The Learning Brain: Memory and Brain Development in Children

by Torkel Klingberg

Overview

Despite all our highly publicized efforts to improve our schools, the United States is still falling behind. We recently ranked 15th in the world in reading, math, and science. Clearly, more needs to be done. In The Learning Brain, Torkel Klingberg urges us to use the insights of neuroscience to improve the education of our children.

The key to improving education lies in understanding how the brain works: that is where learning takes place, after all. The book focuses in particular on "working memory"—our ability to concentrate and to keep relevant information in our head while ignoring distractions (a topic the author covered in The Overflowing Brain). Research shows enormous variation in working memory among children, with some ten-year-olds performing at the level of a fourteen-year old, others at that of a six-year old. More important, children with high working memory have better math and reading skills, while children with poor working memory consistently underperform. Interestingly, teachers tend to perceive children with poor working memory as dreamy or unfocused, not recognizing that these children have a memory problem. But what can we do for these children? For one, we can train working memory. The Learning Brain provides a variety of different techniques and scientific insights that may just teach us how to improve our children's working memory. Klingberg also discusses how stress can impair working memory (skydivers tested just before a jump showed a 30% drop in working memory) and how aerobic exercise can actually modify the brain's nerve cells and improve classroom performance.

Torkel Klingberg is one of the world's leading cognitive neuroscientists, but in this book he wears his erudition lightly, writing with simplicity and good humor as he shows us how to give our children the best chance to learn and grow.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199917105
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/02/2012
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.40(h) x 2.90(d)

About the Author

Torkel Klingberg, MD, PhD, is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Stockholm Brain Institute, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. His work on child development and brain training is at the international front line. Klingberg leads a major Swedish project on child development, lectures regularly at international conferences, is the recipient of several prizes, and a member of the Nobel Assembly. He is the author of The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory (OUP).

Table of Contents

1 Being unlucky when you think
- the importance of working memory
Remembering what to concentrate on
Why do students daydream?
The working memories of the Nynäshamn children
ADHD and children with low working memories

2 The growing brain
- how the brain develops and matures
The development of the brain
The brain matures
Genes and the brain
The white matter

3 Through the Pyrenees by motorbike
- the risk-taking teenage brain
Risks and rewards
Neuroscience and the law

4 "Now I am really awake for the first time ever"
- long term memory
Children's long-term memory
The key to the memory
Improving the long-term memory

5 Mathematics, memory and space
Counting babies
Retaining numbers in working memory
The mnemonic map
Mathematical areas
Mathematics and gender
Dyscalculia - does it exist?
Premature birth and dyscalculia
Training programs

6 Reading, dyslexia and problematic relationships
Learning to read
Reading areas of the brain and dyslexia
Dyslexia: genetics and displaced cells
Why the problems are interconnected
Dyslexia training and neuroscientific predictions

7 The early environment and brain development
- the importance of stimulation and engaged parents
Stimulating environments and brain development
The role of parents in memory and stress

8 Skydiving and expectations
- what acute and chronic stress do to us
Stress hormones and nerve cells
Social stress
Chronic stress

9 Cognitive training, memory techniques and music
The dream of the perfect memory
The brain of a memory champion
Working memory training
The art of training
Can everything be trained?
Music

10 Body and soul
Jogging and the brain
Intelligence and infections

11 This will change everything
Five themes
A schoolgirl of the future


References

Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

With a friendly and clear writing style, Klingberg introduces us to the factors that shape working memory, and the profound impact it has on our lives.

The New York Times Book Review - Christine Kenneally

"With a friendly and clear writing style, Klingberg introduces us to the factors that shape working memory, and the profound impact it has on our lives... Crucially, Klingberg highlights the costs of missed diagnosis: children with working memory deficits have extreme difficulty attaining math and verbal skills and suffer from low self-esteem" — New York Times Book Review

"Klingberg mixes multiple anecdotes with scientific studies... The result is fascinating and readable. There is much to recommend in this book. The anecdotes and descriptions of many pieces of research are interesting and sure to pique the curiosity of most readers." —PsycCRITIQUES

From the Publisher

Swedish neuroscientist Klingberg (cognitive neuroscience, Stockholm Brain Inst., Karolinska Inst., Sweden; The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory) relates his latest research on children's brain development and working memory to education and public policy. He tells us, "we are in the midst of a swelling torrent of knowledge about learning," citing scientific articles published on the subject since 2000. His work here is largely a synthesis of the most interesting articles and studies on some of the hot topics in popular brain science, i.e., brain training, stress, learning disabilities, and exercise. The book concludes with a suggestion, "Why not an X prize for learning?" while advocating an education system based on science rather than politics. VERDICT While not as engaging as some popular-science titles published in recent years, this book is nonetheless a timely and fascinating choice for interested lay readers.—Mindy Rhiger, Minneapolis, MN

Library Journal