Have you ever wondered what is going on in your baby’s head? Even when he or she is sleeping? I am sure that like me, you spent many a hour watching your newborn sleep. Sometimes you’d be rewarded by baby sounds or a slight smile. And you get to wonder, what is going on in that little brain?

Researchers of the University of Florida give us this answer: newborn babies are learning while they are sleeping!

Newborns Learn Even While Sleeping

Right after delivery, babies spend most of time sleeping, up to 18 hours a day. Yet, the first few days and weeks of a baby’s life is also a period of rapid development when babies learn to react to their surroundings, from learning to see to recognizing sounds. So when do they get the time to learn all these things? The researchers believe that newborn babies learn all the time, awake or asleep. In fact, newborns can be considered data sponges, processing data while in dreamland.

The researchers demonstrated this by simultaneously sounding a tone and blowing a gentle puff of air into a sleeping baby’s eyelids. After repeating this several times, the researcher sounded the tone without the puff of air. The results showed that most babies reacted to the tone by squeezing their eyelids instinctively. This reaction was reflected in changes in brain waves as measured by ECG.

Do Adults Learn While Sleeping Too?

Unfortunately not. Babies’ sleeping patterns are different from those of adults. Their sleeping state is relative “more active” with changeable breathing and heart rates, a state which allows babies to experience the world without being truly awake. Their brains are different, too, with more neural plasticity that allows to be changed by experience.

The results are interesting from a learning point of view but it can have some consequences on early screening for developmental and neurological problems, including autism and dyslexia.

But next time you look at your sleeping baby, you’ll have an idea what’s going inside his or her head. Your baby is listening, experiencing, learning what’s around – including you.

This article is originally posted by Science-mom at Babiesonline.com

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Author: Anthony Alagbile

Baby sign language is all the rage these days. Upscale day-care centers and nanny services promote it as a better way of understanding what babies want. Babies have been known to reliably produce signs as young as 5.5 months, and studies have shown that they reliably produce signs significantly earlier than spoken words. As we’ve reported here, there is no evidence that teaching sign language delays spoken language development.

But is formal sign training effective? Some studies about baby sign language have been quite informal, with parents and caregivers inventing makeshift signs to “talk” to their babies about bodily functions, favorite toys, desires for comfort, and so on. Other studies have focused exclusively on laboratory settings, with little follow-up to see if the signs acquired in the lab have any practical use.

A team led by Rachel Thompson has now combined these two approaches to explore whether formal laboratory training can have a positive impact on real babies’ lives — and their parents and caregivers.

The researchers systematically taught a modified ASL sign to Heather, a 10-month-old with Down syndrome. Heather learned to say “please” to ask for a toy. A 6-month-old normally-developing child, Betty, was taught a different sign, “more,” to ask for more food.

The training for each baby was similar, but I’ll take you step-by-step through Betty’s training. Remember, a six-month-old is just barely able to sit up on her own, much like Nora in this photo:

In fact, I think Nora’s a little older than six months here — but this photo was still taken several months before she uttered her first word.

This article is found in Cognitive Daily, written by Dave Munger

Posted by Wingy Lee

Your learning style may be the single most important key to improving your grades.

Students learn in many ways, like seeing, hearing, and experiencing things first hand. But for most students, one of these methods stands out.

Why is this important? Research has shown that students can perform better on tests if they change study habits to fit their own personal learning styles.

For example, visual-learning students will sometimes struggle during essay exams, because they can’t recall test material that was “heard” in a lecture.

However, if the visual learner uses a visual aid when studying, like a colorful outline of test materials, he or she may retain more information. For this type of learner, visual tools improve the ability to recall information more completely.

A simple explanation of learning styles is this: Some students remember best materials they’ve seen, some remember things they’ve heard, while others remember things they’ve experienced.

How can you determine your learning style?

Eventually, you may want to consult a professional or your counselor for advice on learning styles, but you may recognize your own style quickly, once you look over the characteristics. If any of the traits and characteristics below sound familiar, you may have identified your own style.

