The First Five Years: Babies Learn Faster than Rocket Scientists!
From sound and visual perception to motor skills, language, and social interaction, babies are busily acquiring the tools they need to move with purpose, communicate, and sort out the endless barrage of sensory input so they can make sense of the world around them.
Window of Opportunity
From before birth to age five or six, babies’ brains grow faster than they will at any other time, and their capacity for learning is at its peak. During that growth period, babies are little research scientists, observing, interacting, reaching out, and responding with a level of sophistication equal to astrophysicts, making sense of the unknown.
As they learn, babies form the neurological connections they need to process, retain and access their new knowledge. Without loving support and interaction, those essential connections aren’t made, and the opportunity is lost. By the time kids reach school age, their ‘hard wiring’ is set, their unused circuits are “pruned” away, and their learning potential is diminished.
Interaction is Essential
Studies show that babies learn best through close interaction with caring people. Parents and caregivers are babies’ first and most important teachers. Through stimulation and feedback in everyday activities, parents can strengthen and expand babies’ learning skills in ways that will make a lifetime of difference, and give their youngsters a head start on learning. But how?
It looks simple: Making eye contact, talking, naming objects and people--all use sight, sound, touch, movement, and language to communicate with baby every day. But sometimes, when parents are stressed, tired, on-the-go, or simply overwhelmed with the demands of their daily routine, it can be hard to make time for high-quality interaction, and harder to remember just what activities can make such a profound difference in their baby’s future. That’s where your public library comes in handy.
The Public Library is a New Parent’s Best Friend
Libraries across the nation offer programs, resources and activities for even the youngest learners, and happily share tips for parents with kids of all ages. Too often sleep-deprived, new parents face their own learning curve, 24/7/365. Fortunately, public library story times are welcome oases for parents and babies, where both can relax, play and learn together.
For little ones, “reading” together is a happy, comforting experience. Simply cuddling with baby and a book combines touch, responsive speech and eye contact. Long before babies can master words, shared reading time helps them connect sights, sounds, images, and vocalizations to meaning. These pre-reading skills are the essential building blocks children must acquire before they can learn to read.
With picture book in hand, even exhausted parents are armed for interactive “reading” for a long as baby will pay attention. For three minutes or five, a parent with a picture book is prepared to build baby's early learning skills. Talking, repetition, singing, handling objects, pointing out words, colors, and letters of the alphabet build neurological connections in babies’ growing brains—pathways essential to healthy growth and development.
Need Answers? Ask a Librarian!
Beyond an endless variety of skill-building books, libraries help parents and caregivers understand babies’ growing learning capacity and how to make the most of it. Ask a librarian about resources for babies, and you’ll get wonderful recommendations as well as tips for interactive reading. Click for a list of librarian-recommended books for babies.
Also check your local library for a schedule of programs for parents and young children. From family story times, songs, and special learning activities, to tips on parenting skills appropriate for kids of all ages, libraries help parents and children develop learning skills that will last a lifetime.
Links
The King County Library System (KCLS) in western Washington offers a broad range of materials, activities, workshops, online and interactive resources for parents with babies and toddlers, from age-appropriate book lists to videos of songs and games that build developmental skills.
KCLS Ready to Read focuses on the five early activities that help babies and toddlers get ready to read by the time they start school.
Theme Learning Kits: Books to Grow On
KCLS offers dozens of theme-based learning kits for parents and caregivers, filled with books, toys, finger plays, songs, rhymes, and teaching tips on themes from everyday life for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. Topics range from Animals, to Bears, Bath time to Bedtime, Potty Training for boys and girls, Shapes, Languages, Zoo, and many more.
Across the country, libraries offer summer programs to engage kids and sharpen their learning skills. The KCLS summer learning program, Fizz, Boom, Read offers an engaging, downloadable activity list for parents and babies, toddlers and preschoolers.
Coming Soon:
Libraries and Summer Learning: The best investment in your kid's future
Teens and Summer Learning: Libraries tap into creativity to sharpen teens' STEM skills
