In the first few years of life, a child’s brain is a living map, with more than 1 million new neural connections being formed every second.
Imagine roads and highways reaching out toward the sprouting rooftops of distant towns and cities, mountains pushing up, oceans unfurling like cloth, sparkling and blue. As an infant grows, this profusion of industry becomes more regulated.
In a process sometimes called “bloom and prune,” the brain trims connections and streamlines circuits, creating more efficient sensory pathways. These will be the sturdy conduits for vision and hearing and, later, language and higher cognitive functions. With more than 90 percent of a child’s brain development occurring before age 5, it’s a period of exuberant connection and infinite possibility. There are many ways for parents and caregivers to play an active role in helping to ensure optimal brain health and development.
“Environmental stimulation is crucial for the developing brain,” says Dr. Jonathan Auth, of Sea View Pediatrics in Irvine. “And this begins immediately after birth.”
In the early months of life, the boundaries of a newborn’s world are drawn by the arms of his or her parents or guardians. Numerous studies, including one headed by Dr. Tallie Z. Baram at UC Irvine, find that touch provides not only comfort, but also promotes cognitive function, builds resilience to stress and improves memory.
To work on what is called the “serve and return” relationship between parents or caregivers and children, it’s important to take time to be attentive to an infant’s needs. They have limited ways of getting your attention, so be an emotional detective, alert to even the smallest of cues. Respond to their sounds with sounds of your own. Attend to signs of distress and soothe with cuddling, gentle rocking, massage and direct eye contact. These simple, loving actions not only deepen the parent-child connection and ensure a sense of safety, but also spark brain growth.
“I encourage parents to talk and sing to newborns right away,” says Dr. Auth, “And get in the habit of keeping up an ongoing narration of daily activities.”
Dr. Mary K. Fagan, assistant professor at Chapman University’s Crean College of Health and Behavior Sciences, explains that “although word knowledge and development build across the lifespan, early delays in the number of words an infant hears can affect vocabulary development throughout childhood and later in life.”
Reading aloud is a great way to advance language development and increase I.Q. Because comprehension is not the issue, read poetry, novels or (cheerful) stories from the newspaper. When you’re changing or bathing the baby, talk about what you are doing. Explain why you’ve chosen one brand of soap over the other, point out the difference between two pairs of pajamas. Pose questions to your infant, even though they won’t be able to answer. This sets up the idea of conversational rhythm and will serve them later in life.
“Allow time for infants to babble,” says Fagan, “and then respond to their early word attempts.”
Tired of talking? Sing to your newborn. Make up tunes about your day or dredge up the lyrics to every classic rock ballad, campfire ditty and Broadway showstopper you somehow know by heart and sing, sing, sing.
“Because an infant’s visual acuity is still developing in the months after birth,” Dr. Auth says, “choose stimulating toys with bright colors and high contrast.”
Before the retina has fully developed, an infant has limited ability to detect different shades of color. Toys, books and other items that feature simple black, white and red patterns help exercise the visual center of the brain and strengthen the optic nerve. Hold the item 8 to 12 inches from a newborn’s face and allow them time to focus. Use what the website www.askdrsears.com calls “quite alert time” to briefly engage your infant with toys, but don’t worry if they don’t seem too connected to the object. You, as the parent or caregiver, will be the baby’s main focus point and there is nothing they love better than your face.
Around six to nine months, move toward more active play using high contrast blocks to create towers for knocking down or work together to turn the pages in a soft book. Los Angeles-based child therapist, Wesley Stahler, LMFT, ECMH, RDT, recommends the website www.zerotothree.org, where you’ll find lots of ideas for exercising infant thinking skills. Use toys in different ways and start to experiment with cause and effect.
Make your child’s environment safe to touch and encourage exploration. See what kinds of sounds different toys make, stack items together to see how they fit and introduce new textures. Describe the scratchy carpet or the soft teddy bear. Make your child the main character in an ongoing story.
As your child grows stronger and more independent, include role playing games and toys that mimic household chores such as cooking, cleaning or using the phone.
Sand, water and bath toys help the brain work on improvement of fine and gross motor skills and problem solving. Continue to play the role of tour guide, narrating your experience and explaining each new encounter.
To keep up with all this activity, a nourishing diet is essential. If possible, in the first six months, follow the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics and breastfeed exclusively.
“Breastmilk is rich in long chain Omega fatty acids such as DHA and ARA,” says Dr. Auth. “While modern-day formulas have been inclusive of these good brain-developing fats, it’s believed that breastmilk alone offers superior benefits for the developing brain.”
These good fats contribute to the brain’s production of myelin, the protective insulation surrounding nerve fibers. Myelin makes it possible for information to be carried from one part of the brain or body to another. If you are breastfeeding, you can boost your baby’s nutrition by boosting your own. Avoid sugar and alcohol and aim to add three weekly servings of high DHA foods such as salmon, grass-fed beef, Omega-3 enriched eggs, walnuts or chia seeds.
Once you introduce your baby to solid foods, stack his or her menu with a higher concentration of fat to support those rapidly expanding brains. Dr. Auth recommends whole milk for children under two years of age along with meats, avocado, peanut butter and olive oil as well as regular consumption of fish.
Early parenthood is a time of exhaustion and mental fatigue. Some days it’s hard to come up with ideas for dinner, let alone research brain science, but don’t worry: help is out there. The app “The Wonder Weeks” provides ways to track your infant’s growth and developing skills and offers numerous tips and games to promote neural connectivity. “Vroom,” an app created by the Bezos Family Foundation, offers a variety of age appropriate brain building activities that can easily piggy-back onto the existing schedule of dressing, bathing, feeding and traveling. “Vroom” provides downloadable worksheets and simple, scientific explanations. The app “Nuryl” trades on studies showing the brain building value of complex music, such as classical and jazz. A subscription to Nuryl provides parents with an hourlong playlist, listening time-tracking tools and ideas for engaging with the music together.
While these websites and apps can be extremely helpful, it might be best to avoid screen time while in the company of your child. A 2016 study conducted by Dr. Tallie Z. Baram at UCI’s Conte Center on Brain Programming, found that fragmented and chaotic maternal care can disrupt proper brain development. “We might wish to turn off the mobile phone when caring for a baby,” she says. “And be predictable and consistent.”
Phones and other screens can be distracting, but they can also shift our gaze away from infants and children. Recent findings by researchers at the University of Cambridge point to the brain-building benefit of eye contact. The study found that infants vocalized more when their caretaker or parent was looking directly into their eyes. In addition, the eye contact seemed to create a “joint networked state,” that could increase the transfer of information and boost early communication and learning.
Dr. Auth and the American Academy of Pediatrics suggest keeping phones, tablets and computers turned off for children under two years of age. The only exception to this rule is the participation in brief “Face Time” with distant family members.
“We actively try to discourage screen time,” Dr. Auth says, citing studies that link excessive screen time to expressive language delay and risk for ADHD in older children. In addition, screens can disrupt sleep which is crucial for brain growth.
The developing brain is a complicated system, but the simplest of actions can nurture growth. Be present, available and loving. These early years are fleeting and the quality time you spend together will create wonderful memories and help make your child’s brain healthier stronger and ready for the challenges ahead.