How to support your baby’s brain growth

Have you ever wondered how to raise a baby genius? 

When your child was a newborn, did you bask in the glory of comments like, “she’s so alert for her age!” 

Whether you admit it or not, we all secretly prize intelligence in our children from an early age.

Like every dad with their first baby, I gazed into the eyes of my sweet little nugget looking for signs of brilliance.

I convinced myself that our son had potential for greatness when he locked eyes with me as a newborn and smiled. 

Oh wait.  That was just gas.   

Nevertheless, I knew one of my most important jobs as a dad would be to nurture my child's growing brain as much as possible. 

So naturally I hit Google hard with the mission to throw some dollars at the right toys, books and gadgets. 

Anyone out there know “Baby Einstein” products?  Yeah…I do too.

After getting past the nervous jitters phase of first time parenting.

And upon shelling out some serious dough on eco-friendly, wooden, no light, no sound, no battery toys, I came to a thrilling conclusion…

While these gadgets do have some benefit, I discovered I already had the answer, no additional purchase required.  Thank goodness.

Disclaimer: this isn’t a technique that will help you raise MENSA certified geniuses.  That is just nature, not nurture.  This is rather about nurturing our kids to their fullest potential.  

The answer...Peekaboo. 

Disappointed?  Don’t be.  Read on.

A baby’s brain makes over 1 million neural connections EVERY SECOND.  The first 5 years of life are the most important (and fastest) phase of brain development. 

So how does peekaboo help?

The Answer: Serve And Return

It forms a SERVE and RETURN interaction between you and your baby, which turns out is just what your little one is craving.   

No, not a classic Agassi vs. Sampras match…

Serve and return is what science-y folks at Harvard say is the best way for parents to shape their child’s brain architecture (fancy word for building healthy brain development).

A baby’s brain is rapidly building connections (neural pathways).  These pathways control everything from our emotions to our decision making to how we think about the world.  

Healthy pathways are created or strengthened when your baby cries, babbles or reaches (the serve) and we engage (the return). The return might be making eye contact, giving a facial expression, talking, playing or laying on a hug.  

Now, we won’t always be perfect and sometimes our kids might send over an ace (we might miss the serve).  But in order to be active in your child’s brain development, we must try to return most of the serves (note to self…put the phone down).  

So how much should we be practicing serve and return? 

We must do this EARLY and OFTEN.

I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking damn I don’t do this enough with my baby. 

But hold on. 

You probably do without realizing it.  This doesn’t have to be perfect.  It really just requires that you be present with your child and soak up their adorable selves.

Molly (one of the youngest Ted speakers ever) notes, in her great Ted Talk, that games like copycat, naming and peekaboo build critical brain connections starting right out of the womb.  Supporting important  brain growth that will help our kids make friends, take tests, get jobs and one day be great parents.   

The challenge to us:  Be ready and present, put away our screens and engage on the court of child interaction.  Do this EARLY and OFTEN (as much as you can).  And remember the more SERVES we RETURN the more growth we will both experience.  And our children will thrive by five.