Home > Work > Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five
61 " Americans 2 years of age and older now spend an average of four hours and 49 minutes per day in front of the TV—20 percent more than 10 years ago. And we are getting this exposure at younger and younger ages, made all the more complex because of the wide variety of digital screen time now available. In 2003, 73 percent of kids under 6 watched television every day. And children younger than 2 got two hours and five minutes of “screen time” with TVs and computers per day. "
― John Medina , Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five
62 " Studies suggest that fussy babies are later more likely to comply with your wishes, be better socialized, and get better grades. "
63 " Fifty years of research, from Diana Baumrind and Haim Ginott to Lynn Katz and John Gottman, have come to this conclusion. That’s why your child’s emotional life takes the central role, the chicken, in our metaphor. You won’t get any of the other benefits of the recipe unless you have placed the meat of the matter squarely in the center of your parenting behavior. The critical issue is your behavior when your children’s emotions become intense (Gottman would say “hot”) enough to push you out of your comfort zone. Here are the six spices that go into this parental dry rub: • a demanding but warm parenting style • comfort with your own emotions • tracking your child’s emotions • verbalizing emotions • running toward emotions • two tons of empathy "
64 " Just how do you grow a smart baby? We’re thinking in terms of soil, so it makes sense to formulate a fertilizer. What you put in is as important as what you leave out. There are four nutrients you will want in your behavioral formula, adjusting them as your baby gets older: breast-feeding, talking to your baby, guided play, and praising effort rather than accomplishment. Brain research tells us there are also several toxins: pushing your child to perform tasks his brain is not developmentally ready to take on; stressing your child to the point of a psychological state termed “learned helplessness”; and, for the under-2 set, television. "
65 " When the children reached school age, 21 percent scored 130 or more points on a standard IQ test, a level considered gifted. If their mothers had no morning sickness, only 7 percent of kids did that well. "
66 " Yes, your children are constantly observing you. They are profoundly influenced by what they record. And that can quickly turn from funny to serious, especially when mommy and daddy start fighting. "
67 " Truth: The greatest pediatric brain-boosting technology in the world is probably a plain cardboard box, a fresh box of crayons, and two hours. The worst is probably your new flat-screen TV. (See “Hurray for play!” on page 129.) "
68 " Money increases happiness only when it lifts people out of poverty to about $50,000 a year in income. Past that, wealth and happiness part ways. This suggests something practical and relieving: Help your children get into a profession that can at least make around $50,000 a year. They don’t have to be millionaires to be thrilled with the life you prepare them for. After their basic needs are met, they just need some close friends and relatives. And sometimes even siblings, "
69 " Making a decision to have a child—it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. "
70 " Every time I lectured to a group of parents-to-be about baby brain development, "
71 " Research shows that this labeling habit is a dominant behavior for all parents who raise happy children. "
72 " les ruego que traten de conocer a sus hijos. Eso significa dedicarles mucho tiempo. La única forma de descubrir qué funciona y qué no funciona es conocer su comportamiento y saber cómo cambia con el tiempo. "
73 " happy a child ultimately becomes. This chapter is all about why some kids, like Baby 19, are so unhappy—and other kids are not. (Indeed, most kids are just the opposite. Baby 19 is so named because babies 1 through 18 in Kagan’s study were comparatively pretty jolly.) We will discuss the biological basis of happy children, "
74 " said, “Making a decision to have a child—it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” Veteran "
75 " One study hints that it could, though more work needs to be done. Kids with normal hearing took an American Sign Language class for nine months, in the first grade, then were administered a series of cognitive tests. Their attentional focus, spatial abilities, memory, and visual discrimination scores improved dramatically—by as much as 50 percent—compared with controls who had no formal instruction. "
76 " Crying is all right in its own way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do. "
77 " When Tyler found out about chocolate-chip cookies, his sole goal in life became to stuff as many as he could into his mouth. "
78 " Executive function is a better predictor of academic success than IQ. "
79 " We now know that infants do not gain a more sophisticated vocabulary until their fine-motor finger control improves. "
80 " At birth, your baby can distinguish between the sounds of every language that has ever been invented. Professor Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington, discovered this phenomenon. She calls kids at this age “citizens of the world.” Chomsky puts it this way: We are not born with the capacity to speak a specific language. We are born with the capacity to speak any language. "