How important is the first year?

True or false? - The first year of development isn't that important.  After all, the baby just eats, sleeps, cries, and is dependent on others for so much.

False - The first year(s) can be supremely important.

"Thanks to new technologies that make it possible to safely "see" inside a living, working brain, the medical world now knows that a huge amount of the brains' functioning and capacity develops after birth--and that a baby or toddler's early experiences can greatly influence his or her future learning potential."  (ix in 'About This Book')

Dr. Stamm mentioned that we spend lots of educational dollars later in life remediating learning problems when the first 3 years (before they are even in school) are critical to preparing children for learning experiences.

One fact that surprised me was that a baby's brain is 25% of its adult weight and volume at birth but, by age 2, has grown to 75%, and will be almost at its adult size (90%) by age 5.  This doesn't mean a person has learned 90% of the information he/she will learn but it does mean that these years are formative in how the information flows through the brain and how the brain processes information.

And you thought the baby was just laying there doing nothing!  It is learning so much from these first months.  Let's help by doing some simple, inexpensive, and consistent things---the ABCs mentioned in the first post (Attention, Bonding, & Communication).

P.S.  Don't make this more difficult than needed.  The child doesn't have to learn the academic content of schooling before kindergarten.  Teachers have been trained to do that.  We want to develop school readiness, or a ready brain--healthy, active, nurtured and capable of learning.

Infant brain research

Bright from the Start:  the Simple, Science-Backed Way to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind from Birth to Age 3 by Jill Stamm, Ph.D.

Recently I attended a program presented by Dr. Stamm on infant brain research and it made me want to read her book.  I am learning so much that I wanted to share some of the highlights with family and friends who have young children in their families since I know they don't get much time to read.

And the information is as simple as A-B-C.  In fact, she uses those letters to help you remember the basics:
     Attention
     Bonding
     Communication

You don't need to spend a lot of money on fancy toys or gadgets or programs.  All your young child needs is consistent one-on-one time with an adult (Attention), lots of loving interaction and touch (Bonding), and reading, talking, singing, and playing to learn phonemes, the smallest unit of sound in our language (Communication).

See--you can do it!  More tomorrow...

P.S.  I'm also reading another book, The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain but will share that later.  However, just to let you know--there is hope for the older brains!