Pregnancy

Your baby: the ultimate learning machine

(ARA)-You may find the Internet inspiring or be awed by the advent of computers that think for themselves. But when it comes to sheer power of absorption, no man-made information-gathering system can compete with nature's ultimate learning machine: the human baby.

A growing body of research by experts around the world is teaching adults that, virtually from birth, babies are far more voracious learners than scientists once thought. Recent research reveals:

• Newborns may actually learn while asleep. Researchers at the University of Turku in Finland exposed 45 babies to specific vowel sounds while awake. EEG tests before and after showed the newborns didn't recognize the sounds after hearing them repeated while awake. However, when the same sounds were played throughout the babies' sleep hours, brainwave tests showed the infants were able to recognize the new sounds the next day.
• Infants as young as 10 months are capable of learning new words if the words are associated with a person or object of particular interest to them, according to a study by University of Delaware and Temple University researchers.
• Historically, child development experts believed babies didn't really start learning language until they were between 8 or 10 months old. A Johns Hopkins study indicates they probably begin learning language as young as 6 months old, when they first make the connection between their parents and the sounds "ma-ma" and "da-da."
• TV-based, interactive video games can help babies as young as 9 months to develop and refine motor skills, learn sign language and form elementary words. VTech's V.Smile Baby Infant Development System combines parent and child interaction with a motor skill enhancing portable console and engaging interactive video.

"Talking, singing and reading with children, as well as playing together with educational toys and interactive learning products are great ways for parents to get involved," says Dr. Lise Eliot, a leading authority on early child development and author of the acclaimed book, What's Going on in There? : How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life. "V.Smile Baby extends the classic baby activity panel to a TV learning environment that is very effective for teaching early concepts, such as shapes, colors and animals, in an interactive way," says Eliot.

While interactive learning systems and engaging activities might be easy for new parents to adopt, experts also encourage parents to take notice of baby sign language, an emerging trend in early child development.

According to Drs. Susan Goodwyn and Linda Acredolo, co-authors of the best-selling guide to signing with babies, Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk, New Edition, baby signing boasts emotional and intellectual development through simple, easy-to-do gestures and can actually help babies communicate basic needs and interests before verbal speaking skills are mastered.

Through incorporating baby sign language, products like V.Smile Baby give parents an innovative way to help their children begin to learn language skills earlier in life," says Dr. Acredolo.

Courtesy of ARA Content