The prefrontal cortex develops abruptly at about 5 years of age and once again developing even further after puberty. During this period, the way adults are involved with children in the home is the key to promoting a child’s brain development.
Parent-child communication is important for infants up to 5 years of age, but brain training is also effective after adulthood, just like adults. Specifically, it is crucial to train working memory in the prefrontal cortex at this stage.
So what is working memory? It is the ability to process information while temporarily storing it in your head, essential supporting daily life, learning and work. The working memory is the brain’s command tower (the prefrontal cortex).
So why is it important to train your working memory, especially after puberty? The reason is not only to improve learning ability and memory, but to also develop necessary social life skills such as predicting and acting in advance, coming up with new things and engaging with people effectively.
So what is a good way to train working memory? Reading is recommended as a training method to train working memory, where the main key point is to read intensively while remembering the contents and key points. Another effective tool is brain training. Continuing brain training such as “reading”, “writing”, and “calculating” not only prevents deterioration of the brain’s functions, but also improves functions of the prefrontal cortex that is responsible for working memory.
For both adults and children, train your working memory through reading and brain training!