What to Do To Make Your Baby Smarter
The best thing you can do to help your baby become as smart as they can be is to keep them as healthy and happy as possible. Caring for your baby in this way begins during pregnancy, but once your child is born you will also need to start helping them to develop intellectually. From birth up until the age of five, your child’s body and mind will be developing rapidly.
Educational technology, toys and TV can be helpful, but babies learn fastest when they are enjoying contact with a living person. Human contact is the best way to encourage learning and curiosity. You should spend as much time as possible talking with your baby, reading to him or her, and playing together.
Babies need toys that are suited to their current stage of development. Age appropriate toys will not be too complicated and overwhelming for your baby, but nor will they be too dull and boring. A good toy, which will encourage your child to be curious and to engage with their environment, does not have to be very expensive or to come with a lot of educational hype. It just needs to be the right toy for your baby’s age, and one which will help them to develop the appropriate skills.
As a newborn, your baby will be most interested in things that move and things that make noises. You can engage their attention simply by shaking a shiny set of keys. Young babies at this stage also need to be talked to. You can try reading or singing to your baby as well, in order to engage their attention with the world around them. Your baby will also want plenty of physical contact. As your baby gets a bit older, between about four and six months of age, they will become more interested in toys they can touch. They will enjoy looking and bright colors and manipulating toys such as blocks that can be moved around. Your baby will also enjoy cuddling a soft toy, and touching differently textured toys.
You can start to introduce some more complicated toys between the ages of about six and eighteen months. You should encourage your child to find different ways of interacting with their toys. They will begin to enjoy puzzles and sorting objects by their colors and shapes. You should provide toys that will stimulate your child’s curiosity, and ones that will give your child a pleasant surprise. Children will also be stimulated by talking and singing, and you can begin naming objects for them.
Once your child gets a bit older, you can start giving them some toys that help them to develop their learning skills. You should take plenty of time to read together, and you can give your child writing materials such as crayons. Your child needs to play with toys that will help them to develop motor skills and imagination. It is also important to hold conversations with your child. They should be encouraged to talk as much as possible, and to ask as many questions as they like. It will also be a good idea to let your child socialize with other people, particularly children of the same age. You should also encourage your child to begin to play on their own more often.