Kids Are Our Future

Parents act as a very important role in a child’s brain development. Infants prefer human stimuli. Such as parents’ face, voice, touch, and even smell. Just as babies are born with a set of very useful instincts for surviving and orienting to their new environment, parents are equipped with loving, nurturing and protecting them. Parents’ touching, holding, comforting, singing and talking provide the best stimulation for babies growing brains. Because brain development is so heavily dependent on early experience, babies need receive the right kind of nurturing through parents’ loving and parenting instincts.

Although all parents want to make their baby smarter, scientists have not discovered any special way for enhancing the natural building phase in children’s brain development so far. Normally, loving and responsive care giving provide babies with the ideal environment for encouraging their selves’ exploration, which is always the best way to learning.

Language as a kind of stimulation has been proven to make a difference. Infants and children who are conversed with, read to, and engaged in lots of verbal interaction show more advanced linguistic skills than children who are not. Because language is fundamental to most of the rest of cognitive development, talking and listening to children is one of the best ways to make the most of their critical brain-building years.
Reading to children is crucial for their brain development. It is never too early to introduce books to a child. It is very important to nurture the emergent literacy of babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. These are some tips that parents can help children to build their literacy skills, which contributes to children’s brain development.

For babies and toddlers,

• Sing nursery songs to help developing a young child’s ear for language.
• Read aloud to the child for a few minutes at a time, gradually increase later on.
• Play music and audio books to the child.
• Use picture books and point to things and name them.
• Ask questions, such as “What is it?” or “what is it doing?”
• Set aside a regularly scheduled time each day for reading, such as before bedtime, make it a part of the child’s routine.
• Let the child play toys including electronic ones.
• Take toddlers to libraries and bookstores for story hour.

For preschoolers,

• Tell stories to them.
• Encourage the child to join in while parents read, let him/her fill in a rhyming word or repeating line.
• Ask questions, such as “What do you think is going to happen next?” or “Did you know why it happened?”
• Move your finger under the words as you read aloud to help preschoolers connect printed words to spoken words.
• Begin teaching the letters of the alphabet, starting with those in the child’s name.
• Draw pictures and name them using letters and words.
• Play audio and videos programs.
• Encourage the child read picture books, and ask parents questions.
• Let the child play toys including electronic ones with multimedia features.
• Introduce the child good online contents, such as games, video programs.
• Take preschoolers to libraries and bookstores frequently.

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