Language from Infancy and Beyond
AuntyB: Up until the age of two and a half years, your child receives all of the language and words you give out. The first words begin to emerge as consonant and vowel sounds become possible with the tongue, mouth and brain connection. To hear "mama" and "dada" for the first time is a miraculously overwhelming experience for the parent who has waited so long.
It is important from birth to talk to your infant:
- Hold them close.
- Make eye contact.
- Use adult language.
- Use full sentences.
It is an amazing opportunity to give your child the world in words and communication.
Receptive language is just that: receiving your words from you. The southern drawl, the east coast clip, the mountain vernacular and all language that makes us special is learned from birth. So talk and talk and read and read to your baby.
Grandmama: I'll never get tired of saying: "Read to your children from the very start!" and "Speak to your baby (or toddler) with the same respect and language you would for any other adult." Complex language is learned from hearing, trying out and mastering it. "Dumbed down" books and speech denies your baby the opportunity to gain the maximum in this phenomenal growth period.
It's not hard! Read aloud what you're reading. If you don't read much, now's the time to start: newspapers, poems, the Bible, biographies . . .
Don't ignore your baby thinking they don't understand or they don't get anything out of your communication. Not true! They gain tremendously in social skills, learning to respond in a warm, kind manner by being treated warmly and kindly. What happens in the brain, unconciously, deserves a whole posting on its own.
Early Brain Development
On the matter of brain development and language, briefly: The brain is made up of many electrical connections, if you will, between the "little grey cells." The more connections between various pieces of information, the more complex the net it forms. This neural net develops most up to the age of three. Three! Your child's basic brain operating system for life is determined largely in those first three years.
Of course, it's imperative to give your child those connections to good language skills in that time. It's the basic net that most other information fits into. The more connections, the easier it is to "hook" more information into the net.
Later in life, age, disease or accident may take a toll on that net, the basic framework of your thinking and reasoning. You want that net to be as dense as possible to be able to take that toll and still be able to function: to think, to reason, to move.
Brain Development after Age Three
If you're reading this after your child has passed those three years, you'll want to think about maximizing the rest of the major brain development time remaining: through about age 21. That doesn't mean videos and expensive vacations to interesting locations (which are not bad.)
It means, during that time:
- to learn to move freely
- to engage in self-chosen (and directed) study
- to learn skills of all kinds, practical and aesthetic (read that as anything related to the arts)
- to take part in community offerings and activities (like museums, parks, and events)
- to interact with others
- to enter into service of others in need
- to see what's going on beyond oneself
- to know God
NOTE: Avoid overstimulating: a child having a meltdown or screaming fit isn't gaining anything positive. It's their way of saying, "Enough, enough, I can't take in anymore." Stop while you're having a positive experience. (Avoiding crowded situations and noisy places helps.)
Later Brain Development
And, if you're thinking that it's too late for you, you're wrong. New skills, experiences and learning does benefit your brain even later. However, the peak times are 0 to 3 years, peaking again at 12 or so, and then tapering off toward the early 20s.
Personally: At age 40, I "lost" my math skills due to disease which affected that part of my thinking. However, because the rest of my brain was pretty well intact, I was able, with the help of the local community college, to relearn those skills and completed my degree requirements in math with high scores. Thanks to God, my early experience which had developed that neural net (thanks Mama) and a lot of hard work.
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