Having a smart baby does not require fancy gizmos and gadgets. The greatest tool for developing your baby’s intelligence is you. The biggest factor in determining future academic success in children is how much language they are exposed to before the age of two. Children who were spoken to, read to, and sang to developed much larger vocabularies, thereby pushing them far ahead peers whose exposure to language was much less.
The Hart-Risely Study is the most extensive study done to date to measure language development in babies and children. The study determined that children in upper class homes were spoken to much more often, thereby increasing their vocabularies, This gave them a very strong start academically, which put them ahead of many of their peers. Children in middle class homes rated second, as the number of words spoken to them was also recorded. It was not as high as the amount of language heard in the upper class settings. Coming in third were children that grew up in low income families. They found that these children were spoken to more in the form of commands than being engaged in conversation, thereby having a much lesser vocabulary than the other two groups. The results of this study proved that speaking to babies and small children and reading to babies and small children is the single most important factor in determining their future success.
As parents, we must make much effort to speak to our babies and our children. This necessary and crucial interaction between parents and their children is not at all hard to incorporate into your day.
Parents can accomplish this by discussing what they are doing and what they see as they go about their day. They can describe the colors of the items around them and so forth.
Parents should begin reading to their babies as early as possible, every day. Another wonderful way to expose your baby to language is to use books on CD when your baby is spending time playing and before or after a nap.
I also want to encourage you to become a storyteller. Everyone loves to hear stories. As you drive in your car or take baby for a walk, you can engage your baby with stories about all sorts of things. You can tell them the story of Goldilocks or The Three Little Pigs. You can tell your baby stories about animals that you make up or stories about your life. Whatever stories you decide to tell, include a lot of drama with your voice. This is sure to keep your baby’s attention.