Helping Your Baby's Mind to Grow

Babies' Brain Development

• Your baby's brain started growing before birth. When she was born her brain was about one-fourth its adult size. Your baby's brain will grow at its fastest until she is about three years old.
• How a baby's brain grows depends on many things. Some things are inherited from parents. Others depend on your baby's health and nutrition. Life experiences and relationships are also important. The way your baby's brain develops depends, in part, on what you say and do with her.
• Your baby's brain has many, many neurons or brain cells. The types of activities your baby has with objects and people stimulate these brain cells. This allows the neurons to make important connections in the brain. Everyday events determine how these connections are formed. Activities like holding and playing with toys are important. So is listening to people talk and being talked to.
• This is why your child needs stimulation and play. She needs to know that the world is full of interesting things to see and do. She needs to see that she can make things happen - like making other humans respond to her. She needs to know you love her. She needs to be able to explore and find things out. She needs you to talk to her and interact with her. These things will all help the part of brain development that depends on experience.

How to Provide Good Experiences for Your Baby's Brain Development

How should you provide these experiences for your baby? There isn't any one answer. We do know that some things help babies develop better.

• When they hear language
• When they have experiences with toys or objects
• When they know that people love them and pay attention to them

What's important is to find activities that you and your child enjoy doing together. When you do this, you are not just having fun with your baby. You are helping her brain grow.

Babies learn by exploring the things around them. Show your baby how to look at, listen to, touch or smell something new or different. Hold your baby so she can see things. Help her hold objects like her socks or a rattle. As she grows, give her safe objects to feel, shake or put into her mouth.

• Your baby's responses to what you are doing with her is your best guide to knowing if you are stimulating her. She should show interest and joy. If not, try something else. When your baby is a bit cranky and you change the scenery to keep her amused you are also helping to develop her brain.
• Places that are stimulating are filled with safe objects to explore and allow lots of movement. They also provide a variety of things to play with.
• Be your baby's teacher. She will see how you react to things. When you get excited about a toy or object, she'll get excited too. As she grows, show her how things work-for example, how doors open and close. Talk about what you are doing. For example, "I am putting the food in the pot to cook it."
• When a baby is learning something new, it helps her to try it again and again. With your help and support this can be fun, and your baby will like trying new things.
• Protect your baby from harsh disapproval. A baby doesn't understand right from wrong. She doesn't know what things are dangerous for her to do. Watch her to keep her safe. Remove her from situations where she can be hurt or injured.
• Talk and sing to your baby. Even before she is able to speak, this helps her develop language skills. Babies learn best when you talk to them.
• Read to your baby from the earliest months of her life and continue this habit as she grows.

Make a safe and fun place to play

The following suggestions may be helpful in creating a safe and fun place for your child to play. But also look at other settings where your child spends time.

• Provide safe access to windows to look out onto the world. Have unbreakable mirrors to look into. Also place brightly colored pictures at the baby's eye level for interest.
• Provide a quiet space where your baby can take a time out and relax. A snuggly reading nook with pillow and blankets is one idea.
• Plan spaces so that caregivers have a clear view of children's activities and multiple opportunities to interact with children

For 6-9 months:

• Create varying floor surfaces for crawling and walking such as mats, carpets and smooth floor surfaces.
• Design spaces for crawling in or climbing over.

For 6-18 months:

• Make containers accessible to babies so they are free to choose what they want to play with.

For 12-36 months:

• Organize toys in way that is easy to access. For example, fill one container with cars, one with blocks, one with things to dump and fill and another with things for dress-up.