In a world obsessed with faster, better and stronger, it is no
surprise that the "do more" philosophy has moved to include our
children. Toys abound that promise to make your child smarter in
the womb and flashcards for babies are commonplace. But do these
gimmicks really work? Just how much can babies younger than a year
old learn beyond the basics of sitting up, chewing and, in some
cases, walking?
Ann Friedrick, a mother of two from Portland, Ore., wasn't sure
just how much her children would learn before they were a year old,
but she figured enrichment couldn't hurt. "At that time I didn't
know if the activities I was doing would have any effect on my
child, but I figured it was a mother's job to try," she says. "I
played classical music, offered visually stimulating toys and did a
lot of face-to-face verbal engagement."
Friedrick, like most mothers, wasn't trying to create a genius;
she just wanted to enrich her child's life in any way she could.
But just how much enriching sticks to an infant before age 1?
The Magical Brain of a Newborn
Janet Doman is a specialist in child brain development and infant
stimulation and the author of How Smart Is Your Baby? Develop and
Nurture Your Newborn's Full Potential (Square One Publishing,
2006). In her 35 years of experience, she has noted just how much
the infant brain is capable of.
"At birth, a newborn baby is functionally blind, deaf and
insensate," Doman says. "These sensory pathways grow and develop
based upon stimulation. The sensory pathways grow when appropriate
visual, auditory and tactile stimulation is given with the proper
frequency, intensity and duration."
As an example, Doman says a newborn baby usually has a less than
perfect light reflex. "The light reflex is seen when the baby is
exposed to light and the pupil constricts in response to that
light," she says. "The sooner this reflex matures and becomes
consistent, the sooner that baby will develop the ability to see
outline and then detail. This is very easy to do and takes very
little time, but it means that the baby gains the ability to see
detail weeks or months earlier than he would have done if we had
relied upon accidental stimulation. This is purposeful stimulation
rather than accidental stimulation."
Doman says this is one example of sensory stimulation for infants.
A full sensory stimulation program at the newborn level or in the
first few months of life involves very brief stimulation in all
five sensory pathways (seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and
smelling). These brief stimulations help each pathway mature. As
these pathways grow and become more mature, they are more useful
for Baby. Mom and Dad can learn how to evaluate these pathways so
they can easily determine what Baby needs next and what he or she
no longer needs in each area.
The Brain Grows by Using It
It remains largely a mystery as to why the brain grows by use, but
the fact remains that it does. The brain grows explosively between
conception and age 6.
"Learning is an inverse function of age," Doman says. "The younger
the baby is, the faster he will learn. If the baby is provided with
visual, auditory and tactile stimulation with increased frequency,
intensity and duration and given enhanced mobility, language and
manual competence opportunity, he will develop more rapidly in all
areas. This will increase his overall understanding of the world
around him and greatly increase his interaction with his family.
His happiness, health and general well-being are also significantly
improved by stimulation and opportunity."
The Language Connection
Doman says when you grow one area of the brain, all areas will be
enhanced to some degree. An overall program of stimulation and
opportunity will enhance language development. She says it's like a
domino effect.
"Newborns have very poor respiration at first," Doman says. "This
makes it hard to make sounds at will. As the baby sees better he
wants to move more. If he is given the opportunity to move on the
floor, he will move. When he is given the chance to move more
often, his respiration is improved. As he is able to breathe
better, he makes more sounds. The more sounds he makes the more
Mother responds to these sounds. The more Mother and Baby talk to
each other the sooner Mother breaks the sound barrier and
understands what the baby is actually saying."
Doman believes that babies are desperate to be understood. Most
babies will not be understood until they are 12 to 14 months old.
She claims this process could occur by 3 to 4 months instead.
Francois Thibaut is the director and founder of The Language
Workshop for Children in New York City. He started The Language
Workshop for Children in 1973 after teaching French at the high
school and college levels. After much research he realized that
there was no school anywhere in the United States specializing in
teaching languages to young children (let alone infants and
toddlers). So he opened his own program to begin applying his own
theories and teaching methods. His program successfully teaches
infants other languages.
"Humans have an almost infinite ability to segment linguistic
codes," Thibaut says. "For example, are you confused with the
meanings of 'house,' 'casa' and 'maison.' No, they're different
words for the same meanings. We recognize their meanings
instantaneously because our minds have segmented and stored their
meanings. Very young children are just as capable of segmenting and
storing meaning."
According to Thibaut, babies begin clearly articulating their
first words between 8 and 20 months because they have been
absorbing and retaining the sounds of a language and associating
meanings to those sounds. "Before that time they start uttering
'proto-words,' otherwise known as babbling, as young as 5 months,"
Thibaut says. "Although their babbling sounds insensible to us, the
babies are beginning to talk to us, are trying to convey meaning
and attempting to repeat what adults around them are saying."
Thibaut says babies are highly sensitive and receptive to
everything they hear and see. Their brains are programmed to
imprint and later recall every sound and every word pattern. "A
baby's brain forms a separate neuron with which to store each
different sound they hear," Thibaut says. "Let's program children
to become the most articulate and communicative adults they
possibly can become."
Thibaut's program does just that with language immersion action
games, structured games, visual aid games, props and
vocabulary-rich songs. "Between 8 and 20 months, toddlers start
what linguists term their 'one-word stage,'" Thibaut says. "Before
that they simply listen and store what they hear. This is the prime
of their critical period - the time of their greatest neurological
capacity to absorb and store language."
Obviously, very young babies can learn. With stimulation and
attention, your child may learn to do what they were born to do -
communicate with their parents. And even if they don't become the
next boy wonder, you may have given them a lifelong gift - a love
of learning and communication.
Language Stimulation Do's and Don'ts
Janet Doman, the author of How Smart Is Your Baby? Develop and
Nurture Your Newborn's Full Potential (Square One Publishing,
2006), offers these tips:
Do:
- Always listen to Baby.
- Look as if you are listening.
- Be willing to wait for a response.
- Accept the fact that Baby decides whether to respond or not; it
is his choice.
- Respond to what he says.
- Welcome enthusiastically every effort Baby makes to talk.
- Assign meanings to the specific sounds that Baby says
repeatedly.
- Use real words when talking to Baby.
Don't:
- Use "baby talk" with Baby.
- Ignore Baby.
- Ask a question and leave no time for Baby to answer.
- Neglect to answer him.
- Imitate or make fun of the sounds he makes.
- Correct his pronunciation.
- Try to force him to answer or respond.