What’s going on inside a baby’s head? Are there actual thought processes happening? Parents are often left to wonder these questions. When you look at a helpless baby fumbling around hardly able to do anything, it is hard to imagine that anything is actually going on in there. Well, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn how smart babies are.
Babies have an astronomical amount of brain cells at birth—100 to 200 billion according to Dr. Harry Chugani, a pediatric neurobiologist. Some believe this is the most that we will ever have. But of course babies need all of them in the beginning—think of all the feats they master in just one year. They have to be incredibly smart to learn everything they do. Their brain actually doubles in size their first year, not to mention they learn to talk, walk, sit up, eat, and so many other incredible things—in just one year. I know in my adult life, I don’t learn to do that many life changing things in one year. Yes, I may be more independent and think of myself as smarter, but I can’t say I accomplish that much.
From the moment they enter the world, babies’ brains start firing away; they are soaking everything up. With every word we speak and action that we take, they are closely observing and learning, and very soon they are able to copy us.
If they can learn all this in one year, if their brains are that capable, think of everything else they could learn with a little push. With all those neurons and brain growth, the capabilities are real. Rima Shore of the Families and Work Institute says that neuroscientists now agree, “The most critical learning phase in a person’s life comes long before starting school” (Shore). Researchers believe that the more neural synapses created in these years, the more that will be retained in their adult lives. Essentially, giving more neural stimulation will create smarter people.
So, what’s going on inside a baby’s head? A whole lot.
Contributed to by Carol Glover
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Goodwyn, Susan, Ph.D, and Linda Acredolo, Ph.D. Baby Minds. New York: Bantam, 2000. Print.
Shore, Rima. “Babies Brain: Important Finding.” N.p., Nov.-Dec. 1997. Web.
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