Baby Development

The developmental information, products and toys on this page is targeted at babies from  4 to 12 months old.
For newborn developmental information and toys (Birth to 4 months): Go to Newborn Development.
For toddler developmental information and toys (1 - 3 years): Go to Toddler Development.

Your baby is part of the family now and is craving for stimulation! The first three years of a child's life is filled with critical windows of opportunity and it is during the next 8 months that most of your baby's critical stimulation will be necessary in order to make the most out of these sensitive time periods. Windows of opportunity are time periods when the brain is sensitive to specific stimuli in order to develop important vital senses. If the brain did not receive the stimuli required for proper development during this time, the window of opportunity will close and the child will have to fight against biology to develop these vital brain connections at a later time. Research have shown that after 3 years of age the important "windows of opportunity" governing intellectual and emotional functioning are programmed to close.

Let's have a quick overview of these windows of opportunity:

Vision: 4 - 8 Months At 4 months your baby's eyes should both function together and should be able to process color. Your baby should also be able to see right across the room. Use toys and objects of bright contrasting colors for visual stimulation. Visual stimulation and the development of the following skills/senses goes hand in hand: . Motor skills [View toys that develop gross and fine motor skills] . Touch [View toys for oral and tactile stimulation - recognizing different surfaces and textures] . Eye-hand and Eye-foot coordination [View toys that encourage hand-eye and hand-foot coordination development]

Hearing: 4 - 10 Months Make use of this enhanced sensitivity for sounds by exposing your baby to all kinds of music, a lot of language and speech (talking and reading to your baby) and other means of auditory stimulation. . View Music CDs for providing auditory stimulation View Music CDs by Mozart Effect View Kathy Reid-Naiman Music CDs View Baby Einstein Music CDs View Raffi Music CDs View Brainy Baby Music CDs View Enfance et Musique French Music CDs

Motor Development: Starts around 5/6 months of age Your baby will continue to develop and improve their motor development but the critical window starts when your baby makes his first purposeful movements by himself. * View Baby toys that develops fine and gross motor skills * View Baby Toys that help teaches cause and effect * Yes, Tummy Time is still on the menu of activities! [View toys for encouraging tummy time]

Speech and Language Development: 4 - 10 Months It is no co-incidence that the critical window for audio stimulation overlaps the window for laying down the foundation for language and speech development. Although a baby will continue to develop speech and language, research have shown that: After 6 months of age babies tend to loose their grasp of phonemes of foreign languages. After 12 months of age a babies ability to register phonemes of another language other than their native language is gone. By 12 months of age babies lose the ability to distinguish sounds that are not significant in their native language. The most common childhood disability (affecting up to 10% or more of all seven-year old children) is in fact a delay in language development. Unfortunately recent studies have shown that this number is rising. The exact cause is not known but it is thought to be a combination of factors such as: the increased presence of television in the home - personal interaction with your baby is essential to stimulate the development of language. Exposing your baby to television lacks not only personal interaction but also control over the quality and relevance of the language your baby is exposed to. If you do expose your baby to television or educational videos - it should be done in the same way you would read a book to them. Constant interaction between you and your baby while you explain to them what is happening and talking about what you are seeing on the screen. Try to make this interactive and get your baby to talk back to you during this time. increased parental working hours, little concentrated time spent as a family unit (i.e. at meal times) and a decrease in the use of nursery rhymes and interactive play with family members, all of the above contributing to a significant decrease in the level of focused, one on one attention that a young baby should receive. It is our responsibility as caregivers to expose our babies and children to lots of quality language and speech from birth to provide them with the opportunity to learn language and speech. Start talking to your newborn the moment they are born and don't stop. Some people will tell you that using Motherese (the musical type of language mothers naturally uses when talking to a baby) is important for your baby's speech development but that is not necessarily true. What is true is that you need to talk to your baby as much as possible and it doesn't really matter if you talk to them in an adult type manner or if you use motherese, the point is to: expose your baby to the sounds required for language and speech, to help them understand that communication is about receiving and relaying information (ensuring you give them time to respond to what you just said even if it is just cooing and babbling and make sure you respond back them) to make sure that you have a lot of eye contact with your baby when you talk to them (talk slow and use short sentences in clear language) . They love looking at your facial expressions (especially if they are over dramatized) and it gives them opportunity to try and mimic the movements of your mouth. Never think your baby is too small to understand - no one really knows at which point your baby is going to make the connection between you saying the word 'CAT' while pointing to the cat and your baby understanding that 'CAT' is the label for that furry thing with his tail in the air, therefore it is in your baby's best interest that you start talking to them at birth explaining the world around them - talk about what they see, what you do, the name of things etc. every moment that you are in each other's company. Since babies are naturally attracted to music, rhyme and varying pitch, reading stories to your baby, singing nursery rhymes and singing other songs and lullabies are very effective tools for promoting language and speech development. Choose music/songs with lots of rhyming and books with big pictures, contrasting colors and rhyming text. View all products assisting in language and speech development . View Baby Books Multilingual Baby [View Baby books and Multimedia in Spanish and ASL] . View Sign Language DVDs I am learning Spanish I am learning English

Right Brain Development: Birth to age three years The human brain is divided into two halves commonly known as the right brain and left brain. The right brain performs at high speed with an automatic processing function. It is this part of the brain that is responsible for the development of imagination and the artistic brain (music, emotions, sounds and intuitive thinking). After a baby is born the right brain is functionally more active than the left brain. This period usually lasts from birth to age three. Age three to six is a transition period where the left brain gains more dominance over the right brain. By age six the transition is complete and the left brain is now completely dominant over the right brain. Therefore it is very important to stimulate the right brain during the critical period from birth to age 3.