ABSTRACT
During the elementary age period, brain development is accompanied by growth in motor coordination, metalinguistic awareness, self-efficacy knowledge, and social competence. This age period involves more individualization of brain structures and functions as children interact with a wider level of environmental experiences. Although elementary-age children can overcome some types of dire early childhood circumstances, by the end of this age period, human opportunities for significant expansion of the synaptic system do appear to be limited. Studies of brain activation during typical children's performance on academically related tasks also have been of interest. One longitudinal study of phonological processing during rhyming indicated that different aspects of phonological processing rely on different neural systems. Although these studies suggest differences in children's brain activation when they are playing video games that call on varied skills, further study is needed to probe the implications related to effects of video game play on long-term brain development.
