5 Key Tips for Encouraging The Best Development In Your Child

The Growing Brain

Babies are born ready to learn and their brains develop through use. By providing a safe and stimulating environment for your child, you offer them the opportunity for different types of play and learning, as well as many chances to practise what they’re learning.

Millions of neural connections are formed every second in the first few years of life, but unless these are used, they fall away over time. An interesting example of this, is Chinese babies who are able to distinguish the difference between the sounds of R and L at the age of 4 months, but not when they get older. Since Chinese children do not need to distinguish between these sounds to learn their mother tongue, the brain synapses that carry this knowledge disappear when they are not used.¹

Relationships

Relationships are the foundation of your child’s development. It is through relationships that your child can learn important information about their world. Things like, whether their world is safe and secure, whether they are loved, who loves them, what happens when the laugh or cry or feel hungry. They also learn about social dynamics and skills, communication and behaviour through observing the relationships between others.

One-on-one time with a parent or primary caregiver is one of the best ways to boost a child’s development.  “The simple exchange of language and ideas is a much more important brain builder than putting your child in a million different activities,” says Macias, a pediatrics professor at the Medical University of South Carolina.²

Play

Play is the primary way that small children learn. Play is fun and it gives your child opportunities to explore, observe, experiment and solve problems. It’s important to engage and support your child in the activities or play that they busy themselves with, but it’s also important to allow them to try things out on their own and to sometimes make mistakes. This, too, is a key part of learning.

Spend lots of time playing, talking, reading, listening and interacting with your child and this will naturally help them to learn key life skills that will further develop as they grow.

Another important factor is to offer consistent care and comfort, especially when your child is stressed. Studies show that responsive, loving and supportive care helps babies handle stress better than if care is inconsistent.³

Healthy Eating and Physical Activity

Other vital areas that contribute to the healthy development of your child is nutrition and exercise. Healthy and wholesome food provides the energy and nutrients that a growing body and brain needs and setting up healthy family food and eating patterns from early on helps to establish good eating habits later in life.

Being physically active allows your child to move their body and explore their world (both inside and outside the home), while developing motor skills. Get involved in the activity as much as possible! Remember, kids learn through what you as an adult do, rather than what you say.

Socialising

Kids learn the rules of play by spending time with friends. They get to practice the important skills of self-control, sharing and negotiating which form the building blocks for relationship skills later in life. Being in social settings also allows children to begin forming helpful stereotypes, such as boys are like this and girls are like that which helps to provide a mental map for future reference.

For some great ideas of specific ideas and activities that you can explore for children from newborn to the age of 5 years, have a look at the Help Me Grow website.

1. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170102143458.htm
2. https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/preschooler-brain-boosting-activities#2
3. https://helpmegrowmn.org/HMG/HelpfulRes/Articles/HowEncourageBrainDev/index.html

5 Key Tips for Encouraging The Best Development In Your Child

5 Key Tips for Encouraging The Best Development In Your Child

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5 Key Tips for Encouraging the Best Development In Your Child

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Babies are born ready to learn and their brains develop through use. By providing a safe and stimulating environment for your child, you offer them the opportunity for different types of play and learning, as well as many chances to practise what they’re learning.

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