Why is stimulation important for the Child’s Development?

Importance of stimulation to feed IQ to your baby

When a child is born, so takes birth the responsibility to bring up a smart, healthy, and wise human being. We as parents provide them with the best nutrition, education, social and moral understandings. For a parent, the biggest goal of life is – see the children do good in everything they undertake. But to achieve success, the efforts need to begin from the very start.

It was not long ago when I was having this casual discussion with an auto-rickshaw driver, about school-based education. He mentioned how his son would solve crosswords puzzles and number maze in old torn newspapers. Seeing the talent of this six years old boy, he enrolled him in some Mathematics classes and the kid excelled in all sorts of number logic exams. The boy later took part in the state-level competition and won it with flying colors.

I was amazed by this little story, how this daily wage earner gauged the interest of little boy and enrolled him in stimulation classes. We parents are the basic necessity providers for children, and it is our duty to create a conducive environment of growth for them.

Importance of Simulation for the child’s overall growth

Do you know that the first three years are most crucial in a child’s life? This is the time when the brain develops and grows at its fastest pace. In this stage the brain acts like a sponge, absorbing everything inside those tiny neural walls. The child learns to communicate and develops a relationship with the outside world.

The brain learns the basic structure of communication, emotional and mental reasoning, social behavior, and more. Hence, proper nutrition becomes the focal point during this growth phase. Complete nutrition makes smart and healthy kids, but often we ignore the aspect of the brain or cognitive development in the quest of making them healthy.

Brain simulating games, mental exercises, puzzle games, and plays, stimulate the brain to make children active, alert, and smart. Cognitive development takes the focus in this learning stage, making kids inquisitive to seek more and more information. Hence, nutrition and health should be integrated to create an environment for children to learn.

Role of Nutrition and Feed IQ

FeedIQ; the concept I have covered in my previous health & child-development posts emphasizes the holistic growth of a child from early pregnancy. Cognitive skills are the intellectual skills developed over time with the help of various mental stimulating activities.

“The growth and development of a child are facilitated by providing care, responsiveness, and stimulation. Responding to babies with love and warmth makes them feel secure, loved and assured about the fulfillment of their needs. The more you interact with your young ones, the more rapid their development is. As a mother/caregiver, you play many roles in the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of your child.” – reference indexed.

With the current scenario at studies and fast pacing world, adaptability is the biggest virtue. As a mother, I emphasize more on building adaptability and presence of mind in kids as compared to bookish know-how. Simulating intellectual growth help kids to learn the basic of overall education paradigm.

Cognitive Development and Feed IQ

As a family, all members must equally participate in boosting cognitive development in the children. This brings different views and perspectives on shaping a better understanding. I remember during childhood days when granny would delegate a few of her ‘social-work’ jobs to me. For the role of junior committee coordinator, my job description was to – interact with all members and to keep track of numbers. This helped me to get over the basic hesitation of meeting and interacting with new people. During the hostel stint much later in life, this trait helped in breaking-ice easily, making new friends and building new relationships.

Role of a father during early development in children brings a new perspective of growth. Quite obviously a male will have a different aspect of understanding than that of a female. Hence, when fathers encourage or inspire a child to learn or perform it brings a positive push towards accomplishment.

Also, it helps a child to learn gender equality and a wider perspective of life. I have seen my father doing kitchen chores or school duties many times in life. So does my partner. He doesn’t mind being the chef for a day or cleaning dishes when required. This opens up the barrier of mindsets and a child learns easy adaptability for better growth prospects.

All you need is…

Listen to kids by giving them undivided attention. Attending to their questions or welcoming opinions are the ways of building strong emotional trust between parents-children. Playing is the foremost element of early childhood stimulation and central to good mother-child interaction. Babies, infants, and children learn through play. Play strengthens the bonds between parents and children.

Healthy growth of a child depends on the environment we provide them. A conducive and happy environment with growth stimulating activities and positive response from parents boost cognitive development in children. As parents and nurturers, we must inculcate healthy relationship with kids and invest time in brain-stimulating exercises like plays, mental-verbal development games, storytelling etc.

Always remember the brain adapts as per the surroundings.

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© Dipika Singh. Unauthorized use or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Dipika Singh (Gleefulblogger). With the right and specific direction to the original content.

DISCLAIMER –

The content is not for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Ref. 1. Integrating Early Childhood Development activities. http://www.who.int/mental_health/emergencies/ecd_note.pdf