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6 Ways to Boost Your Child’s Brain Development

Human brain development is a lengthy process. It begins during pregnancy and continues well into the adolescence stage. The process, however, is rapid in the initial years. This is when children develop the necessary functioning skills.

Children rapidly develop motor, language and communication, social and emotional, and cognitive skills. These skills form the basis of their development and are life-long.

As a parent, you want your kid’s brain development to be optimal. Most parents enroll their children in formal classes to improve their brain development. But, not every parent can afford these expensive classes or simply doesn’t have the time for them.

Let us tell you a secret. There is no need to enroll your child in such classes. You can boost your child’s brain development with simple activities. You can do these activities at any time in the comfort of your home. Sounds exciting, right? So here are six ways to boost your child’s brain development easily.

1. Playing Together

Interacting with your child through games is one of the easiest activities you can perform. Playing games together can help children learn and develop new skills effortlessly.

You can play mind-stimulating games that get the children to focus, concentrate, and think. Such games aid the child’s brain development, and even the entire family can join in the fun.

For example, you can play Chess, UNO, Checkers, Bingo, and many other games that encourage children to think and make decisions. You can also create your own puzzles and memory games to match your children’s interests and needs.

2. Carrying Out Reading Activities

Reading is one of the best and easiest ways to boost your child’s brain development. It can help develop language and communication skills even before they start recognizing letters or words.

Thus, introduce your kids to books from an early age. Read to them during their toddler stage. As they grow older, encourage them to read on their own daily. You can surround them with reading materials from various genres to enhance their knowledge and vocabulary.

You can also make use of reading apps that make the reading process extra fun. There are many apps that have gamified the reading process, have beautiful animations to go along with the text.

Similarly, there are apps embedded with AI technology. They have word recognition and voice identification features that help with pronunciation and word understanding, further enhancing a child’s brain development by reading.

3. Sleeping Properly

Make your child’s sleep a priority. Why? Because the quantity and quality of sleep affect your child’s brain power. Did you know that most of your child’s brain development in the initial year happens while they’re asleep?

Getting appropriate and sound sleep can help your children in the following ways.

• It improves the thinking skills

• The child’s motor skills are strengthened

• The memory and cognitive functions improve

• Logical and mathematical reasoning skills are developed better

• Kids are better able to focus

• Positively impacts their overall mood

Thus, make sure that your child gets adequate sleep to boost their brain development and develop essential skills. See that your child gets a minimum of eight hours of sleep daily for optimal brain development.

4. Musical Activities

Introducing your child to different kinds of music helps stimulate the neural pathways used to receive information. There are a variety of ways you can introduce music to your kids.

For instance, you can have your child listen to music. You can expose them to various musical genres like pop, rock, classical, jazz, and even opera.

Similarly, you can also get them to learn a musical instrument like the guitar or violin. If you are familiar with the instrument, you can teach your children yourself. Or else, you can find many instrument learning videos, tutorials, and documents online for free.

Engaging in musical activities will not only help in your child’s brain development but also will help in their school and college life. Moreover, they can also consider a career in music later on.

5. Limiting Electronic Device Use

As per a survey, children in the United States spend about seven hours a day in front of electronic media. Too much screen time can hamper a child’s brain development. It can affect their ability to think and focus, among other negative consequences.

Experts suggest putting your kids on an ‘electronic fast’ for several weeks. This involves removing all electronic devices from your kid’s life. The devices include smartphones, televisions, tablets, and video games. In short, if the device has a screen, remove it.

Limiting device use can help improve your child’s sleep, increase blood flow to the brain, reset circadian rhythms, and reduce stress hormones. Studies have shown that it can also rebalance brain chemistry. This can enhance the critical thinking and creativity in the child.

6. Comforting Your Child

Even young kids experience stress. This happens if the child feels unsafe at a particular place or when playing with some specific kid or individual. Similarly, they can also get stressed if they face neglect, abuse, or are exposed to negative scenarios like violence or have alcoholic parents. This can affect your child’s brain development. It can lead to physical, emotional, and cognitive issues.

One of the easiest ways to avoid this is by responding to your child when they feel distressed. Let your child know you are there for them. Hold and cuddle your baby. Hug them. These will help calm them down.

Studies have shown that children handle stress better if they have responsive, loving, and supporting parents. This, ultimately, helps boost your child’s brain development.

Parting Thoughts

We hope that the tips mentioned in the blogs will help boost your child’s brain development. The activities are easy to perform and can be done at home anytime. You won’t need to follow a specific schedule to carry out these activities.

Moreover, these activities will save you the trouble of enrolling your child in a formal class. You will end up saving time and money otherwise wasted in such classes.

So which activities are you partaking in to boost your child’s brain development? How is the experience? Did you notice any changes? Do let us know.