I am always on the lookout for articles about babies and young children in the news. The more the public supports early childhood endeavors, the better. That is why I was so excited to see the cover of last week's
Newsweek featuring a baby with electrodes connected to its head and a supporting article articulating the latest in early childhood brain science.
Your Baby's Brain, from Jealousy to Joy, highlights how pediatricians are now looking for cues that indicate a baby's social-emotional development in addition to the standard physical milestones.
The article states that "a baby who fails to meet certain key 'emotional milestones' may have trouble learning to speak, read, and, later, do well in school. By reading emotional responses, doctors have begun to discover ways to tell if a baby as young as 3 months is showing early signs of possible psychological disorders, including depression, anxiety, learning disabilities and perhaps autism."
Also about a week ago, the
New York Times featured an op-ed piece titled
Your Baby Is Smarter Than You Think. Focusing on scientific research, the author makes the case that babies are much smarter than psychologists have documented in the past. She cites three research studies showing that babies can understand probabilities; understand cause and effect; and use probabilities to learn how things work which lets them imagine new possibilities.
I encourage our readers to read these articles and continue to keep up to date on early childhood brain science. It is the wave of the future, and certainly helps to inform what we do here at First 5 LA.
