A Head Start on Genius Training?

Excerpted from
Your Child's Growing Mind : Brain Development and Learning From Birth to Adolescence
By Jane M. Healy, Ph.D.

I have yet to meet parents who do not care about the intelligence of their children. While this concern is natural and important, it is possible to get carried away. Fashionable efforts to hyperstimulate children either before or after birth fall mainly into the "too much too soon" category. By "hyperstimulate," I mean efforts to "teach" children in utero by unnatural means that exaggerate normal input, such as piping in voices or phonics lessons through a megaphone-like device attached to Moms tummy. (Yes, some people really do this.) Animal studies suggest that hvperstimulation can distort the natural development of the sensory organs and nervous system. Loud noise, for example, can cause early hearing loss; while your fetus adores your talking, reading aloud, singing to it, or listening to soothing melodies (and may even respond after birth as if recalling the stimulus), excessively loud music or pipedin "stimulation may cause developing systems to misconnect. After duck embryos were subjected to abnormally intense auditory stimulation (noise), they failed after birth to learn their mothers call and showed other signs of abnormal attention and development. When you are tempted to turn up the stereo, remind yourself that "augmented sensory experience" does not make sense for human babies, either.

After birth, trying to press academic skills onto youngsters with devices like alphabet flash cards is not only a little silly (see later chapters for the real foundations of academic skills), but also risks setting up a pressured environment that may ultimately interfere with your child's learning. Children with "pushy" or overconrrolling parents tend to have more problems with motivation, discipline, and personal adjustment than those blessed with parents who can appreciate each stage of growth and follow the child's lead in creating activities.

"Educational" electronic environments in the nursery and computer software "guaranteed" to make your infant or toddler "smarter" should also be viewed skeptically. These unsubstantiated claims have much more to do with selling products than benefiting children. Yes, all these devices keep little ones quiet at a time when you are about as stressed out as you will ever be-but do consider how much you want your baby to imprint His emotional attachments to an electronic device instead of to you. Moreover, good learning habits come from learning to use our brains actively, not from being mesmerized by digital special effects.

One of the infant brains major tasks is to learn self-regulation, and too much stimulation coming from outside may interfere. Your attentiveness is important because it helps the child develop connections that will eventually enable her to soothe herself and direct her attention independently without the aid of electronic distractions. Don't worry-there is plenty of stimulation available in a normal visual and auditory environment, and the infant's idea of "stimulation" may be very different from yours-such as exercising visual feature detectors by gazing at simple lights, shapes, and patterns. Boring for adults, but essential for infant brains.

Now is a good time to confront a major question: Why did you have this baby, anyhow? If the parents' goal is mainly to produce a child who is smarter and more talented than everyone else's, they-and their child-are in for a tough ride. Trying to put a child ahead of the curve" begs the question "What curve?"-that dictated by the child's own natural potential or one dictated (or perhaps even forced) by a parent's unfulfilled needs? The growing brain is incredibly complex, and it contains natural checks and balances to ensure proper development of a vast array of skills; it seems very risky to tamper with this program until we know a great deal more about how it unfolds. Moreover, overly pressured kids are harder to raise as they get older.

In my book Failure to Connect, I explain why and how the use of "screen time," and especially computer software, for infants and toddlers should be avoided or carefully monitored.

Brain-Building Environments for
Infants and Toddlers

Any wise parent pays attention to a child's nutrition, and breastfeeding is the best start-up brain food you can offer. If this option is not possible, be sure to consult with a professional who can advise you on the best of the available alternatives.

Infant brains instinctively seek stimulation from very simple experiences that help organize the nervous system without overwhelming it. At this age, toys are far less important than a nurturing caregiver. Your child will thrive in a reasonably stable, predictable environment where a concerned and responsive adult is on call. Believe it or not, your infant's motivational systems are already developing; one important aspect is a feeling of "agency," a term used to describe a child's sense that the world is a safe place where her efforts will yield results ("When I cry for help, someone comes.") Babies gradually learn that their own behaviors have consequences, and they prefer those they can control. One study showed that toddlers interacting with a noisy mechanical monkey perceived it as frightening when it moved unpredictably, but enjoyed it when they could control its movements. Children who develop this feeling of "agency" are much more likely to develop positive motivation and become better students.

HOME and Intelligence

A researcher sits in a family living room quietly taking notes while a mother and her toddler play together. She asks the mother a number of questions about their daily life, trying to identify' factors that will have long-range effects on intelligence. Studies of this type are remarkably consistent; the same variables are important both for normal development and for reversing the effects of early problems.

The following questions are adapted from a commonly used questionnaire called the HOME scale for families of children from birth to three years of age, which looks at six factors in a child's environment. They can help you evaluate the brain-building potential of your home or day-care center. Whether or not you are the primary caregiver, that person should be aware of the importance of appropriate mental stimulation and be capable of delivering it. Use your common sense to decide how these priorities can best be met in your particular situation-and use this book to help a substitute caregiver understand your child's needs at different ages.

1. Emotional and verbal responsiveness of the caregiver: When the child vocalizes, does the caregiver respond with kind, friendly words rather than gesturing or not responding?

2. Avoidance of restriction and punishment: Does the caregiver refrain from acting angry, shouting at, physically punishing, or needlessly restricting the child?

3. Organization of physical environment: Is the child's world a safe place to be? Does the child have regular contact with other adults? Are television and radio noise regulated and kept to a minimum?

4. Appropriate play materials: Are there toys that the child can manipulate to improve hand-eye coordination (stacking or nesting objects, building toys, blocks, toys with movable parts, creative materials that can be used in a variety of ways)? Are playthings interesting without overwhelming the child with detail? Do the toys require the child to be an active rather than a passive participant? (If you use electronic toys, be a critical consumer-often they do not meet these requirements.)

5. Adult involvement with the child: Does the caregiver know where the child is? Does he or she look at the child often and show interest in the child's activities?

6. Language environment: Does the caregiver use warm and loving language to comment, question, extend the child's experience? Does he or she consistently respond to the child's efforts to verbalize? Is any necessary correction done gently, with words, rather than harshly or without an explanation? Does a loving adult read stories on a regular basis?