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Basically, it is about research that implemented animal models to analyse critical periods
of certain visual functions, as well as the impact of early exposure to complex or deprived contexts; and human models of production and pruning of synaptic contacts from postmortem samples of people of different ages. In any case, it is crucial to understand that
evidence from animal studies clearly differentiate between critical and sensitive periods, and that the problem in this case is about a misinterpretation.
Why Latin America Matters
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Omline Event: Private Sector and Early Childhood Investment - The Dialogue
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Original text in Spanish; English translation by the author of this essay.
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In other words, the level of neural organisation does not define or determine alone the
developmental trajectories, since this depends on a complex dynamic of interdependent interactions between individual and contextual factors, among which are included the
normative proposals for parenting of each society. The reduction of complex phenomena such as childhood development to a single level of organisation (e.g., the neural), without taking
into account the variability of possible trajectories that prevent anticipating them, is a decision (construction) preceded by categorical and political assumptions.
References Arndt, S. (2020). Diffracting relationalities in early years pedagogies of care. Global Studies of Childhood, 10, 347-357.
Becker, G.S. (1981). A treatise on the family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bruer, J.T. (1999). The myth of the first three years. A new understanding of early brain development and lifelong learning. New York: The Free Press.
Canosa, A., and Graham, A. (2020). Tracing the contribution of childhood studies: Maintaining momentum while navigating tensions. Childhood, 27, 25-47.
Cantor, P., Osher, D., Berg, J., Steyer, L., and Rose, T. (2019). Malleability, plasticity, and individuality: How children learn and develop in context. Applied Developmental Science, 23, 307-337.
Carli, S. (1999). La infancia como construcción social. in Carli, S. (Ed.) De la familia a la escuela: infancia, socialización y subjetividad (pp. 11-40). Buenos Aires: Ediciones Santillana.
Castorina, J.A. (2016). La relación problemática entre neurociencias y educación. Condiciones y análisis crítico. Propuesta Educativa, 46, 26-41.