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Why Stimulating Your Newborn’s Intellect Is Important

Considering that 75% of your child’s intellectual growth will occur before the age of 6, it is very important that you begin to stimulate your baby’s mind as soon as they are born. With babies, everything around them is extremely influential on their developing mind – sights, sounds, smells, and touches.  These early inputs and influences help them to learn and grow, no matter what age.  It is very important for a parent to consider creating a stimulating environment for their newborn.  Here are a few ways to stimulate your infant’s intellect.

1. Supply them lots to look at.
Stimulate your child’s visual sense by surrounding them with color. Place them in a play pen like the Graco Pack n Playard so they’ll be surrounded by different colors and shapes for them to look at. Hang a mobile above their playpen or hang colored shapes on the wall.  You might also want to hang a baby-safe mirror on the wall so your baby can recognize themselves.  Whatever you can add to spice up the visual excitement of your infant’s world – the more the better.

2. Provide tons to listen to.
It is a well-known fact that infants respond to music, even when in the womb – you can play music for them as soon as you’d like.  Play a CD of nature sounds for your baby – whistling wind, rainforest sounds, or rain showers – anything to stimulate your child’s sense of hearing. There is no more beautiful voice on earth to your infant than Mommy’s voice – newborns love to be sung to. Encourage your baby to make their own sounds and noises – give them musical toys or rattles to play with.  Teach them how to clap. The more they explore their own sounds, the more they learn.

3. Supply them lots to touch.
Give your newborn enough space to roll around or crawl in – you might want think about a larger size playard, such as the Graco Pack n Play Playard In Bugs Quilt, which gives them enough room to explore the world around them. Play hand games with your infant – paddycake is always a favorite. Bounce and dance with your baby in your arms or your lap, really involve them in your motion. Give them lots of different textures to touch and explore. Different fabrics or toys with different surfaces, for example the toys in the Graco Playard give your newborn different textures to touch. All in all, the more your allow your infant to feel and to touch their world surrounding them, the more they learn and the more they are stimulated.

Your newborn’s intellectual stimulation is one of the most important aspects of their development. It is up to you as a parent to provide an environment to your child where they can safely explore and learn about the world around them. Provide a world full of color for your baby. Play them the soothing and stimulating sounds of music and the world around them.  Give your newborn many things to touch – all the different textures and surfaces you can find.  All of these things are be very influential on your infant and on their mind.

Tags: babies, baby cribs, graco playard, pack n playard, Parenting, play pens