Sunday, February 16, 2014

The Lowdown on Early Brain Development: Raising Your Own Baby Mozart

Ever heard of the parenting myth which states that, “Fetuses exposed to classical early have higher learning rates than those who weren’t?” Yes, a lot of parents believed that fetal stage learning is possible. And they were right – minus the fact that music is still too complex for a fetus’ brain to comprehend. Knowing how a baby’s mind works is vital in helping him perceive and appreciate the world around him much better. Here are some major points about that:

The human brain is built from the bottom up.

A child’s begins learning as soon his first senses develop – in this case, vision and hearing. At this stage, 700 new neural connections are formed every second. This period of rapid proliferation is slowed down by a process called pruning, which decreases neural connections to give way to more complex brain circuits. Since hearing is one of the first senses, studies have shown that enhancing the “auditory atmosphere” in the womb helps the baby differentiate and prefer to react to natural sounds rather than unnatural ones – say, a mother’s heartbeat from another source. In other words, pre-birth learning has begun.

Experience is the best teacher.

Physical experiences have the biggest effect on a developing mind – in fact, it can even lead to disparities between learning and behavior. This means that babies will differ in terms of learning quickness and behavior because of the stimuli they receive from different situations. Also, early exhibitions of social or cognitive functions are directly affected by the environmental stimuli – and can be exact pre-requisites for academic or career success in the future.

Stress can deteriorate the developing brain early on.

Chronic stress, whether exhibited by the mother while the baby is in the womb or induced by society after a child’s birth, is shown to cause adverse effects to a baby’s developing brain. This can lead into slowed-down learning, inappropriate behavior and even mental problems. Want to raise your own baby Mozart? Keep this information in mind, and only time will tell if you are going to bring forth a smart, healthy child or not.