Reading "The More Child" Blog today led me to an article about a father's experience "afterschooling" Everyday Math. (Thanks SwitchedOnMom!)
http://ednews.org/articles/one-step-ahead-of-the-train-wreck.htmlOne of the comments at the end caught my attention.
University of Illinois at Chicago Professor David Page studied the similarities between learning the language of advanced mathematics and learning a foreign language, and found that both are best achieved at an early age.[1].
Page, David, University of Illinois, Department of Mathematics, personal communication, 1996.
A study reported in the scientific journal, Nature, showed that when children learn second languages by age eleven, they use a different part of the brain than that which is used after age eleven. Apparently, language learning is more effective at this location, �the original language learning center,� than at other parts of the brain.[2] This may be why young children, in comparison to older children and adults, learn new languages readily, and it underscores the importance of teaching the �language of [advanced] mathematics� to children at an early age.
I thought this was an important point in terms of accelerating children in math but I couldn't find additional information. Has anyone come across anything like this?
