All babies are genetically programmed to become intelligent - they enjoy learning from the early months. And parents can help them tremendously to develop their potential.
Confidence sets the head free
Primitive trust: this is the magic word that can lead young and old to live fully. The will to live and learn is innate in every child. What she needs to develop all of his inclinations is called confidence. The best way, that is, through which children can learn to discover and understand the world, is to feel the closeness and protection of their parents or other reference persons. Only in this way do they feel safe.
Their little brains work particularly well if they are relaxed, if they learn without fear or stress, and if they can assimilate the information the world offers them.
"Children who are just concerned with making sure they are not alone do not have the ability to process interesting discoveries," says Karl Heinz Brisch, an interpersonal relations scholar at the University of Munich. Together with Gerald Hüther, child and adolescent psychiatrist and neurobiologist at the University of Göttingen, he has been studying for years what children need for healthy development. Here are their conclusions.
A strong bond with mom and dad
In the first 12 months it is essential to build a strong bond with mom and dad. How is a strong bond created? The child must feel understood, so the parents must promptly satisfy her needs, especially feeding him, giving him warmth, tenderness and stimulation.
The bond is established when parents trust their intuition, in a continuous exchange with the child through physical contact, eye contact and dialogue. The love that parents give to the child, they receive in turn in the form of an ecstatic smile, a satisfied cry or simply noticing the small progress he is making.
Learn without stress
From birth onwards, the nerve cells of the baby's brain eagerly assail all the signals and information that reach them through the sensory organs. These signals and information are put in order in the brain: links are established, exchange points (synapses) and models are built that allow the child to identify complex contexts and rules, allow to draw logical conclusions and act accordingly. The more children grow, the more stable these patterns are.
For example, for little Elisa, seven months old, it is not a problem to have her little red bear lying on the ground in front of her, it is no longer a problem. An impulse goes to the brain, and the process starts: she extends her arm, opens her hand and grabs. Massive efforts would have been required three months ago! Step by step, the individual regions of the brain are built. With each step of development, new connections are made; for this to happen the child needs calm and stimulation.
It takes time to understand
In the beginning, the exchanges of nerve cells in the brain are very mild: they only become fixed when confirmed through observation. Children make personal statistics: what always appears together, goes together.
An example? The car: Paolo, five months old, has long suspected that all cars have wheels. The more self he sees, the more the guesswork of him becomes awareness. Repetition is fundamental: Paolo tries to grab the pacifier and the first time he fails, the following times sometimes yes and sometimes not. Gradually his movements become more precise and confident
The important thing is to experiment
The world is a large laboratory and children are very curious: they observe and experiment continuously. They show mum and dad what they are interested in, from five months on they indicate with their hand, when they see a face they know they laugh and with them with the first sounds of lallation they invite parents to talk.
Do not be afraid
The loud voice of the neighbor? What about the dazzling light of lightning? They are dangerous? A quick glance at mom and dad calms them down: their relaxed posture, their serene expressions, their calm voices, in short, all signs that everything is fine.
"Check back": this is how researchers call the reassurances that babies seek from their parents as early as three or four months old. It will become more and more important, the more active the little ones become.
At around nine months old, in their first attempts to crawl, babies always try to see through eye contact with their parents whether mum or dad approves of what they are doing and allow themselves to be encouraged or restrained.
Babies in the first year of life learn very quickly. Their brains become three times larger during this time than at birth. All the important connections in the various areas of the brain are activated and the children have already acquired knowledge on an intellectual level which will then be the basis for their subsequent mental development.
They begin to think in an abstract way: towards the end of the first year of life, the little ones know that things continue to be there even if they are not seen. This is how they can recall the image of mom and dad even if they are separated from them.
It is a fundamental step in the path towards autonomy: the more the child manages to have within himself the image of his parents, the easier the first step into the big world will be.
(Article taken from Eltern.de)
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