Baby early development

[Frogusha]

I’m probably in the wrong place. Is there a topic where I can read about VERY early intellectual development (I e in womb - reading and singing to the baby) and the earliest baby development games and ideas (up to 12 months)?

[MagpieSong]

Is there a particular reason you’re concerned about it? Mainly it’s about giving babies and children real life experiences. In the womb, it’s about them hearing your voice and their families or important people’s voices, feeling touch through your skin, exposing them to tastes through your eating and sounds. Once they’re born, it’s letting them see your face and chatting to them, showing them the world around them, getting them engaging with their environment and talking to them about it, naming actions and objects, counting the objects or giving descriptive words etc. It’s really stimulating curiosity. People do teach children intellectual subjects very early or push them hard to learn, but it doesn’t often couple with emotional health particularly well. Equally, children often pick up what you do - so if you’re a fab piano player and play daily and involve your child, they’re more likely to pick that skill up.

I’d look at studies perhaps. This one has a description of when a foetus develops ability to hear sound in utero: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8607900/

For developmental games, there are plenty of suggestions online, but the easiest thing to do is look at the way a child is currently developing and designing games or activities around that. Lots of standard games that we don’t think about (but play all the time) do this anyway - like peekaboo and object permanence. I really liked The Wonder Weeks book (and app), which focuses on mental growth spurts.

Essentially, if your child has enough nutrition, a secure attachment and lots of interaction with you, you’re stimulating their intellect.

[Frogusha]

@MagpieSong thanks so much! Yes, just found out that I’m expecting my 3rd and intend to do it right 3rd time :) I didn’t have time for any of this stuff with the other two and hope to enjoy pregnancy and babyhood as much as possible, and for now just to get on right threads / buy the right books. I realise there isn’t so much to do when they’re in your womb, but e g listening to classical music was found ti be beneficial, or eat oily fish 3 times a week to maximise brain development - that I’d like to know now. I’d also like to be prepared for when the baby is born as I know I’d not have much time left to read developmental books then, and sleep will be higher on my list of priorities

[MagpieSong]

That makes sense 😊We’ve really enjoyed reading The Story Orchestra books together for when they’re a bit older. They tell the story of classical music or Ballet and have buttons to press to hear the piece. At the back, it tells you a little about why that music was used.

Book wise Routledge do lots of textbooks on maternal practices and neonatal or foetal outcomes and effect. They’ll be dry to read though. There’s also:

What’s going on in there? How the brain and mind develops in the first 5 years - Lise Eliot
Thirty Million Words: Building a Child’s brain - Dana Suskind
The Psychology of Babies - Lynne Murray
Baby Development - Clare Halsey
Brain Rules for Baby - John Medina
Why Love Matters - Sue Gerhardt
Brain Health from birth - Rebecca Fett

And more activity focused books:
Active baby, healthy brain - Margaret Sass
The Encyclopaedia of infant and toddler activities (aimed at teachers but great ideas for activities none the less)
Talking with your toddler - Teresa Laikko
Brain training for babies

This study looks at the importance of outdoor play:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6806863/
There was also research into lack of balance in modern children and links to outdoor play, but I can’t find it. Essentially it said that children often don’t play outside enough or walk enough to do activities like walking along the curb or a fallen tree or a wall, which all help them develop balance.

This one was about the impacts of screen time, but I’m struggling to find the full study anywhere. It’s about better social skills and learning delayed gratification and how screen time seems to negatively impact that.
https://hal.science/hal-03384647/
Essentially though, it’s more about common sense. If children never have to be patient and sit on a bus or in a car without a screen or watch while their nappy is changed, then they don’t learn how to manage boredom or very mild discomfort. They also just aren’t as aware of what is happening around them because they aren’t taking it in. The light from screens disrupts sleep cycle hormones in the brain etc. it’s not all bad by any means, but limiting it to an hour a day or less (and some say none for 1-2 years and under depending on who you read) can help.

The smartest kids in the world and how they got that way by Amanda Ripley (this is an American journalistic look at the factors that influence smart children in different cultures, more sociological, interesting but I found it a bit limited in perspective)


For toddlers to older children, there’s The Whole Brain Child, which is about how parental response helps a child develop and why children behave in certain ways. It focuses more on behaviour parents might find tricky and good responses.

Babies on Netflix was a good documentary on early development too.

[BabyJohn1988]

I can tell you a website that helped me in the early development of my child - https://wunderkiddy.com/materials#materials-filter-container. Such coloring helps a lot in this case