Eating
Children need a balance of nutrients from food for healthy brain growth and development. Under-nourished children grow more slowly and have less energy to learn and explore.
Brain Boosting Tip:
Offer your child a variety of nutrient-dense foods with plenty of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Children who fill up on high-calorie foods and beverages without many nutrietns will not be hungry for the nutritious foods, like fruits and vegetables, their bodies need.
Hugging
Early interactions shape the wiring in the brain and establish patterns for how the child will develop relationships as she grows older.
Brain Boosting Tip:
Be emotionally and physically available to your child, gently guide your child’s behavior, and provide consistent and positive interactions like cuddling, smiling, kissing, and laughing.
Playing
When children play, they develop a wide variety of skills, including gross motor skills (big movements of the arms, legs, and trunk), fine motor skills (small movements of the hands, fingers, mouth, and tongue), hand-eye coordination, visual tracking (following objects with both eyes), and cognitive skills like creative thinking, reasoning, problem solving, and listening.
Brain Boosting Tip:
Offer your child new experiences and uninterrupted play time. Remember, toys do not need to be expensive. Look for safe objects around the house, like empty Tupperware, wooden spoons, or tennis balls and make up games together.
Singing
Singing and listening to a variety of music helps build music-related pathways in the brain. Music can have a positive affect on a child’s mood and strengthen certain thinking skills.
Brain Boosting Tip:
Sing to your child. It doesn’t matter how well you sing! Hearing your voice helps your baby begin to learn language. Babies love the patterns and rhythms of songs – and are soothed by the sound of a parent’s voice.
Sleeping
Toddlers need lots of rest (approximately 12 to 14 hours per day). Research shows that lack of sleep is associated with medical problems like allergies, ear infections, and hearing troubles, and also with psychiatric and social issues like aggression, anxiety, and depression.
Brain Boosting Tip:
Try to determine what your child’s ideal sleep schedule is – at night and during the day at naptime – and stick to it. A consistent bedtime routine also helps prepare a child for sleep.
Touching, Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting
A child absorbs the world through her senses. Her experiences from touching a tree’s bark, hearing the sound of her father’s voice, smelling the scent of her mother’s skin, and tasting her first bite of food all help build connections that guide brain development.
Brain Boosting Tip:
Take your child for walks around the neighborhood or local park. These types of environments will expose your child to new learning opportunities.
Talking
A child’s most intensive period for absorbing speech and language skills is during her first three years of life. These skills develop best in a world that is rich with sounds, sights, and consistent exposure to speech.
Brain Boosting Tip:
Talk to your child. Research shows the more parents talk with their children, the larger vocabularies those children develop. So, use everyday moments – in the car, at the grocery store, during bath time – to talk to your child and teach her about the world around her.
Drawing
Coloring is an example of a child’s development of fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are small movements that use the hands, fingers, toes, wrists, and other small muscles.
Brain Boosting Tip:
Encourage your child to draw and paint by pulling out big sheets of paper, crayons, washable pens, finger paints, or paint brushes. You can also use chunky sidewalk chalk outdoors or soap crayons in the tub.
Crying
Babies cry to communicate and express emotion. It’s how they tell you they’re hungry, hurt, afraid, sleepy, and more. The part of the brain that regulates emotion is shaped by a child’s early experiences. Early nurturing from adults is important for a child to learn empathy, happiness, hopefulness, and resiliency.
Brain Boosting Tip:
Be patient and hang in there. Eighty to 90 percent of all babies have daily crying sessions lasting between 15 minutes to an hour that are not easily explained. If you notice crying that is out of the ordinary, however, call your pediatrician or doctor.
Reading
It’s never too early to start reading to your baby. When kids are read to, their brains build the neural connections that enable them to learn vocabulary. When adults and children read a favorite book again and again, connections in the child’s brain become stronger and more complex.
Brain Boosting Tip:
Talk about the story. When you talk together, even more new words are introduced and children start to learn the process of conversation.
Crawling + Walking
Whether it’s crawling, walking, running, or jumping, this type of activity requires a child’s balance, strength, control, and coordination, also known as gross motor skills.
Brain Boosting Tip:
Provide a safe environment where your child feels free to explore the space around him. Even if your child isn’t walking yet, crawling, sitting, and pulling himself up build the muscles needed to eventually walk.
