It is important that the human brain has plenty of plasticity in order for it to grow properly during development.
Plasticity is the brain's ability to adapt to it's deficits and to injury. If it cannot adapt, proper growth with not occur.
Early childhood is the time when brain development is the most important. During the first three years of a baby's life most of it's brain is physically developed. Much of cerebrum is not used in it's full until later years, with even a larger portion never being fully taken advantage of. This upstairs are very different at different ages - A 3-5 year old child's mind works differently than a 1-3 year old, and during different stages of development different things happen inside the brain.
Breast feeding can cotribute to healthy brain development in babies and toddlers. Stimulation is important at an early age. Have your children do puzzles, and flash cards to develop memory and problem solving skills.
Get your kids outside. Inside, diversity of brain stimulation is limited. This is because children get accustomed to the normal items in a house - such as pets, toys, and furniture. If you get them outside in the back yard, they'll experience more in a day than they might during a week inside. For some children, the only diversity of stimulation will come from a television. Allowing children to only watch educational television programs, and limiting their TV time to 1-2 hours per day will break a lazy bad habit before it starts in the early childhood.
It has been long established that a fetus is capable of a degree of complex behavior. During the 9th week of gestation a human fetus is able to move it's head. The fetal heart rate or FHR is important to consider. During stimulating activity, the FHR increases. Some external experiments have taken place to see this in action, such as playing music for an unborn baby. This may contribute to the proper growth of the fetus midbrain. Vestibular and vibroacoustic perception account for this anomaly, and may be present after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
One thing to be said about brain development is that it is an essential part of our health. Just because we think with our heads, doesn't mean that our body doesn't notice the difference. We should all take in foods rich in antioxidants in order to maintain healthy brain activity throughout our lives as well as keeping our body in the loop.
Blind people understand things differently, so using contractions doesn't come quickly with them.