with making marks to represent each sound. They could also represent sounds in the form of movements too. How this activity links to the other areas of learning

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The first Sharing the Brain Story metaphor describes how the development of children’s brains is like the development and construction of a house.Shonkoff, J.P. et al (2004) Young children develop in an environment of relationships (PDF). Cambridge: Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University.