Improve Your Baby’s Brain Development
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By Nicole Gregory
Of all the caregiving tasks you’ll perform for your newborn, the most daunting may be helping her develop optimally. And development of her brain seems particularly crucial. While it may feel like a big responsibility, experts say that all you need to do is what parents have done for thousands of years: Hold her, look at her, talk and sing to her, and respond to her needs. Interaction with parents does more for a baby’s brain in the first year of life than anything else.
How baby’s brain grows
A baby is born with 100 billion brain cells, and this number increases exponentially as her brain begins to develop.
“Infancy is a period of rapid growth and change,” says Anna Penna, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. “Neurons in the cortex [front and top of the brain] are all born by the time a baby is delivered at term,” she says, “but neurons in the cerebellum—a region at the back of the brain that is involved in motor control, cognition and error correction— are still being born for the fi rst few years of childhood.”
Different parts of the brain develop at different rates. Vision, for instance, is immature at birth, designed only to see a parent’s face up close. But at 3 months, a baby can track a moving object. By age 1, her vision is like an adult’s. Hearing, however, is perfect at birth. By 3 months a baby will know your voice, and look for you when she hears it.
Sights, sounds, touches and smells flood a baby’s brain and it becomes a dynamic activity center.
NEXT: What does a baby’s brain need?
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Comment by Nalliah Thayabharan on Jan 05 2013 01:14:17:
Brain can change instantly according to how the mind relates to it. Brain is endlessly adaptable. Other organs of the body also respond to positive and negative thinking, but their response must come through the brain first; it functions as command central for the rest of the body. Beliefs, expectations, likes and dislikes that you hold inside are creating change at the level of brain circuitry. Form a better relationship with your brain is to realize that you have a relationship. Once you realize this, you can choose to pay attention to the relationship and nurture it.Thinking your brain into better functioning is the most efficient way to improve it. The best way to relate to your brain is to inspire it. Approach your brain as if it had great untapped potential.
Take care of stress. Avoid dulling routine. Do something creative every day. Read poetry, spiritual material or anything else that makes you feel uplifted. Take time to be in nature. Bond with another person who is heartwarming. Pay attention to being happy. Make sure you take time every day by yourself to relax, meditate and self-reflect. Deal with negative emotions like anger and anxiety. Focus on activity that makes you feel fulfilled. Give of yourself. Follow a personal vision. Attach yourself to a cause that is bigger than you are. Take the risk to love and be loved. Music lessons and exercises could be used to improve certain brain skills. Being happier and more active help the brain more effective and compensating for pathological processes.