Infant & Toddler Brain Development

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. David Hill, and today we're going to be talking about infant and toddler brain development. Now that's a big topic, because when a baby is born they don't have a whole lot that they understand about the world, very, very little. By the time they're done with the toddler period, you've got a child that can make basic sentences, understand a tremendous amount of what's told to him or her and has all sorts of physical motor skills and social skills that a newborn infant obviously does not. So what's happening in that first year of life? A lot of what your infant is learning has to do with there own emotional security, and they learn that by watching and interacting with you. At the beginning it's largely about touch, it's about nursing, about being physically on moms body, and also of course on dads body. About regulating breathing and temperature in conjunction with your body. They respond to soothing, quite, soft sounds, low tones, like what they might of heard in the uterus. As they begin to be able to see they develop motor and they develop visual pathways, starting at about 2 weeks to 1 month of age where they can just see where your face is and make out the dark and light shapes of the face. That's going to proceed very rapidly to where they can make out what different facial expressions mean. Your facial expression is going to teach your infant whether to be calm or worried. So think about what sort of message you're sending when your infant is looking at you. Another thing they're going to be learning a lot from is your voice. By age 9 months, less than a year after birth, a child knows his or her own name and usually understands the word no, not that they always obey, but they do know what you mean. By the time they're 12 months they can understand quite a bit of what's said, and by 15 months they're going to be following simple commands. At 24 months you're really going to be having some conversations with your child and you're going to be learning a lot about his or her inner life. The toddler years are times when the children start to look out beyond themselves and learn what's going on in the world around them. Anything that's novel is a learning opportunity, interacting with another child, seeing something they haven't before, or even reading the same book that they've read with you 50 times with you already. No matter what they're looking at they're learning. And remember when your child does something that you think is wrong, part of what they're trying to find out is what happens when they do something. That 9 month old who drops the sippy cup off the highchair, over and over and over again, is trying to find out how gravity works. It doesn't mean you have to give it back over and over again, but you don't get mad at the child, they're just trying to explore their worlds. So, the first two years of life is a time when the brain is absolutely exploding with growth. Remembering the first year that your voice and your face are telling that child more than anything else in the world, and in the second year they're exploring the world around them, and you're their guide to that world. Anything you show them that's new and exciting is going to help their brain grow. Talking about infant and toddler brain development, I'm Dr. David Hill."