The first five crucial years of your child
I will quote a study:
“Between birth and the age of ten or eleven, the nucleus basalis is permanently ‘switched on’.
It contains an abundance of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, and this means new connections
are being made all the time. Typically this means that a child will be learning almost all the time — if
they see or hear something once they remember it.”The first five years are especially crucial for
physical, intellectual, and social-emotional development.I observed an interesting behavior when
my family went to a restaurant with my three-year-old grandchild to a restaurant in London. At the
end of it, the waitress asked, if you care for coffee. All of us simply said, “No Thanks”. Well, it is a
normal response for any Indian to say ‘No’ straight away. But my granddaughter brought up in the UK
says, “I am good, thank you so much”.
So obviously, kids learn vocabulary, language and the way they conduct from their surroundings.
Quoting a research, it says that infants start understanding objects and language and behavior.
A preschool child becomes astute enough to assess the situation as well as the people.
From the critical time of birth to age of five children develop cognitive skills or simply their
intelligence develops. This will include their social and emotional development. Another part/domain
will be attention span, memory reasoning and logic, and analysis. The research says all this is
interconnected. They are not separate domains/departments. So essentially when u are bringing
up your child, you are actually doing most creative work.
Now, what is it we should do, to raise the child to the best of his capabilities?
Today I will initiate with a very basic thing: Give them security both physically as well as in
relationships.  First one, the physical security is easily achievable. The issue is with the second
one! It is a noticeable point if there is the argument between the family members the child is
disturbed. Such things affect the intellectual and social growth of the child.
This reminds me of a story. Once my father returned very late from the office. Those days, when
I was around seven years old, we did not have landline phones as well. And I vividly recollect my
father telling, there was a live show of famous singer Kishore Kumar and he was watching that and
hence he is late. My mom just laughed it off! It was much later in life I asked her, why you did not
lose your temper? She simply said an argument in front of both me and my brother would have
pushed us behind in the class.  Such sacrifices by our mom in earlier times were a norm. But today
in times of equality it is difficult to come by.
Yes, girls! Look for solutions!
...Can we behind closed doors?

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