Research Library
The independent studies and articles behind our Brain Development guides, summarised in plain English, with links to read each one in full.
These are independent studies and articles we have read while building BAMJOY. The summaries are our own, written in plain English. Each link takes you to the original on the publisher’s website, where it is free to read. The authors are not connected with BAMJOY, and including their work here does not mean they endorse us.
Growing Brains, Nurturing Minds — Neuroscience as an Educational Tool to Support Students’ Development as Life-Long Learners
Hagar Goldberg · Brain Sciences
A review of how the brain reshapes itself through experience, and what that means for teaching. It points to the right balance of challenge and support, emotional safety, repetition and personal relevance (including the use of stories) as conditions that help learning stick.
Brain Development and the Role of Experience in the Early Years
Adrienne L. Tierney and Charles A. Nelson · Zero to Three
An introduction to how the brain develops before birth and through the first years, written for people who work with young children. It uses research on how babies tune in to the speech sounds and faces around them to show how everyday experience shapes the growing brain.
Putting Neuroscience in the Classroom: How the Brain Changes As We Learn
Bruce McCandliss and Elizabeth Toomarian · Trend magazine, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Two Stanford educational neuroscientists explain how learning to read reshapes circuits in the brain. They describe a study in which words learned through letter-sound teaching engaged the brain areas skilled readers use, while words learned as whole shapes looked more like a beginner’s pattern.
Related guide: Language & Sound MappingRead the paper (opens in a new tab)Long-term impact of digital media on brain development in children
Samson Nivins, Bruno Sauce, Magnus Liebherr, Nicholas Judd and Torkel Klingberg · Scientific Reports
A four-year study of over 6,000 children in the United States, aged around ten at the start, comparing time spent on social media, video games and TV with brain scans. Screen use made no measurable difference to the development of the cortex or striatum. A small link between heavy social media use and the cerebellum was judged too small to matter for an individual child, though the authors call for longer follow-up.
Related guide: Dual-Coding TheoryRead the paper (opens in a new tab)
Prefer the short version?
Our six Brain Development guides explain the ideas behind these studies in a few minutes each.
Read the guides