Baby Brain!
Hot potato of the parenting field.. but what do we actually know about baby brain?
Baby brain has been a very popular topic in parenting public and in research. The narratives around “baby brain” have become enticing to so many. From studies on how poverty or trauma in early childhood negatively affects brain development to books talking about how to utilize brain science to make parenting decisions… There has been a lot of “brain talk” in the parenting field, because brain science might feel like a mystery or a seemingly more objective concept of development.
Brain Development in Early Childhood
What does “development” mean? Development does not necessarily mean improvement but more about change that encompasses both progress and regression. It is deeply rooted in culture, often shaped by everyday interactions.
Magnusson and Cairns (1996) refer to development as “any process of progressive change… the biological processes of the organism and changes in the organism’s social and nonsocial contexts over time... Single aspects do not develop and function in isolation, and they should not be divorced from the totality in analysis.” That is, development is both nature and nurture and occurs differently based on contexts and perspectives.
The huge uptake on baby brain discourse kinda started in 2000 when Dr. Jack Shonkoff and other stellar scientists published “From Neurons to Neighborhoods.” With this iconic book, along with Heckman’s Nobel Prize (also coincidentally (?) awarded in 2000), policymakers and governments started discussing this “baby brain” everywhere (developmental science has called for investing in early childhood forever, but governments wanted to hear money). What a millennial moment! These events have helped promote the early childhood field a lot, although we still have a very long way to go.
As an early childhood research professional, I cannot help but emphasize the importance of early brain development!
A baby’s brain doubles in size in the first year of life.
During infancy, more than a million neural connections are made (synapse formation) every second.
In the first three years, 80-90% of the brain develops.
Early experiences shape brain architecture.
Early experiences play a role in stimulating genes to be expressed.
Children start to learn self-control from the age of 3.5 - 4 years.
Early development serves as a foundation for future skills (“skill begets skill”). The stronger the foundation is, the more positive child outcomes are expected.
Caregivers play a huge role in brain development, as a baby develops through experiences that entail everyday interactions with surroundings.
Neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to change according to experiences, is high in the early years and diminishes over time. That is, the brain is easy to change in the early years and requires little effort to change.
The brain continues to develop until the late 20s.
If you’re interested, read more about baby brain development here.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I vividly remember when I first saw this graph in Dr. Kalil’s class.
It was truly an eye-opening experience, as my original belief had been “babies don’t remember.” I literally murmured, “What the fuck.” 6 months later, my child (J) was born. You should’ve seen my interactions with that 5 lbs baby. I was doing the sensory activities at 6 a.m., reading at 7 a.m., playing music from five different genres at 8 a.m., shapes-and-color “study” at 9 a.m., etc., when she was merely three months old, with my wrists wrapped with support bands due to slow recovery. I was majorly with the fear that I was not providing adequate learning experiences for my baby’s brain. When I told J’s pediatrician during her three-month check-up, she advised me to leave J alone and stop overstimulating her. I could not understand at that time, but I later learned that excessive enrichment activities do not necessarily promote brain development. Most importantly, my anxious mindset of “do, do, do, teach, teach, teach” was consuming all of us. I did not really enjoy being with my child; it felt more like checklist after checklist.
From my public policy studies, most of the papers I was reading were about the “achievement gap,” “promoting child outcomes,” and “preparing tomorrow’s workforce today.” Then, I read more and broadened my perspectives with the whole-child development framework and through other ideas from Ed Zigler, Magda Gerber, Emmi Pikler, Reggio-Emilia's approach, and clinical psychology. There were other scholars who had different approaches and lenses toward child development. I’m not saying one is bad and the other is good, but it is interesting to think about how our choices are often conditioned by our existing knowledge and perspective. This is probably why I’m so addicted to learning new things, I think. That somewhat masochistic and humble feeling…! Oof!
What do we know and do not know about brains?
Then, during my study of Human Development & Psychology, I learned that the graph I learned during public policy studies actually had two more linear graphs on top of it, implying that human development does not suddenly stop at one point but continues depending on experiences and environmental stimuli. That is, our brain keeps building new neural connections unique to each individual.
That also aligns with lessons from athleticism: your brain is a muscle that can be trained; your mind is stronger than you think; keep growing and keep learning. I mean, if 20-year-old me sees me now, she’d criticize me for what a crazy hardass bitch I am! So, learning definitely continues to happen even after your kid is over five years old, although zero to five years is the most critical development period.