Visual Learner Characteristics

Visual learners are those who learn through seeing things. Look over the characteristics below to see if they sound familiar. A visual learner:

Is good at spelling but forgets names.
Needs quiet study time.
Has to think awhile before understanding lecture.
Is good at spelling.
Likes colors & fashion.
Dreams in color.
Understands/likes charts.
Is good with sign language.

Learning Suggestions for Visual Learners

Draw a map of events in history or draw scientific process.
Make outlines of everything!
Copy what’s on the board.
Ask the teacher to diagram.
Diagram sentences!
Take notes, make lists.
Watch videos.
Color code words, research notes.
Outline reading.
Use flashcards.
Use highlighters, circle words, underline.

Best Test Type for Visual Learners:

Diagramming, reading maps, essays (if you’ve studied using an outline), showing a process

Worst test type:

Listen and respond tests

Auditory Learner Characteristics

Auditory learners are those who learn best through hearing things. Look over these traits to see if they sound familiar to you. You may be an auditory learner if you are someone who:

Likes to read to self out loud.
Is not afraid to speak in class.
Likes oral reports.
Is good at explaining.
Remembers names.
Notices sound effects in movies.
Enjoys music.
Is good at grammar and foreign language.
Reads slowly.
Follows spoken directions well.
Can’t keep quiet for long periods.
Enjoys acting, being on stage.
Is good in study groups.

Auditory Learners Can Benefit from:

Using word association to remember facts and lines.
Recording lectures.
Watching videos.
Repeating facts with eyes closed.
Participating in group discussions.
Using audiotapes for language practice.
Taping notes after writing them.

Worst test type: Reading passages and writing answers about them in a timed test.

Best test type:

Auditory Learners are good at writing responses to lectures they’ve heard. They’re also good at oral exams.

Kinesthetic Learner Characteristics

Kinesthetic learners are those who learn through experiencing/doing things. Look over these traits to see if they sound familiar to you. You may be a kinesthetic learner if you are someone who:

Is good at sports.
Can’t sit still for long.
Is not great at spelling.
Does not have great handwriting.
Likes science lab.
Studies with loud music on.
Likes adventure books, movies.
Likes role playing.
Takes breaks when studying.
Builds models.
Is involved in martial arts, dance.
Is fidgety during lectures.

Kinesthetic Learners Can Benefit from:

Studying in short blocks.
Taking lab classes.
Role playing.
Taking field trips, visiting museums.
Studying with others.
Using memory games.
Using flash cards to memorize.Worst Test Type:

Long tests, essays.

Best Test Type:

Short definitions, fill-ins, multiple choice.

Michael Stevens is a healthy, beautiful newborn baby. As his parents admire him, they wonder, “What will Michael be like when he grows up? Will he do well in school? Will he get along with other kids and be happy?” Scientists now believe that the answers to these questions depend in large part on how young Michael’s brain develops, and that this development in turn depends largely on the nutritional, medical, emotional, and intellectual support his parents, extended family, and community provide for him during his childhood.

Recent advances in brain research have provided great insight into how the brain, the most immature of all organs at birth, continues to grow and develop after birth. Whereas this growth had been thought to be determined primarily by genetics, scientists now believe that it is also highly dependent upon the child’s experiences. Research shows that, like protein, fat, and vitamins, interactions with other people and objects are vital nutrients for the growing and developing brain, and different experiences can cause the brain to develop in different ways. It is this “plasticity” of the brain, its ability to develop and change in response to the demands of the environment, that will enable Michael to learn how to use computers as successfully as his ancestors learned how to hunt animals in the wild.

As he grows, Michael’s ability to understand language, solve problems, and get along with other people will be influenced by what he experiences as an infant and young child. This is not to say that individual genetic differences have no influence on how a child develops; they do. But there is mounting evidence that experiences affect the way genes are expressed (i.e., turned on and off) in the developing brain. While good early experiences help the brain to develop well, experiences of neglect and abuse can literally cause some genetically normal children to become mentally retarded or to develop serious emotional difficulties.

