How Babies LEARN ~

You know when your baby is just lying around doing nothing much in particular? Or when he sticks out his tongue for fun? He's not just goofing around -- he's learning! Babies' brains develop quickly during the first 12 months, and they're absorbed in acquiring a new skill or understanding from their interaction with you and from their surroundings. Find out more about how your baby learns, and what you can do to help him.

How babies learn

Babies learn through all their senses, by:
Listening to you. Your voice is the sweetest sound to your baby, and just hearing you talk teaches him a lot -- how language works, what words mean, how people interact, and more. Since he prefers the voices of people he cares about to those of strangers, your words have great power to teach.
Watching the world go by. Even when you're in the car or at a store, your baby is learning. She sees the shapes and colors all around her, and starts to make sense of what objects are and how they work.
Touching everything. Does your baby seem to pick up everything in sight, peer at it, turn it around, shake it, put it in his mouth, then take it out and look at it again? What seems like random child's play is actually the way babies learn about everyday objects, starting as young as 1 month. They want to know how new objects look, feel, sound, smell, and taste. They're also discovering the effect they can have on something (does it make a funny noise when it's shaken?) and how things differ (metal feels colder and smoother than wood).
Playing. One of the most important ways babies learn is through play. Picking up blocks, shaking a rattle, banging trucks &-- all these things are fun, but also major brain-boosters. A baby's job is to figure out how the world works, and playing is how she does it.
Taking some time out. Downtime is crucial to a baby's development. His brain needs quiet time to process everything it's taking in. Especially in the first few months, babies need breaks to avoid overstimulation.