Hello, students in CSU’s HD 310, Infant and Child Development in Context. I’m writing these notes before I talk to you. I wonder if they’ll have anything to do with what I said? My overall plan: To show one way of looking at what makes up effective intelligence, to discuss the interference with one part of effective intelligence that we call ADD, and hopefully, to look at recent research about executive function in the normal adolescent brain.

First, I talked about my book, Grow With the Flow, and the model of intelligence I present there. Several recent theories help us understand what makes up effective, real-world, on-the-ground intelligence. To talk about those theories, and that practical definition of intelligence, I use the metaphor of a river with five tributaries:

• Basic Cognitive Abilities – There are basic cognitive building blocks which we blend and harness to yield effective tools to operate on and in the world. I focus John Carroll’s work. The basic cognitive abilities have special application to early childhood.
• Many Ways to Be Smart – Multiple Intelligences Theory, exemplified in the work of Martin Gardner. Instead of asking “How smart are you?” this theory leads us to ask, “How are you smart?”
• The Director – Management Functions, best called Executive Functions, refer to our ability to plan, direct, and coordinate our intelligences and abilities. My work here was strongly influenced by research about ADD, especially the theory of Russell Barkley.
• Motivation – Without the motor, nothing moves. Motivation is the key to human development.
• Knowledge, External Intelligence, and Information Management – Knowing stuff isn’t as important as it used to be, because we can’t know it all. What matters is to know how to find and manage the world’s knowledge.

Second, I focused on The Director, the Executive Functions that are so important to real world intelligence. I looked at the current definition of Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and some criticisms that have been made of that definition. Against that backdrop, I talked about a major article by Adele Diamond that attempts to divide the ADHD turf up more logically.

Here are links to some of the articles I mentioned:

Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Adolescent Brain
JAY N. GIEDD
National Institute of Mental Health
“…. The dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, important for controlling impulses, is among the latest brain regions to mature without reaching adult dimensions until the early 20s.”

Imaging Study Shows Brain Maturing
“The brain’s center of reasoning and problem solving is among the last to mature, a new study graphically reveals. The decade-long magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of normal brain development, from ages 4 to 21, by researchers at NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) shows that such “higher-order” brain centers, such as the prefrontal cortex, don’t fully develop until young adulthood.
A time-lapse 3-D movie that compresses 15 years of human brain maturation, ages 5 to 20, into seconds shows ….”

THE RELEVANCE OF BRAIN RESEARCH TO JUVENILE DEFENSE

Robert E. Shepherd, Jr.
American Bar Association
“It seems apparent from the research that the impulsivity, disregard of long-term consequences, irresponsibility, vulnerability to peer group pressure, tendency to risk-taking, and other characteristics of adolescents, especially in those who commit delinquent and criminal acts, are not just reflections of emotional immaturity, but are products of neurological immaturity as well. These characteristics are built in–literally hard-wired into the adolescent brain–and are not aberrant symptoms of moral weakness.”

Who’s Minding the Teenage Brain?
RICHARD MONASTERSKY
Chronicle of Higher Education
Volume 53, Issue 19, Page A14 , January 12, 2007