Nursery World - Brain waves

The latest research by neuroscientists brings important messages for early years educators about how young children's learning develops. Wendy Wallace reads between the lines Renowned neuroscientist Professor Colin Blakemore has issued a clarion call to the Government and all concerned with early years education to get their priorities right. There is no evidence, he says, that early formal instruction benefits children (and some that it disadvantages them) but plenty to suggest society could make better use of nursery education for three-and four-year-olds.

Renowned neuroscientist Professor Colin Blakemore has issued a clarion call to the Government and all concerned with early years education to get their priorities right. There is no evidence, he says, that early formal instruction benefits children (and some that it disadvantages them) but plenty to suggest society could make better use of nursery education for three-and four-year-olds.

In a recent lecture to a packed hall at the Royal Society of Arts in London, Professor Blakemore - who has a mission to make science accessible to lay people -outlined increases in scientific understanding of early learning and the brain and the messages they contain for early years educators.

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