The dynamic brain

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Educationalists have suggested that it is better for us to learn certain subjects at certain stages in the development of our brains. Some believe that primary school is the best age to learn foreign languages. It is also argued that motor skills should be learned at an early stage in our lives when we are more sensitive to learning. We used to believe that the bulk of learning could only take place in these development years but in fact what is known brain plasticity can take place until the day we die. In other words, learning is a constant process throughout human life and not reserved for those years at school. Dr. Frederic Dick from Birkbeck College explains how different stages of development affect our ability to learn. Experience expectant learning is the kind of common learning that a human or animal does quite early on, around birth or a little afterwards, whereas experience dependent development relates to changes in the brain induced by aspects of the environment.