Understanding How the Brain Develops

To understand how this happens, we need to understand a bit about how the brain works. The brain is comprised of many regions that perform specific functions, such as identifying what we see, processing spoken language, or assessing whether we are in danger. Within each of these brain areas are millions of neurons, or nerve cells, which send messages to each other across synapses. These trillions of nerves and synapses and the pathways they form make up the “wiring” of the brain; they allow all of the various areas to communicate and function together in a coordinated way. The number and organization of connections in the brain influence everything from the ability to recognize letters of the alphabet to facility at managing complex social relationships.

In most regions of the brain, no new neurons are formed after birth. Instead, brain development consists of an ongoing process of wiring and re-wiring the connections among neurons. New synapses between cells are constantly being formed, while others are broken or pruned away. This happens throughout life. However, in early childhood the brain is genetically programmed to produce more synapses than it will ultimately use. Indeed, by 8 months of age a baby may have an astounding 1,000 trillion synapses in his brain! This blooming of synapses happens at different times in different areas of the brain. Development then proceeds by keeping the synapses that are used and pruning away those that aren’t. The pruning of synapses happens over the childhood years as the different areas of the brain develop(Huttenlocher & Dabholkar, 1997). Pruning allows the brain to keep the connections that have a purpose, while eliminating those that aren’t doing anything. In short, pruning increases the efficiency with which the brain can do what it needs to do. But, because the brain operates on the “use it or lose it” rule, an “over-pruning” of these connections can occur when a child is deprived of normally expected experiences in the early years. This leaves the child struggling to do what would have come more naturally otherwise.

Some areas of the brain, such as those which help us see clearly, become less “plastic” or changeable when the pruning is over. This has led to tremendous concern about providing what the brain needs to prune and organize itself correctly before the “windows of opportunity” close. For example, surgeons now remove congenital cataracts as early in infancy as possible, because they know that if they wait until the child is older, the neural connections between his eyes and his brain will fail to develop properly, and he will never be able to see.  Brain scientists are also working diligently to unlock the secrets of how the brain turns on and off its ability to change itself. There is real hope that if we can understand the ways this happens, we can create therapies, both those that use drugs and those that use carefully structured experiences and training exercises, that can open up windows and re-wire brains that were deprived of normally expected experiences early in life or those that get damaged later in life.

The Power of Early Experiences

Our brains shape and reshape themselves in ways that depend on what we use them for throughout our lives. Learning language is a nice example of how experiences contribute to each person’s unique pattern of brain development. The ability to speak and to understand other’s speech requires only the minimal opportunity to communicate that almost all children experience. However, which language a child learns to speak depends on the language he experiences, and his brain will adapt to this specific language. When an infant is 3 months old, his brain can distinguish several hundred different spoken sounds, many more than are present in his native language. Over the next several months, however, his brain will organize itself more efficiently so that it only recognizes those spoken sounds that are part of the language that he regularly hears. For example, a one-year-old Japanese baby will not recognize that “la” is different from “ra,” because the former sound is never used in his language. During early childhood, the brain retains the ability to re-learn sounds it has discarded, so young children typically learn new languages easily and without an accent. After about age 10, however, plasticity for this function is greatly diminished; therefore, most people find it difficult to learn to speak a foreign language as well as a native speaker if they only begin to learn it in adolescence or adulthood. More importantly, early experiences can determine how proficient a child becomes in his or her native language. Researchers found that when mothers frequently spoke to their infants, their children learned almost 300 more words by age 2 than did their peers whose mothers rarely spoke to them (Huttenlocher et al., 1991; also, Hart & Risley, 1995). Furthermore, studies have suggested that mere exposure to language such as listening to the television or to adults talking amongst themselves provides little benefit. Rather infants need to interact directly with other human beings, to hear people talking about what they are seeing and experiencing, in order for them to develop optimal language skills. Unfortunately, many parents are under the mistaken impression that talking to babies is not very important because they are too young to understand what is being said.

