Child Brain Development

Early Child Development - Child Brain Development

Your childs brain started growing before birth. When your child was born the brain was about one-fourth its adult size. Child brain development is at its fastest until about three years of age.

Child brain development depends on many things. Some things are inherited from parents. Others depend on your childs health, nutrition, experiences and relationships. The way your childs brain develops depends, in part, on what you say and do with them.

Your childs brain has a huge amount of neurons or brain cells. Activities you present to your child with objects, the senses, and people stimulate these neurons. This allows the neurons to make important links in the brain. Everyday activities determine how these links are formed. Activities like holding and playing with toys or listening to people talk are important for child brain development. Sensory stimulation and play are crucial to early child development. A child needs to know you love them. A child needs to be able to explore and find things out. A child needs you to stimulate seven senses. These things will all help child brain development; and the part of brain development that depends on experience.

What you say and do with your child helps their brain grow and develop. This happens when you show your child how to shake a rattle (hearing); it happens when you show a child how to reach for a stuffed toy and touch it (touch); it happens when you feed your child something bitter and sweet (taste); it happens when you present your child with different aromas (smell); it happens when you show your child different colors, or black and white shapes (sight); it happens when you massage and gently push and pull their legs (proprioception-joint compression); it happens when you balance your child on your knee (vestibular-balance); the seven senses are being stimulated; it happens when you help a child make new sounds (speech); it happens when you respond to a childs smile by smiling back (communication); it happens when you introduce different people to your child (social development).

The early wiring and early child development of your childs brain sets the stage for future development. The kinds of experiences a child has in his first three years have a deep and lasting impact. So does the quality of a childs relationships. What a child sees, hears, feels, smells, tastes and does helps child brain development. This helps a child learn new skills.

The brain controls how your childs body works. It also controls thinking and feeling. It controls learning and memory.

Have fun with your child. Do things with your child in your own way. Your child is special. As a father or mother, you are the most important person in your childs life.

You can do many things to encourage your childs learning and successful child brain development. These are easy things to do. You can just have fun with your child, and a child will learn. You can just be a parent, and your child can just be a child.

Here are a few things that will help child brain development:

? Hold your child up in front of a mirror. Point out mommy and child in the mirror. ? Hand your child a toy, first to one hand and then to the other. A child will soon learn to pass the toy from one hand to the other. ? Bounce a large ball up and down. Soon your child can follow the ball with his eyes. ? Roll a ball toward a wall so that it hits and comes back. Your child will learn to watch for the ball to come back. ? Help your child to stand up by holding a child under his armpits. Babies will straighten their knees before they learn to relax them. ? Sing songs when you are dressing or bathing your child, or make up rhymes about his eyes, nose and mouth. ? Get down on the floor with a child and give a child toys to play with. Sometimes, put the toy out of their reach so a child will have to stretch for it. Other times, cover part of the toy with a blanket and see if a child can find it. Be sure to make it fun so your child doesn?t get frustrated. ? Talk to a child and repeat the sounds a child makes. When a child says ?baa,? you say ?baa.? a child will smile and laugh and try to make the same sound again. ? Read a book to a child every day, even if it is the same book. ? Dance to music with a child in your arms. ? Sing children?s songs to a child. ? Take a child for a walk in his stroller or in a cuddly pack when the weather is nice. Talk to a child about what you see. ? Sit and balance a child in your lap ? show a child color pictures in magazines. ? Show a child toys of different colors. ? When a child gets tired of playing or trying to talk, cuddle a child and hug a child. Let a child know you love them and care about them. ? Babies love doing the same thing over and over and over again. This repetition is an excellent way for your child to learn.

Paul Mackie The Child Development Guy is a professional Early Childhood Educator. http://www.childdevelopmentfromyears1-4.com http://www.storybooksthatteach.com http://www.educationalchildsplay.com