healthykids
they argue that there is little scientific evidence showing that factors like birth order and exposure to classical music and educational videos have an impact on cognitive development. “Children come ‘out of the box’
with individual temperaments that strongly influence the possible paths they can take through life,” Aamodt ob- serves. “Most parents believe that they can have a bigger influence on their child’s personalities than they actually do. They should relax and enjoy their kids more.” The authors offer these scientifi-
cally backed tips for parents and care- givers to influence a child’s developing brain:
Don’t stress during pregnancy.
HOW A BRAIN GROWS
Five Ways to Aid Development by Lisa Marshall
Parents that believe playing Beethoven for their infant, invest- ing in educational videos for their toddler or forcing school- age youngsters to sit still and study for hours will help them to build a better brain have another “think” coming.
“P
eople are anxious to do everything they can to improve their child’s intel-
ligence, yet many are focusing their energy in places where they are not getting the best payoff for it,” says neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt, Ph.D., co-author of Welcome to Your Child’s Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College. In their new book, Aamodt and
Princeton University Neuroscience Professor Sam Wang try to dispel what they believe are many myths that have
www.naturalawakenings-houston.com
led parents to worry too much about the influence they can have on a child’s cognitive development and in some cases, have led to doing more harm than good. Aamodt says that genetics and
thousands of years of human evolution have already exerted a heavy influence on a child’s developmental future be- fore he or she is born. In the absence of abuse and neglect, and with good nutri- tion and a stimulating environment, a child’s brain “raises itself” in many ways, the authors maintain. Meanwhile,
“The hormones produced in the mother’s body during stressful times can cross over into the placenta, exposing the child. If it’s a chronic condition, it can lead to problems with brain devel- opment,” counsels Aamodt. One 2008 review paper from
Harvard Medical School led researchers to conclude that babies born to stressed mothers are more likely to suffer from autism spectrum disorders. Others, from researchers in Canada and the UK, found that women that endure natural disasters while pregnant are more likely to have babies that suffer from schizo- phrenia, decreased IQ and depression. Animal research has repeatedly demon- strated that babies of stressed mothers often grow up with touchy stress- response systems. Switch off the baby videos. Uni-
versity of Washington researchers have found that baby educational videos, like Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby fail to boost language skills and may actually slow acquisition of vocabulary. “For every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants under- stood an average of six to eight fewer words than infants that did not watch them,” the report said. Other research by the American
Academy of Pediatrics suggests that exposure to action-packed videos may increase the risk of development of attention disorders. “Babies are wired to learn from other people, and every period of time they are not interacting with people because they are watching
natural awakenings February 2012 27
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