If babies' bodies grew at the same rapid pace as their brains, they would weigh 170 pounds by one month of age.
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The brain's capacity for change decreases with age.
The brain is most flexible, or "plastic," early in life to accommodate a wide range of environments and interactions, but as the maturing brain becomes more specialized to assume more complex functions, it is less capable of reorganizing and adapting to new or unexpected challenges.
Early plasticity means it's easier and more effective to influence a baby's developing brain architecture than to rewire parts of its circuitry in the adult years.
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The early years matter because, in the first few years of life, 700 new neural connections are formed every second. Neural connections are formed through the interaction of genes and a baby's environment and experiences, especially "serve and return" interaction with adults. These are the connections that build brain architecture - the foundation upon which all later learning, behavior, and health depend.
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