A new consensus is emerging about the importance of intervening with families of disadvantaged children in the first months and years of life to ensure they provide the kinds of  experiences that support optimal development. Psychologists have long known that children of poorly educated, low-income parents often don’t reach the same intellectual levels as children of well-educated, wealthy parents. The recent developments in brain research have provided new insights into why this is so. Parents who are preoccupied with a daily struggle to ensure that their children have enough to eat and are safe from harm may not have the resources, information, or time they need to provide the stimulating experiences that foster optimal brain development. Infants and children who are rarely spoken to, who are exposed to few toys, and who have little opportunity to explore and experiment with their environment may fail to fully develop the neural connections and pathways that facilitate later learning. Despite their normal genetic endowment, these children are at a significant intellectual disadvantage and are likely to require costly special education or other remedial services when they enter school. Fortunately, intervention programs that start working with children and their families at birth or even prenatally can help prevent this tragic loss of potential.

Emotional Development and the Infant Brain

One of the most fundamental tasks an infant undertakes is determining whether and how he can get his needs met in the world in which he lives. He is constantly assessing whether his cries for food and comfort are ignored or lovingly answered, whether he is powerless or can influence what adults do. If the adults in his life respond predictably to his cries and provide for his needs, the infant will be more likely to use these adults as sources of safety and security. With his safety taken care of, he then can focus his attention on exploring, allowing his brain to take in all the wonders of the world around him. If, however, his needs are met only sporadically and pleas for comfort are usually ignored or met with harsh words and rough handling, the infant will focus his energies on ensuring that his needs are met. He will have more and more difficulty interacting with people and objects in his environment, and his brain will shut out the stimulation it needs to develop healthy cognitive and social skills (Lieberman & Zeanah, 1995).

Children who receive sensitive, responsive care from their parents and other caregivers in the first years of life enjoy an important head start toward success in their lives. The secure  relationships they develop with the important adults in their lives lay the foundation for emotional development and help protect them from the many stresses they may face as they grow. Researchers who have examined the life histories of children who have succeeded despite many challenges in their lives consistently found that these people have had at least one stable, supportive relationship with an adult (usually a parent, relative, or teacher) beginning early in life (Werner & Smith, 1992).

This article is found in Education.com

Watch the video found in About.com about creating a reading-friend environment at home!

Creating a reading friendly environment in your home does not require building a fancy library or buying an expensive supply of books. In just a few steps, you can encourage reading at home and open up a world of knowledge to your children.

Click HERE to watch the video.

Here is an interesting finding from Times Online, UK on Mar 24, 2010:

Marie Woolf, Whitehall Editor

A CHILD’S reading age and ability to count develop a month earlier for every extra £100 a month in family income, according to a government-funded study to be unveiled this week.

Gaps in the development of children from different socio-economic backgrounds appear by the age of three and widen until 14. The findings, written by a panel chaired by Professor John Hills, are based on the Millennium Cohort Project which tracks 19,000 youngsters.

It will fuel divisions between Labour and the Tories over the link between a child’s prospects and household income.

Harriet Harman, Labour’s deputy leader, said last night: “[The report] provides an incontrovertible basis for us to move beyond inaccurate assertions made by the opposition … David Cameron says that the differences in child outcomes between a child born in poverty and a child born in wealth are statistically insignificant when both have been raised by confident and able parents.

“But what he fails to say is that you can’t separate out good parenting skills from family income. The two are so strongly correlated. So this is an utterly misleading portrayal of the evidence.”

The report says inequalities are exacerbated by differences in the mother’s education, the father’s job and deprivation in the area where they live.

Details of how far up the salary scale the effect occurs are expected in the report.

Pre-natal exposure to environmental pollutants — polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — may adversely affect a child’s IQ, U.S. researchers say.

