7 questions every new parent asks about children

Did you know that a baby’s memory is formed at the age of two to three weeks?

A baby aged two to three weeks remembers your smell.

You, like many other parents, have many questions about how your child is growing, and now we will try to answer them.

Why do babies sleep so much?

Infants do not yet know that they need to sleep at night and stay awake during the day. Therefore, they usually sleep in fits and starts of three to four hours, wake up to feed, and go back to sleep.

As children’s brains develop, children have reasons to stay up because there is so much to discover! Children begin to interact with the world around them, parents talk to them, read to them. As a result, children predictably develop the habit of staying awake for longer periods, communicating and interacting with their parents, caregivers, and the world around them, and then going back to sleep.

 

Is it possible to develop a baby’s brain while it is still in the womb?

It was previously believed that the sounds of classical music helped a child’s brain develop.

But there is no real evidence that children who listen to classical music become smarter.

On the other hand, it won’t hurt. It’s great if parents start listening to music at home: while enjoying the sounds of music, parents become calmer, this feeling is passed on to the child, and he also calms down.

There are many reasons why music is good for young children, but developing intelligence is not one of them.

 

How does nutrition affect brain development?

A baby meets all its nutritional needs from mother’s milk, which is why everyone emphasizes the importance of breastfeeding.

Following this, in some countries there are dangerous periods for children’s lives due to food insecurity, when there is not enough quality and variety of food.

This can lead to delays in the child’s development, both cognitively, when there are delays in the child’s development, and physically.

 

Why do babies need touch?

There is a lot of scientific evidence about how important touch is for newborn babies – not just humans, but all animal species.

We are talking about kangaroo mother care, where the newborn baby is placed on the mother as early as possible after birth, which not only calms the baby, but also the mother. So, there are many reasons why touch is extremely important.

 

How often should you actively interact with your child?

Children are curious from birth and tend to explore their environment. Everything is completely new, there is a whole world waiting for children, and parents should not stand in their way.

All they need to do is ensure the child is completely safe.

However, you should not protect the child too much. There are many opportunities for learning new things – for example, sing to a child, read to a child, walk down the street with a child: look, there is a tree, there is a dog, there is a car, there is a house.

There are so many new things around, don’t stand in your child’s way, because children are extremely curious from birth.

 

How to motivate a child to learn a language?

When your baby begins to master speech skills, he says very simple words – “doggy”, “bye-bye”, “ta-ta-ta” and so on. Parents can reinforce these skills by repeating words with their child.

Young children enjoy repetition, so hearing the same song or having the same book read to them over and over again helps them develop language skills. Therefore, we advise parents to talk a lot with their children and sing songs to them.

At the same time, do not dominate the conversation, speak in turns. We call this approach “serve and return”; the child and parents speak in turns. It is often very important to mirror the child’s speech and gestures.

 

What’s the best way to teach your child different languages?

I think it’s important to stick to a certain sequence so that your baby doesn’t get confused. So sometimes one parent, one language works. Sometimes one lesson, one language works. But at the end of the day, children will figure it out on their own and use both languages appropriately.

In the very first years of life, children need responsible care. They need a supportive environment. They need parents who are sensitive to the needs of a young child. Parents are children’s first teachers.

When parents talk to their children, sing songs to them, read books to them, they thereby create favorable conditions for the rapid assimilation of knowledge, when all these connections and networks are formed in the child’s brain.

In the first years of life, the foundations are laid that play a critical role for the successful acquisition of knowledge throughout the rest of life. If parents can lay a strong foundation, the child’s brain will develop.

 

Source: Interview with Professor Frank Oberkleid.