Since I was a kid I was never good at math, but I was better at being creative and writing. Now new research has shown that we may be on track to find out why some children learn easier with certain subjects than others.
The study was conducted on 27 children between the ages of 4 and 11 and also included 20 adults in watching the same Sesame Street video as they had their brains scanned with FMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging). After the viewing, the children and adults took a standardized IQ test to examine their verbal and mathematical abilities. The result was quite surprising….
I've always said math will never be my strong suit, but this study could be proving me wrong. After all everyone learns differently, so maybe I just needed a different technique to learn it.
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According to cognitive neuroscientist Jessica Cantlon, it took three years to conduct the brain test study. The study was done this way because it's easier to determine the cause of a kid's math difficulty, since learning impairments use a different part of the brain.
Researchers created "neural maps" to compare the thought processes between children and adults. What they learned was that those children who did well on the math and verbal tests had a "neural map" very similar to adults, which means that our brains develop in a predictable way as we mature, the same way as any other part of our body grows and develops as we get older!
While this study and its results are very complicated, the gist of it is that this will be a positive asset towards future studies which can help scientists learn about the brain areas that may be causing learning difficulties in children. Plus, it can also help them determine if educational shows are better than non-educational shows at analyzing brain activity, and actually helping children's brains mature.
For now though, they know what areas they should focus on to get to the bottom of children's learning difficulties. This is amazing, mostly because it could impact teacher's teaching techniques a great deal. We'll have to wait until further research is done, but once a solution is found, this is going to be revolutionary in the classrooms and at home–and Sesame Street will be partially responsible for hopefully helping make all kids geniuses in the classroom!
Image via Thinkstock