Researchers at the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health at the Mailman School of Public Health in New York say polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are chemicals released into the air from the burning of coal, diesel, oil and gas, or other organic substances such as tobacco.

In cities, motor vehicles are a major source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the researchers say.

The study, published in the August issue of Pediatrics, finds that children exposed to high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in New York had full scale and verbal IQ scores that were 4.31 and 4.67 points lower, respectively, than those of less exposed children. High polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons levels were defined as above the median of 2.26 nanograms per cubic meter.

“These findings are of concern because these decreases in IQ could be educationally meaningful in terms of school performance,” lead author Frederica Perera says in a statement. “The good news is that we have seen a decline in air pollution exposure in our cohort since 1998.”

This article was found in VitalistNews.com

Aside from genetics, what influences your child’s IQ? Clearly, good nutrition, protection from toxins, and plenty of playtime and exercise can nurture a child’s intelligence. But can you really boost your child’s IQ?

Many child development experts now focus less on measuring a child’s IQ than on helping children reach their full intellectual potential – and without adding too much pressure.

WebMD talked with the experts about how a child’s intelligence develops. None of them is touting the flashiest toys, computer programs, or latest Baby Mozart video – and you may find that their insights help your child’s IQ far more than any fad.

A Child’s IQ: How does a child’s brain develop?

From before birth to age 4, an infant’s brain grows explosively. In fact, your child’s brain has reached 90% of its adult size before kindergarten. This period of great growth provides an ideal window of opportunity for learning.

But the brain doesn’t stop developing at age 4. It continues to organize and restructure throughout childhood – even into early adult life – as it becomes more complex. Unfortunately, knowing about the brain’s early growth has prompted many parents to panic about their child’s IQ or push their kids into “primo preschools.”

“It’s a classic American concern – how to accelerate learning,” says Ross A. Thompson, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis. “Many parents believe that if their children learn fast early, they will remain accelerated. But children learn best at a natural rate. Those who show early advances settle out by the time they reach grade school. Others catch up.”

The early years do matter, says Thompson. “But lower circuits in the brain must be built before higher circuits, and advanced skills must be based on basic skills,” he says.

Your Child’s IQ: Emotion drives learning

One of these basic skills involves creating a template for close relationships – usually through early attachment to parents and caregivers. Critical to your child’s emotional and social development, attachment also helps build your child’s intelligence.

Being attuned to your child’s inner mental life helps your child’s developing brain become integrated, according to Daniel J. Siegel, MD, director of the Center for Human Development at the UCLA School of Medicine. Writing in Infant Mental Health Journal, Siegel, who studies how relationships affect learning, says being attuned also provides a “safety net” for your child’s brain.

“Close, affectionate relationships throughout childhood are important, but especially when a child is little,” says Pat Wolfe, EdD. Wolfe is an educational consultant and co-author of Building the Reading Brain, PreK-3. One way to attune to your child is to listen closely and make eye contact. “If you only pretend to listen because you’re distracted, kids pick up on that really fast,” Wolfe says. Other ways to connect? With your facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, and other nonverbal signals. Wolfe tells WebMD that when your child is older, one of the best things you can do is to talk about the day.

Connecting with you helps a child’s brain develop, says Thompson, because neurons get connected through social connection and language. Learning is also often motivated by close relationships. “Kids become interested in learning because learning is valuable to the people who matter,” he says.

By contrast, when children don’t feel safe and secure, their ability to learn is affected.

The amygdala is a structure in the brain that regulates emotion. When children feel threatened, the amygdala creates a fight-or-flight response – a chain reaction that allows emotion to overrule rational thought by “shutting down” the thinking parts of the brain. Early or long-term stress in a child’s life can lead to changes in this part of the brain, making that child more susceptible to stress – and less susceptible to learning. But close, loving relationships can protect against this.

Your Child’s IQ: Experience sculpts the brain

“The brain is the only organ in the body that sculpts itself through experience,” says Wolfe. We now know, she tells WebMD, that experiences actually change and reorganize the brain’s structure and physiology.