Another hammer-in-my-head moment was when we had a guest lecturer, Dr. Jennie Grammer. She is funny, passionate, bright, kind, and just amazing. She also cast a huge question: we talk a lot about synapse formation and early brain development, but what do they really indicate? Is it always beneficial to have more synaptic formation? What does “exponential brain development” really mean?
Moreover, due to ethical issues regarding human experiments, there is always a limitation in investigating human brains. Oftentimes, a lot of studies are based on animal experiments. Take the famous Harlow’s monkey on attachment experiment or Meany’s mice on stress response experiment, for example. At the end of the day, they are not human. And the connection between animal development and human development is not yet conclusive. Since mammals are similar to humans, we assume that their developmental patterns would apply to humans. But we are not 100% sure. I remember feeling absolutely numb and lost after that class. This time, I murmured, “What in the actual fuck.”
That being said, I absolutely do not want to disregard the importance of baby brain development. I would never risk that. I want to provide an opportunity to reflect that it could be pernicious to indoctrinate ourselves in one part of knowledge. At the same time, I want to feel hopeful for more opportunities to learn about children’s development and more room to build narratives around early development. How exciting! I don’t know if it’s brain development itself or the impact of brain development on our bodies, but early childhood is the most critical period and the very foundation of one’s life. The prenatal to age five period significantly affects lifelong physical and mental health.
If anyone wants to read more about detailed brain development, I recommend Whole-Brain Child, this Zero To Three Article, and this video & article from Harvard. The gist is early experiences shape our brains. I also recently received a Growing Brains training from Zero To Three and enjoyed their structured, detailed, and warm lessons!
Promoting/Interfering Factors of Early Brain Development
So, what now? What helps and what interferes with early brain development?
The key point is that caregivers play a huge role in children’s brain development.
How can we help promote children’s brain development?
I always pick PLAY, RELATIONSHIP, and STABILITY as the most important components for early brain development. Insurmountable evidence indicates that children need play, a positive and deep relationship with at least one adult, and a stable life.
Through play, children develop a sense of mastery of the world: children build relationships with each other, with grownups, and with the world they live in. Children practice everyday life through play. My then-4-year-old once said, “Pretending is how you learn about real stuff.” Play also reduces stress and helps children get through challenges. That could also be why a lot of play-based therapies are found effective. “Play is learning, an essential, and the work of a child.”
Relationships are critical in child development as children need warm, loving, secure guidance from adults to develop normally. A positive relationship does not mean you coddle and cater to children’s demands. It means creating a constructive, honest, and supportive relationship with unconditional love. Caregivers structure the environments and experiences, and children learn by modeling their caregivers’ actions and behaviors. The secure attachment and positive relationship between a child and a caregiver are the very foundation of a person’s life.
Stability: children need a grounded and safe environment with a stable adult for optimal development. That’s why, during a transition or sudden events in a child’s life, many educators and clinicians recommend creating routines and preserving a bit of stability. On a macro level, socioeconomic stability plays a huge role, too. Poverty, economic pressure, environments, conflicts, structural inequalities, racism, and social welfare all condition the stability of a child’s life.
I plan to discuss more about stress/trauma & development in the near future, but as a preview, toxic stress and trauma are proven to deter brain development in early childhood. Dr. Gabor Maté, an addiction expert, talks about the impact of trauma in his documentary film, “The Wisdom of Trauma.” I watched the whole film and found it very interesting, especially the connections between healing cancer, Ayurveda, and healing early childhood trauma. I want to see a more large-scale, longitudinal data analysis of his claim. At the same time, it is worth noting that not everything can be explained through data (I know I shouldn’t be saying this as a research professional but).
Humans build data. That is, data is dependent on who collects data and how the data is collected. That’s why there is always a huge call for diversity in research fields (do you know that about 80% of psychologists are White?). So, a lack of data does not necessarily mean that a claim is tenuous. It can mean researchers are not simply interested in the topic. Or the topic cannot be experimented because of ethical issues (for instance, you cannot classify babies into different groups and randomly pose trauma to them).
Takeaways:
Pivotal brain development happens between 0 and 5 years old.
The brain continues to develop until the late 20s.
Early experiences shape brain architecture.
Play, responsive relationships, and stability promote early brain development.
Brain development research is not conclusive but continues to show exponential growth in early childhood.
I hope the love in me lights up the love in every one of you,
Seoyeon