Baby talk can change your baby’s brain development, especially at 6 months old and younger.How much adult speech babies encounter is linked to their brain’s concentration of myelin, which makes brain signals more efficient.
Effect of Language
Humans use of language in relation to their world is a profound triumph of our species. According to Scientific American, it isn’t about learning the meaning of their tummy or eye. Instead, speech has acoustic signals that help a baby’s mental ability. This includes not just noun recognition, but grasping the category those objects belong in. Speech helps babies begin to understand that tummy or eye are part of “me”.
There are People who love to talk baby talk to their little ones. Others keep their speech patterns set in adult speech mode. The development of a baby’s brain is affected by both. Nonetheless, a study’s results regarding adult conversations with baby were just released. It looks like the amount of grown up speech your cherub is exposed to might actually help shape the structure of their brains. The more toddlers and young children hear adult speech patterns, the better their language processing and vocabulary skills.
How Researchers Discovered Cause and Effect
Researchers recorded thousands of hours of language from 163 babies and toddlers. They also conducted MRI scans to study the structure of their developing brains. They especially examined the substance called myelin. Myelin, a fatty insulating layer makes brain signals more efficient. In toddlers who heard more speech daily, myelin was in larger supply in language related areas of the brains.
Factors in the Brain Development of a Child
Nutrition’s Impact on Brain Development
Many things contribute to a child’s brain development. Proper nutrition from pregnancy onward is one of the most important contributing factors to brain development. You might love that Sammy’s Milk formula has exceptional brain foods like avocados and fish oil. Both are known to contain brain boosting nutrients, like Omega 3 UFAs in fish oil and vitamins A,D,K, and folates in avocados.
Infections Matter Too
Exposure to infections can affect a child’s brain. Maternal infections ranging from influenza to HIV are linked to autism spectrum and other brain disorders in babies.
Interactions With Others
Experiences with other people and the world is another way your child’s brain develops. As it happens, conversations with your child is a large contributing factor to their brain’s development.
There are four primary areas of development in a child’s brain: motor, language and communication, social and emotional and cognitive. Conversations with your child help their brains develop at least three of those skills. Understanding of language and communication flourishes. Through those conversations, babies also learn social cues and their cognitive skills improve.
What it All Means
Children’s brains develop at an incredible pace in the first two years of life. The brain volume at two is about 80 percent of an adult brain. So talk to your kids. Obviously, you give them the care they need, but talk to them as you give them that care. As Prof John Spencer of University of East Anglia commented, “What’s pretty striking here is that it’s literally shaping the structure of the brain.” And if you ever wondered if what you do matters, stop. It’s pretty obvious that how you interact with your child, even when they’re still a baby, matters.