The New York Times recently reported about how cognitive neuroscience is helping to clarify when young brains are best able to grasp fundamental concepts and how basic academic skills are taught. 

"For much of the last century, educators and many scientists believed that children could not learn math at all before the age of five, that their brains simply were not ready. But recent research has turned that assumption on its head — that, and a host of other conventional wisdom about geometry, reading, language and self-control in class."