Child Brain Development – When Does Your

Child Get Smart?

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Child brain development is an interesting science. It is now proven that your child actually started learning from within the womb. This may sound astonishing for some, but many older folks knew this long ago. In fact the bible records the fact that young John The Baptist moved in his mother’s womb as Elizabeth discuss spiritual matters with a very pregnant Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

Regarding the matter of child brain development, the baby’s brain helps the baby to understand what is happening in the outside world when the baby opens his eyes for the first time. Some things like certain voices and other sounds will not be strange to this newborn baby if the child was exposed to these sounds during pregnancy.  Please see my article on Brain Development Time Line for more information on this phenomenon.

Child Brain Development – Understanding The Process

Now, as we discuss child brain development, it is prudent to divide the development of your child into separate parts. One is brain development prior to the birth of the child, and the other is brain development after the birth of the infant. The official terms here are pre-natal and post natal child brain development.

As indicated earlier, it is clear that the primary development of the baby’s brain takes place when the baby is in the mother’s womb. It is during this pre-natal condition that the hundreds and thousands of neurons begin to develop developing in the body.

These nine months are extremely important to child’s brain development.  This is the period when the baby is learning basic things about his surroundings, including his mother’s voice even though the child is not yet born.

At this stage of child brain development, the brain of the baby begins to get a distinct shape and the baby then begins to mature in his or her senses. For example, during this time of the mom’s pregnancy, the baby slowly starts maturing the taste buds and gets to taste the food that the mother is eating.

Child Brain Development – Understanding Pre-Natal Development

The child’s brain will mature slowly and this development is the primary development which sets the stage for further development after the child is born. This pre-natal stage also includes certain other development processes of the brain such as the child’s sense of hearing, and sexual development among processes as well. Although this may seem incredible, the baby can form memories of specific events at this time of development.

In fact, the child can also form habits during the pre-natal development period. You will notice that your baby likes certain touches, and body placements. This will result in the child expecting your continued activity in these areas.  If you read to your unborn child at nights, you can be certain that your baby is expecting you to do that after some time.  It is a conditioning of sorts.

Child Brain Development – Understanding Pre-Natal Development

In the post natal brain development period, the baby makes major connections in a big way. These connections help the baby to link its voice with faces and personalities. Your baby can make use of these connections to learn breathing skills, feeding habits, and swallowing. There is a reason babies swallow so much air during this period as they learn to feed. This habit has to be learned and developed.

At this stage of child brain development, your baby will learn to feed on his own, or walk or run in due course. Child brain development process takes a certain time to complete, and this is well documented in a process called brain development timeline. Your child’s brain development can be linked to benchmarks that are created by experts, so that you can get a fair idea of how well your baby is growing and learning.

Child Brain Development – Tempering Expectations with Reality

If you see that the child is taking a much longer time to learn some things, don’t be too alarmed, that the child is going beyond the “normal” range of child brain development. It can be a slow process for some children. As long as the child is normal and is developing, you should not get worried, but love the child as he or she reaches new stages of development.