Instead of seeing a child’s intelligence as a dynamic process, parents too often think of the brain as a vessel that can be simply filled up with knowledge, says Thompson. But that’s not the way it works, especially for young children.

“The best learning occurs through active engagement,” he says. “A child is thrilled to be counting peas in the context of gardening, measuring ingredients in the context of working with a recipe, or sorting nails in the context of building a birdhouse.”

Wolfe agrees: a variety of learning experiences in the real world are good for a child’s intelligence. Even at the grocery store, children can learn a lot by weighing foods, reading labels, and counting change.

Although eliminating TV and video games may not be entirely realistic, Wolfe says that too much time with media like these puts children in a receptive mode. And that keeps them from a rich, natural interaction with the real world – so important for a child’s brain development.
Your Child’s IQ: Do you need fancy toys?
At the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain, Lisa Oakes, PhD, a professor of psychology and specialist in infant cognition, studies another aspect of childhood intelligence. She examines how infants categorize and make sense of the visual world – research that makes her question the push by parents to boost a child’s IQ with fancy toys.

“We know that stimulation is good for the development of the brain,” says Oakes. You probably know that infants need different colors and textures and experiences. “But it doesn’t all need to come in one toy,” she says.

From her research, she has learned that infants are more interested in the action of a toy than the outcome it produces – so babies do not need expensive gadgets with lots of “bells and whistles” to learn. But if a certain toy is fun for a parent, it may still have a benefit, she says. That’s because babies learn through their parents’ reactions, too.

Your Child’s IQ: Effort and mindset

Carol Dweck, PhD, professor of psychology at Stanford University and author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, has studied yet another key to building a child’s intelligence. Through 20 years of research, she has found that differences in children’s mindsets affect their motivation to learn – and ultimately their performance in school.

Dweck learned that middle school students who believed intelligence was fixed tried to preserve their self-image by only doing what they already knew how to do well. “They didn’t want to risk their precious label – being smart,” says Dweck. Their fixed mindset, ultimately, could limit the growth of their intelligence.

By contrast, kids with a “growth mindset” were attracted to challenges – even if they failed at first. These kids thought about what they would do differently next time, such as how they would study harder to score higher on a test. When asked what they would do differently, kids with a “fixed mindset” said they would study less – or even consider cheating.

“After all, if you think intelligence is fixed and you do poorly, what are your choices?” says Dweck.

So she took her work further. She began to teach kids that the brain is like a muscle. It gets stronger with use, it makes new connections – and this can make you smarter over time. When she re-tested these students who had learned to have a “growth mindset,” their grades and study habits improved considerably after only two months.

A Child’s IQ: Praise the effort

Dweck began her research after seeing parents put too much emphasis on praising “intelligence” and pushing their kids. She learned early on that certain kinds of praise actually backfire.

Praising only a child’s IQ or intelligence can send the message that intelligence is a natural gift – and thus out of a child’s control, she says. Better, instead, to give kids the idea that hard work is always needed for achievement.

If you want to praise, she says, praise your child’s process, commitment, the strategies that work – focus on the learning, not just the grades. Do you tell your child, “Easy A, wow, you’re smart!” Or, do you ask, “What did you learn in that class?”

Children praised lavishly for their past high performance may be harmed even more than kids who have typically done less well, says Dweck. “The high performers think it’s beneath them to try hard – that it’s just for dummies. There’s a false promise here: You’re so smart, it will just come to you.” And when academic success doesn’t just happen, some kids may worry that they are no longer the whiz kids they once thought they were – and lose their motivation to study.

Of course, we all come with certain natural abilities, says Dweck. “But just because some have a more natural ability doesn’t mean others can’t learn the skill, too.”

“Parents need to value learning, progress, effort, resilience,” she says. “Their children will take that with them and enjoy it for a lifetime.”

This article was found in WebMD.com. Written by Annie Stuart. Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD