UNDERSTANDING YOUR BABY’S BRAIN
Understanding how the brain
functions and develops is important.
Brain cells develop and functio as soon as they receive data from the surrounding through the five sensory
organs—ears, eyes, mouth, nose, and skin; that is, hearing, seeing, tasting,
smelling, and touching. The development and sharpness of these organs depend a
great deal on the amount as well as the intensity of stimuli that they receive.
There are billions of brain cells,
and they are like blank sheets of paper to be filled up with data obtained from
the five sensory organs. They gradually become the brain, the physical organ of
the body, which is responsible for thinking, often referred to as the mind.
The mind serves to control and
coordinate mental and physical actions, including thoughts and feelings, as
well as beliefs and attitudes. Over time, thinking will continue to develop and
shape the mind, turning it into two major components—the conscious mind, and
the subconscious mind. The former selectively controls the data input;
the latter involuntarily and indiscriminately takes in all the
data received. The truth of the matter is that the subconscious mind dominates
the conscious mind. In other words, one’s conscious mind may want to do one
thing, but one’s subconscious mind may instruct one to do another thing, and
one may end up doing the other thing, which may be quite different from what
one originally intended. Therefore, it is important to provide the right and
appropriate data to the baby, because the mind of the baby is not mature enough
to separate the truths from the half-truths or untruths. In other words, a
baby’s perceptions are permanently stored in his subconscious mind.
Remember, in the beginning, the
baby’s brain is not fully developed. Speed up its development through enhancing
its five senses.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR BABY’S VISION
Even before birth,
babies can see: they can tell what is light and what is dark. After birth,
their vision improves significantly when they see shapes by following their
lines. At first, they can see only within 8 to 12 inches, and they see only
black, white, and gray. When they are several weeks old, they may begin to
perceive their first primary color—red. Progressively, they learn how to use
their eyes to see what they want to see by following moving objects. Then, they
begin to learn their “binocular vision,” which is coordinating and seeing with
both eyes. Babies should develop their normal vision, which includes eye-hand
coordination, within the first several weeks and months.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR BABY’S
HEARING
Hearing is the 1st
step towards language learning. Therefore, it is important to identify and
address any hearing problem by having a hearing screening test right after
birth.
Babies have
different responses to sounds, depending on their own temperament; more
sensitive babies are more reactive to sounds; calmer babies are less reactive.
Around two months,
babies begin to respond to familiar voices by making vowel sounds like ohh.
At about four months, babies start to look for the source of a sound, and by
six months they try to imitate sounds. By eight months, they babble and respond
to changes in the tone of voice. By twelve months, babies may be able to say
single words like "ma-ma" and "da-da."
The baby’s brain
continues to respond to complex sounds and attach different meanings to
different sounds heard. Your baby will continue to use hearing to make sense of
the world and to learn to communicate with sounds.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR BABY’S
SKIN
The baby’s skin is most sensitive
to touch. Tactile sensations are responsible for the connection between the
skin and the sympathetic nervous system; these nerves regulate heart, blood
circulation, lungs, and other internal organs.
Therefore, it is important to
touch the baby while breast feeding or changing diapers by touching and
massaging his toes and fingers.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR BABY’S
SENSE OF TASTE AND SMELL
Most newborns
will eat every two to three hours around the clock.
By the end of the
first month, babies may develop an eating and sleeping pattern, but don't
impose it on your baby. At this age, your baby should be fed whenever it shows
signs of hunger.
Most babies have
developed a sense of taste. In fact, newborns seem to have more taste buds than
adults do. Sensitivity to sweet and bitter tastes is present at birth, but
babies’ reactions to salty foods don't come until about five months.
Babies use their
sense of smell right from the start and can localize odors. Studies have shown
that five-day-old newborns will turn towards a pad soaked with breast milk,
indicating that they can smell it, and a few days later they demonstrate a
preference for the smell of their mom's milk.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
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