ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews implications for professional practice and suggests methods of advocacy to foster optimal brain development. Many practices that professionals support are based on human development principles and observations of effective practice. These practices may be informed by research on brain growth and neurological development. The effects of early exposure to art and music on brain growth and neurological development have been the focus of some study. Brain research has made changes in the simplistic "triune" brain model, which hypothesized that emotions were in the "mammalian" brain. Studies of motor and sensory brain areas indicate that actions requiring precise movement and motor coordination take up more space in the motor cortex than do broader but less demanding activities. While brain research has delineated differences in structures and functions of the two brain hemispheres and in the corpus callosum, recommended educational practices to teach to the left brain or right brain have far exceeded research evidence.
