Harry Giles - Scientific Support

Scientific Support

The founding of the Toronto French School coincided with what later proved to be education-altering research in neuroscience, cognitive psychology and early childhood development.

At the same time that Giles began introducing very young children to a second language with improved academic results across all subjects, the work of Nobel Prize laureates Dr. David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel demonstrated that if the visual cortex behind the eye is deprived of stimulation during initial development, it will never be able to process visual information, even if the eye itself is not defective.

Giles’ intuition was vindicated by the discovery that appropriate and targeted sensory stimulation is fundamental during formative brain development, or neural pathways will die and that the window of opportunity for cultivating optimal sensory processing is alarmingly brief. The discovery of this narrowly defined opportunity for bolstering neural pathway expansion has come to be known as the critical period in early brain development. It determines children’s capacity for language acquisition and higher cognitive functioning.

During the 1980s and 1990s, interdisciplinary researchers, such as Canadian neurologist Dr. Fraser Mustard, illuminated the connection between optimal early development and durable social health. Giles’ longstanding educational philosophy was further borne out by the realization that early intervention (especially the first 3 years) has a lifelong effect on the brain’s wiring and sculpting, setting the stage for future competence and coping skills.