Do you know which job requires your 24/7 attention and constant focus? Parenting!
Parenting is a full-time job with no free time. And there is no correct way to raise a child and no specialized education on how to do it. The good news is that there are numerous ways to engage your child’s brain while providing exceptional learning opportunities through everyday activities.
S.H. Jacob, Ph.D. is the author of Your Baby’s Brain, Intellect, and You, a former professor of Human Learning and Cognition, and the CEO of Inventive Minds LLC, a child development company that recently released SmartBabies.io, a parenting mobile app specializing in cognition development for children aged birth to 24 months. He has been teaching, writing, and counselling parents about children’s cognitive development and other talents, while providing essential knowledge and techniques that will assist any parent in raising a successful child.
And this blog will highlight some practical aspects of his book and his teachings to ensure your child will achieve success in the future. Continue reading to learn more!
Encourage baby talk and treat it as though it were actual communication
Babies’ cries and motions may not appear to be much, but they are their only means of communication. According to early childhood development experts, we should encourage infant talk and accept it as honest dialogue. Parents should listen to their baby’s sounds, cues, and activities throughout the day and engage with them. The quantity of words a newborn is exposed to determine the number of words in a child’s vocabulary at age two and later reading levels. Therefore, baby chatter should be taken seriously and encouraged if you want your child to be successful.
Take play seriously
Little children are always learning. They learn crucial life skills while playing. Interactive play allows kids to feel what it’s like to be someone else and understand the emotions of others. They understand to negotiate and take turns when they play with others. Participating in imaginative free play, such as thinking a toy train can go across space, fosters creativity and language development as children learn to express themselves verbally. Young toddlers learn to problem-solve and create new possibilities when they envision new worlds. What appears to play for you is actually an essential job. Play is serious learning, so take it seriously. Additionally, refrain from using the device too frequently in front of your child. Research indicates that it devalues children’s importance.
Make use of everyday situations to learn
Every life experience is an opportunity for babies to learn. Bath time, sorting laundry, cooking, or running chores are all excellent learning opportunities. Describe your efforts and day-to-day activity with children to stimulate language. Play with food components and textures to foster scientific thinking and count and sort laundry to teach math. Creating expressions that express various emotions is also an excellent technique for teaching emotional intelligence. While creating art, solving puzzles together, and asking open-ended questions will all make a great deal in promoting critical thinking skills.
Read to your infant to help them develop linguistic skills
Infants may not be able to speak or read yet, but they are born ready to learn. They can recognize every sound used in every language in the world by the age of three months. Every time you read aloud to your infant, you are helping them develop language abilities. Therefore, point to the photos in the book and ask questions about the tale and characters. Straightforward queries like “what are they wearing?” and “how many are there?” will pique your child’s interest in language. Additionally, reading to babies not only introduces them to new vocabulary but also fosters an interest in books and reading—which is clearly far better than spending with gadgets.
Set a good example
Babies are excellent impersonators. Everything you do is picked up on by them. They become adept at reading faces and nonverbal sentiments and learn to mimic them until they can talk. Babies will adopt these attitudes and behaviors by seeing your body language, how you treat others, or how you respond to difficulty. The way you treat your child influences who they will become. So be sure to act generous and intelligent in front of your children to promote a sound, empathic self and overall pleasant well-being.
We hope that incorporating these ways into your daily routine will significantly boost your baby’s prospects of future success. However, you should keep in mind that providing your child with the finest tools for future success has nothing to do with money or flashy learning materials. What matters is you and your effort, time, and the level of involvement that you put in.