• Skip to content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Shop ModernMom
  • Become An Insider

ModernMom

The premiere destination for moms

  • Parenting
    • Pregnancy
    • Baby
    • Kids
    • Tweens and Teens
    • ModernMom Monday Videos
  • Cooking
  • Living Healthy
    • Breast Cancer
    • Health & Fitness
    • Body after Baby
    • Beauty
    • Relationships
    • Love
  • Lifestyle
    • Crafts
    • At Home
    • Education
    • Travel
    • Pets
    • Decorate
    • Money
    • Brooke Burke
  • Celebrate
    • Holidays
      • Easter
      • Valentine’s Day
      • New Year’s
      • Christmas
      • Hanukah
      • Halloween
      • Thanksgiving
    • Birthdays
    • Parties
  • Must Have
  • Contests
  • Entertainment

How Your Baby’s Brain Grows

March 30, 2011 by Frans Plooij Ph.D Leave a Comment

Nature is a remarkable thing.  I am sure, as new parents, you have already experienced this.  But, the innate abilities babies are born with never stops amazing me. 

When a baby is born, it is perfectly capable of sensing “what," such as hot, cold, loud, bright, and “how much."  A baby placed on the mother’s tummy will root around, searching for more warmth, until it finds the hottest spot – the nipple.  (That may take the better part of an hour, but the test has been done).

The "how much" perception may even precede birth; we call it "intensity."  The "what kind" perceptions comes a little later — we call them "sensations."

Sometimes I am asked what I mean when we say “mental development” and “leaps in mental development” when it comes to describing what’s happening inside your baby’s head.  From a scientific perspective, we mean the natural growth of the brain and entire nervous system from a few neurons making connections in the embryo, all the way to the fully functioning brain and nervous system of an adult. Just like various physical parts of the body, the brain grows, adds new functionality, and matures. As it does (in stages, on nature’s schedule) the cranium grows, neurons are added, and successively higher perceptual functions emerge.

This is what is happening with every leap… more functionality, more skills to learn and master.

We know with indisputable certainty that all babies, no matter what, make 10 major, predictable, age-linked changes – or leaps – during their first 20 months of life. With each leap comes a drastic change in your baby’s mental development, but this development can also manifest itself as poor sleep, bad appetite, crying, clinging and crankiness. Hard on your baby and exhausting and frustrating mom and dad.

Why? Well, each leap sets the stage for the subsequent development of skills. So, suddenly, your baby can think, feel, notice and understand what is happening around him in a new way. These new, higher levels of perception begin to emerge one after the other in rapid-fire and, as amazing as this is it is also scary for the baby. These cognitive changes can influence what the baby can do and how he behaves. That is why, before he is comfortable exploring his new abilities, a baby often cries more, is more clingy and crankier.

You see, each stage or period of mental development described here is accompanied by an initial period of confusion as neural connections in the brain are rearranged. To the baby, this is bewildering. He’s taken aback — everything has changed overnight. It is as if he has woken up on a strange planet. In each case, the baby seeks reassurance, which means “back to mama.” Baby will cling, cry and get cranky. The clingy periods alert parents and make them worried, resulting in a more intensive care giving and interaction with their baby. This facilitates the new learning and helps the baby to make the leap into the new world.

When parents understand this, even before these periods occur, what each of these developments mean for a baby’s understanding of the world around him, and how he uses this understanding to develop the new skills he needs at each stage of his development, they can use this understanding of their baby’s developmental leaps to help him through these often confusing times in his very new life. They will be able to understand better the way their baby is thinking and why he acts as he does at certain times. They will be able to choose the right kind of help, as he needs it, and the right kind of environment to help him make the most of every leap in his development.

Comments

comments

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About Frans Plooij Ph.D

Frans Plooij, Ph.D is the author of the international bestseller The Wonder Weeks and one of the worlds top specialists in infant/child development and parent-baby interactions. His book, based on 35 years of extensive research, describes in easy-to-understand terms the incredible developmental changes that all babies go through during their first 20 months of life. Following Dr. Plooijs advice and insight in the babies changing brain, parents all around the world have been better prepared (often within a week or two) for the often drastic behavior that marks a new change in their babys development, the new skills that emerge with each leap and how to get the most out of these wonder weeks. (www.thewonderweeks.com).

Reader Interactions

Primary Sidebar

Tell a friend

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Search

ModernMom Boutique

ModernMom TV

Featured

Brooke Burke: My Slim Down Secrets

Everywhere I look, I hear about a new fitness fad, a quick … [Read More...] about Brooke Burke: My Slim Down Secrets

Must Have

winter

Pre-Holiday Must-Haves

"It's beginning to look  a lot like Christmas..." The … [Read More...] about Pre-Holiday Must-Haves

Did you know?

How Soon After a C-Section Can I Get Pregnant Again?

Causes of Lethargy in Toddlers

How to Fix a Broken Slab of Marble

Signs of Water Breaking in Pregnancy

Signs of Water Breaking in Pregnancy

Cures & Remedies for Head Lice

Cures & Remedies for Head Lice

Get Wrinkles Out of Tulle

How to Get Wrinkles Out of Tulle

Health Benefits of Drinking Kombucha

The Health Benefits of Drinking Kombucha

Footer

  • About Us
  • Contact ModernMom
  • Advertise With Us
  • Press
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contributors

Copyright © 2021 Modern Mom. All Rights Reserved.

Reproduction of any portion of this website only at the express permission of Mom, Inc.

The information provided on ModernMom is for educational use only. It should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.