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Developing Your Baby's Brain
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by: Ishi Bansal
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Have you ever wondered why toys for babies tend to have so many bells,
whistles and lights? Or why they have so many different textures, and
materials and colors? It's almost as if we want to provide young babies
with a whole world of stimulation and we can't quite get it to them fast
enough.
Play gyms or activity gyms as they are sometimes called tend to be a firm
favorite with babies from newborn up to about 12 months. These play gyms
and activity nests mostly come in the form of comfortable, quilted or
softly padded playmats, sometimes raised at the edges with a space in the
middle for baby (like a ring doughnut). And these play gyms can be either
brightly colored or in soft, pastel shades. But don't be fooled by thinking
they are just snug and comfy resting places for babies to fall asleep in!
These activity gyms can provide a plethora of visual, audio and tactile
stimulation for fast developing young inquisitive minds.
Often decorated with well known and lovable characters, Winnie-the-Pooh,
Tigger, Eyore, or farm and zoo animals as well, they can consist of
detachable, hanging parts for small babies to try to grasp. They tend to
have parts that are crinkly, soft, scrunchy textures for baby to touch,
squeeze and stroke. Some come with bright twinkling lights and bells and
others make funny sounds, or musical sounds, and some even do both. You
will often find mirrors attached to these activity gyms, so that your baby
gets to find and see its own reflection, often providing hours of fun for
babies and carers alike. All of this is extremely important for developing
young minds.
Babies are like a sponge, they are ready to absorb whatever information
they can - and boy - they can't grasp it fast enough! A lot of new research
points to the first three years of life as being critical to a baby's
developing brain. It is a known fact that during this period, not only does
the brain triple in weight but it also establishes thousands of billions of
nerve connections.
Astonishingly, at the age of three, a young child has twice as many nerve
connections as many adults. Therefore,in your role as a parent, or primary
care giver, it is of paramount importance that you recognize this and
understand just how much development is taking place inside your young
baby's brain from birth until the age of three.
At birth, children have most of the neurons (brain cells) they need for a
lifetime however, these brain cells are not yet linked (or "wired")
together to form the complex networks that are required for mature thought
processes to take place. And what happens is that in the early years, young
children's brain cells form these connections, or synapses as they are
commonly called, very very rapidly.
One of the crucial ingredients to aiding these connections to form, is
experience, and repetition. In a word, the more times you repeat something
new, like showing a baby how to scrunch up a ball, the quicker these
connections are formed. Therefore, it naturally follows that the more
positive interaction you give an infant or toddler, the more you are
helping to stimulate young brains.
This stimulation causes new connections to form neural pathways and
strengthens existing ones. Playing with activity gyms, with all the bells
and whistles that they offer or reading to a child, anything which allows a
child to have positive, interactive processes, will aid your child's brain
development.
So, as you lovingly sit and watch your young baby laughing and gurgling on
the play mat or under the activity gym - do not underestimate the power of
the changes taking place in the brain, all enriching an inquisitive mind
and arming it with a plethora of knowledge and understanding for years to
come.
About the Author:
Ishi Bansal is a mother of two
and webmaster of http://www.1st-toys-online.com.
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