A child’s earliest experiences have a greater impact on their future outcomes than those at any other point in their lives and have a more significant influence on a child’s brain development than genetics alone.
More than a million new connections are made in the brains of young children every second in their first three years, and this decreases over time. Neural connections that are not maintained are ‘pruned’ to make the brain circuitry more efficient. The brain is still capable of making these connections between neurons, that are responsible for a variety of different functions throughout a lifetime, but not at anywhere near the same rate as in the first three years.
Brain connections that form early, and are reinforced through use and repetition, provide the foundations for all other connections made later in life. Quality, positive exchanges between children and their parents or caregivers interact with genes to shape the way the child’s brain develops.
Learn more here: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/brain-architecture/