About neuleaph

Neuleaph Child & Brain began eight years ago as a blog, devoted to the latest from my new niche career, early childhood neuroeducation.

From there it has grown to include my private work in the field of early childhood educational therapy and executive function coaching.

I have also used it as gallery for creative projects I have undertaken over the years, as  as a co-founder and early childhood educator at The Red Hook Playgroup, and as the founder and director of Neuleaph Early Learning, a local network of Montessori-at-home playgroups.

While my identity has grown to include these new roles, I remain a teacher of young children who sees the intertwining of education with the neuroscience of early development and learning as one of the most exciting things to happen to my field.

I have been a student of Neuroeducation since 2000, before the field had a name or full identity. Though it raised some eyebrows when I first began the new MS program in Neuroscience and Education (from Columbia University Teacher’s College) my training has served me well. I have loved watching the field unfold as I continue to develop as an educator, organizational tutor, early learning consultant, and educational therapist.

I continue to be intrigued by the many connections between neuroeducation with the fresh and elegant teaching philosophies and psychological theories that have emerged in the field of Early Whole Child Education, including Montessori, Piaget, Reggio Emilia, Dewey, Kodaly and Orff.

Finally, I believe that one of the most important and vital ideas to grow from the union of Neuroeducation and Early Childhood is the importance of creativity and I aim to foster this most vital piece of the human experience in young psyches. I also commit to continuing my own creativity in my work – making, building, connecting and honoring those things I think should be in the world for our children. I hope that this site serves as a resource, model and inspiration for all who are doing the same!

The full site is comment-friendly! I welcome you to treat it as an open space and share your thoughts.

56 thoughts on “About neuleaph

  1. I have to say, while looking through hundreds of blogs daily, the theme of this blog is different (for all the proper reasons). If you do not mind me asking, what’s the name of this theme or would it be a especially designed affair? It’s significantly better compared to the themes I use for some of my blogs.

    • Hi,

      Thanks for your interest! The general theme is Twenty Eleven 1.2 by WordPress. I have played around with the appearance and added in my own cache of media, but I find the WordPress set up easy to use and rewarding.

  2. I have never seen such beautiful pictures of the brain! Thank you for sharing them, along with fascinating information about how they work.
    I have been reading Patel’s recent book on Music, Language and the Brain, and would appreciate your sharing how you integrate music into your classroom (you mention Kodaly and Orff) and what role you believe it plays in your students’ learning process. For example, Patel discusses neuroscience research on the close relationship between music and language acquisition : have you seen any evidence of this in your classroom?

    • Thank you!

      You raise some very interesting points. Please keep your eye out for this month’s post. I will talk about “moving beyond Baby Mozart…” Filtering out some of the myths and coming the understand the basics about what early music education provides the developing brain.

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  4. Today, I went to the beach front with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is entirely off topic but I had to tell someone!

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    I hope you will consider writing a book bridging the gap between theory and practice, using your illuminating examples- or teach a course.
    P.s.
    I find myself very curious about what happened with ‘Tess’. Will you will share the outcome?

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