Baby brain stimulation

What environments favor brain development?

First of all, for baby brain development and healthy growth, nutrition must be balanced. Children who grow deprived of quality food intake will carry the consequences for life.

However, appropriate nutrition alone will not guarantee the better development of the child into the best s/he can be. Without overwhelming the baby with impossible tasks, the parents have the duty to accompany his/her curiosity and interest levels daily to provide her the mental satisfaction with external stimulus to which s/he will respond. A happy baby is synonimous to a baby with satisfied mental curiosity. His relationship to the world results from organizations of the inner nervous systems.

Parents are satisfied in feeding the baby, and tending to the his/her personal hygiene. They are satisfied in buying stimulating toys proposed by the media, advertisements, TV. The most important thing is not the toy in itself. The baby soon gets tired of it as s/he captures what s/he can from sight, listening, and touch. What is most important is the intermediate relationship that the caretaker (father/ mother/ sitter) has with the baby. The adult's response to the baby's behaviour is the key to this new being's success, a being who has had the opportunity to commence a trajectory on Earth.

What is this child's mission? How to prepare her for life? Your greatest legacy will be to help her develop all of her potential. Never ignore her, and plan to find her ready for life by adolescence. To start looking at your child when s/he's a teenager is too late. The path from birth to adult life is a path you must thread together. And it all starts with the development of your baby's brain. So let's get to work!

KEY STEPS TO BRAIN STIMULATION:

• The first step is to have her understand the s/he lives in a safe world. Mother/baby relationships must lead to the absence of fear. Familiarity of acts and occurrences in the home give the baby a sense of peace and safety. Coherence in your actions also provide your baby balance. S/he begins to develop expectations and an understanding of cause and consequence which must be guaranteed by action that do not lead to surprises that might startle or scare, or develop feeling of anguish and lack of that which s/he's accustommed to. Play with your baby. Teach him to listen, speak, read.

• The second step is to guarantee that the baby is responded to when s/he interacts with you verbally. Do not ignore her! Answer him, respond.

• The third step is preparing new things to show the baby everyday. Better yet, show her the world as s/he moves with you through it. Show colors, number them. Show different animals, different people, and eveything that's observable.

• The fourth step is demonstrating interest in yout baby's interests. Get involved in everything that motivates him/her.

• The fifth step is to always inquire. Speak correctly when asking questions. Do not repeat what s/he says in baby language. You may repeat the same phrase or his/her attempt at forming a sentence, or the word spoken in its correct form. This is what s/he will hear regularly and expect to hear it from you: correctly. You should demonstrate to your baby that verbal communication is an important way of loving him. Do not be harsh, impatient, noisy nor agressive. Your baby does not deserve to learn from you how to be inconsiderate or rough!

• The sixth step is to remember that the environment in which the baby moves has to be safe. No experiences that might hurt or traumatize. This is the point where I tell you that you should prepare adequate material for playtime with him/her. It is important to remove any and all objects that s/he shouldn't play with from his/her reach in the house. Forget vanity and un-decorate your home. Soon the baby will know what can and cannot be touched safely and you'll be able to have your decoration back to normal.

• The seventh step is to not punish the child for that which he did without understanding. Distract his/her attention onto something else; s/he'll forget what s/he was doing wrong. Remove the dangerous object from him. In this way, you won't be teaching that your reaction to repress is more important than the result of what just happened. Thus she won't learn to imitate your aggressiveness with her in the future, towards you or others.

In conclusion, teach content, not your bad habits, shortcomings, and reactions. Teach her to think, to observe, to solve problems, to sing, to play, and most of all, teach her to love the other. Give her brain a chance to develop towards becoming a future instrument of intelligent survival in this challenging world. Prepare him/her to be better than we were!

Eliane Leao, PhD

2010 Baby brain stimulation