You might be thinking that kids are too young to understand brain development and the beginnings of neuroscience; well, I challenge you try it!

If a parent/carer can learn the basics of brain development, it gives you the power to understand your child and their emotions and behaviours. Imagine how powerful that could be if the child could understand, too. This kind of knowledge gives children the tools and power to make decisions based on what they understand is happening to their brain.

Dr Dan Siegal and Tina Payne Bryson wrote a book named “The Whole Brain Child”. It is a great resource for any parents/carers wanting to dive into understanding the brain and understand why their child behaves the way that they do. The best part is, it gives really practical advice and strategies to try, to help your child through big emotions.

Siegal and Bryson (2019) suggest thinking about the brain as a house which has an upstairs and downstairs. The downstairs brain is fully developed at birth and is responsible for your more primitive basic functions such as blinking, breathing, your fight/flight/freeze response and your strong emotions like fear and anger.

The upstairs of your brain is made up of your cerebal cortex, it is much more evolved than your downstairs brain and interestingly, not fully developed until the age of 25! Siegal and Bryson (2019) explain that this is where you make your more intricate mental processes such as thinking, imagining and planning. The cortex is sophisticated and complex and can allow a person to appear mature and healthy.

So the next time you try to rationalise with your 5-year-old as to why they can’t have the day off school to go to beach, remember that they are going to use their fully developed emotional brain, to express to you how angry they feel. Their (very) underdeveloped, upstairs brain, will not be logically thinking through the reasons as to why it is not a good decision to go the beach instead of school.

Dr Daniel Siegal has a fantastic video, demonstrating what actually happens when your child ‘flips their lid’. Check it out here, remembering, that
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!