PARENT’S BEHAVIORAL CORRECTIONS TUNE INFANT’S BRAIN TO ANGRY TONE
The same brain network that adults use when they hear angry vocalizations is at work in infants as young as six months old, an effect that is strongest in infants whose mothers spend the most time controlling their behavior, according to a new study in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Chen Zhao of the […]
RESEARCHERS STUDY INFANT-DIRECTED SINGING
In our Infant Massage classes, we incorporate parents singing to their babies as soon as the parents feel confident in delivering many of the strokes. When I was developing our program, I found that singing a slow, repetitive, rhythmic lullaby helped both myself and my baby to relax and have fun with the massage. I […]
BABIES REMEMBER POSITIVE EXPERIENCES OVER NEGATIVE ONES
Research from scientists at Brigham Young University, published in Infant Behavior and Development, found that 5-month-olds remembered experiencing positive emotions far more than negative ones. The purpose of this study was to examine the behavioral effects of adults’ faces on 5-month-olds’ visual recognition memory. Five-month-olds were exposed to a dynamic happy, angry, or neutral affective […]
INFANTS CAPABLE OF COMPLEX BABBLE MAY GROW INTO STRONGER READERS
Some skills needed for literacy may be developed in infancy Infants’ early speech production may predict their later literacy, according to a study published October 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Kelly Farquharson from Florida State University and colleagues. Children with difficulties in identifying letters are more likely to develop reading impairments, but […]
HOW BABIES’ BRAIN DEVELOPMENT IS SHAPED BY TOUCH
For newborns, skin-to-skin contact with parents and caregivers helps shape how their brains respond to touch, a sense necessary for social and emotional connections. A lot of previous research has linked skin-to-skin touch with developmental benefits for both premature and full-term babies, ranging from improved growth and sleep to better motor development. Research has also […]
WHO’S BETTER AT BABY TALK, MOM OR DAD?
The latest research shows that moms and dads use baby talk in different ways, and that boys and girls respond to them differently. In a study published in the online edition of Pediatrics, researchers looked at the language interactions between 33 late preterm and term infants and their parents by capturing 3,000 hours of recordings. […]
RESEARCH FINDS (AGAIN!) INFANTS SENSITIVE TO PLEASANT TOUCH
Cognitive neuroscientist Merle Fairhurst and colleagues of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, knew that previous studies with adults show that a specific type of touch receptor is activated in response to a particular stroking velocity, leading to the sensation of “pleasant” touch. They hypothesized that this type […]
INFANT MASSAGE: STRESS AND RELAXATION
Infant massage is one tool we have to help reshape our child’s interpretations of the world, to release her pain, grief, and fear, and to open her up to love and joy. Touch meets a baby’s needs for physical contact, affection, security, stimulation, and movement. Skin-to-skin contact is especially effective, such as during breastfeeding, bathing, […]
JOY AND THE INFANT BRAIN
The wise remain aware of the spirituality of life. Every mother has felt the stillness and the stir of Eternal Consciousness in her womb. Remember that. Bring that mysterious, silent moment into the clamoring present. —Vimala McClure from The Tao of Motherhood “The most complex information-processing device ever constructed is on its way,” says […]
INFANTS’ LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IS ACCELERATED BY ATTENTIVE PARENTS
According to a new study from The University of Iowa and Indiana University, how parents react to their infants’ babbling impacts their language development. The research was recently published in the journal Infancy. The research team, includes Julie Gros-Louis, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Iowa. A study by Gros-Louis in 2003 compared […]