photo credit: Leonid Mamchenkov
A baby’s brain develops rapidly in the first three years of life when 80% of the adult brain is formed. During this period, the brain’s synapses or neural connections are also being formed.
According to brain experts, the amount of external stimulation a child receives will determine how many synapses are formed. The synapses formed into a link network that determines how the brain learns and thinks. Synapses must be stimulated or else it will be eliminated. Therefore, when your child reaches 3 years old, his brain foundation for thinking and learning is more or less concluded. Below are some ideas on how to nurture your child in order to enhance his mental development.
* Give your child sufficient nutrition
During the early growing up period, research has shown that malnourished children will have smaller brains, lower IQ and is slower to learn languages as well as slower in his motor development. Therefore, ensure that your child’s diet contains fat, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), AA (arachidonic acid) and iron which are all needed for proper brain growth.
* Raise your child in a stimulating environment
The brain synapses will form more denser links or circuitry with sufficient stimulation from touch, sounds, tastes, smells and feelings. Provide your child with some interesting toys for him to play with. Choose age appropriate toys that enhance his creative thinking at the same time.
Playing games can also help to stimulate the brain. For example, matching games or a treasure hunt. Reading children’s books provide lots of opportunities for visual and mental stimulation besides promoting his language development.
Playing music to young children has shown that it improves the spatial temporal reasoning of the brain. Singing and playing musical instruments promotes language development, creativity and imagination.
* Bond with your child
Doing simple activities with your child like talking, singing and playing games enhance his cognitive development. You can bring him out to the park, supermarket, beach, library, etc. The different places, faces and things that he sees and experience will all help in his mental development.
Do you do anything special in nurturing your baby in the hopes that he will be smarter? For my side, I bought the Baby Einstein video and CD’s for my first child and used them for all my three kids. On whether it helps to make them smarter is difficult to judge but they did enjoy the video and music very much.