Enrichment=Engagement

** "Enriching the Learning Environment: **
=== Marian Diamonds and her team of researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have been studying the impact of enriched environments on the brains of rats. Diamonds believes that enriched environments unmistakably influence the brain's growth and learning. An enriched environment for children Diamonds says: === === Diamond M. & Hopson. J. Magic Trees of the Mind.NY:Dutton, 1989 ===
 * === Includes a steady source of positive support; ===
 * === Provides a nutritious diet with enough protein, vitamins, minerals and calories; ===
 * === Stimulates all the senses (not necessarily at once) ===
 * === Has an atmosphere free of undue pressure and stress but suffused with a degree of pleasurable intensity; ===
 * === Presents a series of novel challenges that are neither too easy nor too difficult for the child at his or her stage of development; ===
 * === Allows social interaction for a significant percentage of activities; ===
 * === Promotes the development of a broad range of skills and interests: mental, physical, aesthetical, social and emotional; ===
 * === Gives the child an opportunity to choose many of his or her efforts and to modify them; ===
 * === Provides an enjoyable atmosphere that promotes exploration and the fun of learning; ===
 * === Allows the child be an active participant rather than a passive observer." ===