Your Baby’s Inner Genius
If I told you that your 4 month old is equipped with rudimentary skills in mathematics you would probably think I am out of my mind. Popular lore has it that babies are born into the world with a complete blank slate, but that is far from the truth. Karen Wynn from Yale University believes we are programed with certain mental capabilities, like rudimental arithmetic and other pattern recognition skills.
Wynn uses the “looking time method” in her baby lab to detect attention intervals in participants. The principal behind the experiment is to detect what a baby finds surprising or unexpected. Allow me to illustrate this principle, an experimenter shows a stage with two toys, the baby stares for a little and deviates his gaze. The experimenter now shows one toy on stage, covers it with a curtain and shows a second toy entering the stage, the curtain is taken off, the baby sees the two toys and quickly stares away as if disinterested (1+1=2, blah). The experiment is ran a second time, the same scenario is repeated (a toy shown on stage, then covered by a curtain and a second toy entering the stage) but this time, before the curtain goes up, one of the toys is taken off through a back door leaving only one toy on stage, when the curtain finally goes up the baby appears to be surprised that there is only one toy and not two, thus staring for a longer time (1+1=1? Wait a minute). Impressive, don’t you think?
Stanislas Dehaene, neuroscientist at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, agrees with such findings stating, “Babies seem to be born with innate mathematical abilities. Besides being champion estimators, they can also distinguish exact numbers”
So, knowing the amazing brainpower of our young, what can we do to keep the momentum going? how can we foster the characteristics of a good learner? and what can be done to increase learning productivity at home?
First, let us consider the “nature vs nurture” dilemma. Simply stated, the current understanding appears to put the answer somewhere in between. John Medina and other prominent neuroscience researchers report that nature (genetics) control about 50 percent of our intellectual power, while the rest is determined by nurture. So, 50 percent of our kids’ intelligence is base on a loving nurturing environment that allows their brain to thrive. The misconception is that parents “think their child’s brain is interested in learning. That is not accurate. The brain is not interested in learning. The brain is interested in surviving.” Thus, loving parents who create an environment of safety at home tend to have children who are better adapted to learning experiences than children who live in negligent, hostile homes. We all go through moments of indignation at home, whether it be from work related stress or because we are having a bad day, making-up after an argument in front of your children, if they hear or witness such argument, is of major importance says, Daniel J. Siegel, psychiatrist at UCLA and author of The Whole-Brain Child.
I want to take the next paragraph to advocate for something I truly believe, and that is, the benefit of maternal breast milk. Before my son was born I took the time to navigate PubMed to find the latest medical science highlighting the benefits of maternal milk. These are some of my findings: Immunoglobulins to fight pathogens (dimeric IgA), important salts and minerals for the baby, taurine, organic acid essential for neural development, omega-3 fatty acids, and much more (I will dedicate a blog to maternal milk in the future). The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all mothers breast feed for the first six months and continue for up to a year. Studies show that elementary school children who breast-fed during infancy score, on average, 8 points higher in standard cognitive tests vs their formula-only counterparts. Adam Wolfberg, obstetrician and gynecologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, comments in his book Fragile Beginnings about the benefits of breast milk, “from fewer infections to fewer allergies and it has been shown…that breast-fed babies are smarter.” Breast-feeding is one of the best things a mother can do for her baby.
Experts’ recommend talking to your baby…a lot! Linguistic abilities are better developed by talking to your children as often as you can, this is a fact well-established by developmental scientists. By 18 months the majority of toddlers can pronounce 50 words and understand about 100, this numbers increases to 1,000 words by age three and 6,000 words by age six. But to keep the trend going, words most be taught by social interactions and not through television. It is true that certain programs are promoted towards young children, one of such are the famous Baby Einstein DVDs. Interestingly, in 2007 the University of Washington ran studies on the DVDs and found that the products did not work at all and did more harm than good, concluding: “for every hour per day the children spent watching certain baby DVDs and videos, the infants understood an average of six to eight fewer words than infants who did not watch them.” After two years of accusations from the Disney Company, countless expert opinions, and evaluations from private consultants, in October of 2009, Disney announced a product recall, offering refunds to those who had purchase the Baby Einstein materials. If you happen to be at a baby store this weekend pay attention to the packing of these materials, they no longer contain the word “educational”.
Lastly, I will mention something that has emerged in several books and articles and recently in my undergraduate course: Exceptional Children. A parent must praise effort, not intelligence, i.e., it is better to say “great job, you must have worked really hard” rather than, “you’re so smart, you’re the smartest of all”. More than 30 years of research shows that an emphasis on progressive learning—not intelligence or skill—is key. Children who believe intelligence is fixed, that is, the ones with a “fixed mind-set” when confronted with academic difficulties tend to be outperformed by their “growth mid-set” counterparts. The two hold different theories on intelligence, on one side the belief is that you have only a certain amount of intelligence and that’s that, while on the other the belief is that through hard work and perseverance, intelligence can be obtained.
Of course, as infants turn to toddlers and later on into children, one most keep adding to the teaching pool, activities like exercise, nutrition, learning to playing an instrument, and others, become important. The truth of the matter is that raising children is a tough job and there is no single approach to cracking the code; taking these suggestions under consideration and putting them to use will help as you travel through this long journey. Parents are indeed a child’s first educator. Good luck!
If you want to find more information about this topic I recommend the books I have mention in this blog. You can also get in contact with me through Twitter @Fen_Talks (there’s a direct link at the bottom of this page), if you liked this blog remember to give your kudos, subscribe, and share it with your friends but most importantly,
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