Jokes ricocheted around the room of high school seniors Wednesday as brain development expert Tom Lottman challenged them to perform a task.

It's simple. It's easy. It also separates the adults from the teens.

"I know you won't be able to do it," Lottman said, "because your brain pathways aren't wired to do it."

The task: Hit the desk with your fist, side of your hand and palm of your hand in quick succession.

The room rumbled with the pounding, then with laughs.

"I can't do it," said Amanda Maxwell, 17, of Elsmere, as she hit the desk with fist, palm, palm, side, fist, fist.

Adolescent brains are wired with a tendency to repeat, not perform sequences, Lottman said.

"If I let you practice for three minutes, you could do it. That's how fast your brain could create those pathways," he said.

The exercise at Cheryl Eovaldi's English class at Dixie Heights High School is part of a new program in Kenton County Schools that introduces senior English classes to some of the latest brain development research.

Lottman has presented the program in all three Kenton County high schools: Simon Kenton, Scott and Dixie Heights, where he is presenting the information this week. The Kenton County program is a pilot. Children Inc. is planning to expand the program to Campbell County next year.

 It's more than parlor games and scientific charts. The information these students get could change the rest of their lives -- and the lives of generations.

"You will be the first generation of parents in human history who know about and have access to this information," said Lottman. "It will change the way you look at your children and interact with your children."

The brain research shows that what happens to a child in the early years has a direct impact on how the brain develops. The brain wires itself in the early years of life. Research also has identified several crucial windows of opportunity when the brain is especially nimble at acquiring particular skills, such as language and math.

Brain development is most active in the very early years, but continues through adolescence and into the 20s. "You might remember you were much less coordinated then when you started as freshmen," Lottman told the seniors on Wednesday.

That part of the brain develops rapidly in adolescence.

"It's not just physical skills that are wired after birth, it's emotional things and intellectual things," Lottman said.

He is the deputy director of Children Inc., the Covington-based child care agency that has become a nationally recognized champion of the growing brain development research.

Children Inc. helps sponsor a national brain research conference that draws scientists and educators from around the country. The message is always the same: everything a child experiences helps develop the brain in positive or negative ways, so everyone who interacts with a child should understand the power of their actions.

Peter Lefaivre, director of student support services for Kenton County Schools, invited Children Inc. to share that information with the graduating seniors.

"As our students get close to graduation, it's not uncommon for us to bring in speakers on topics we think may be of life-long importance to the kids," Lefaivre said.

"It doesn't matter if they're going to be parents or not, this is something everybody needs to know," he said.

The Children Inc. brain development education program is two sessions: a 30-minute introduction and a 90-minute session that includes group participation projects. In one exercise, students represent emotions such as excitement, anxiety, joy, fear. As Lottman describes situations, the students toss a ball of yarn, connecting the emotions and demonstrating how brain connections are forged and strengthened by experience.

The brain education sessions are held in senior English classes because that is a subject every students must take.

"We wanted to make sure every student got this," Lottman said.

Students read background material and are encouraged to write about it in their senior writing portfolio and in writing assignments.

On Wednesday, Lottman displayed pictures showing that the brain of a 6-year-old has more connections than that of a typical 14-year-old.

"The 6-year-old brain is wired for hope and opportunity," Lottman said. "It doesn't know if I'm going to be a great basketball player or a great musician or a doctor or a rock star."

But in adolescence, the brain starts paring the connections that aren't being used.

"You have to use it or lose it," Lottman said.

The program includes what Lottman calls brain exercises.

"We've found some of the greatest brain activity in adolescents is around 9 and 10 o'clock at night, when it is almost impossible for a teenager to fall asleep. The least active time is in the morning," he said.

Brain exercises that can help wake up that inactive brain include walking backward and brushing teeth with the left hand if you normally brush with the right hand.

"I was really surprised when I saw when I was 6 years old I had more brain than when I was 14," said Jennifer Kramer, 17, of Independence.

"This makes you look at how you are now and what was happening when you were little," she said.

Students aren't the only ones learning from the brain development sessions.

"My children are 29 and 27," said Eovaldi. "We didn't know a lot of these things when I was raising my children."