Here are a few simple yet effective parenting tips that will put your mind at ease and help to nurture your child’s learning abilities
Parenting is a task no one prepares you for and is perhaps the best example of learning on the job as there is no prior training or benchmark to follow. In a nutshell, it is a rollercoaster ride. However, regardless of the absence of a set standard to be a good parent, every parent, especially new parents have the urge to be the best parents their child can have.
There are several things you can do to make this journey more effective and have a positive impact on your child. One such crucial thing is your child’s early learning and development. Every parent wishes for their child to grow into a smart, successful and happy individual. If you are a new parent, here are eight simple yet effective parenting tips that will put your mind at ease and help you nurture your child’s learning abilities.
Countless opportunities/experiences
Each child is born with infinite potential. Did you know that in the first few years of life, more than one million neural connections form every second in our brains? After this period of fast-tracked proliferation, the connections become reduced through a process called synaptic pruning where the brain then works on making the existing connections more efficient.
Since early childhood is a time of tremendous brain development, it is important to expose your baby to as many experiences and opportunities as possible. This will not only help them learn more at an early age but also enable them to discover their passion and interests.
Believe in your child’s potential
Research confirms that the first three years of childhood play a pivotal role in shaping the brain’s architecture. It is necessary to expose your child to various experiences but most parents unconsciously underestimate their baby’s ability to learn, which sets limitations on their phenomenal capabilities. Believing in your child’s potential and encouraging them to learn will produce miraculous results and unearth their hidden abilities.
Teach something new every day
Every single day in our life presents an opportunity for us to learn something new. For babies, this is maximised infinitely. Furthermore, children naturally tend to be curious and are always keen on discovering new things to learn about. With most parents now working from home, this may be the perfect time to spend quality time with your baby to teach them something new each day — be it a physical activity or a creative one like art, music or dance. It will go a long way in preserving their capabilities and enable them to continue learning quickly even as adults.
Steer clear of screen time
At a time when technology has been a game-changer, especially during a global pandemic where we spent majority of our time indoors, our screen time has surged dramatically. In addition to this, parents are now increasingly turning to technology to keep their babies occupied or teach them new things. According to studies, kids’ screen time has increased by 50 per cent since the onset of the pandemic. It can have an adverse impact on your baby by hampering their creativity and thinking abilities. So, steer clear of screen time at all costs to safeguard and nurture your baby’s abilities.
Keep lessons crisp
While babies tend to be curious with a voracious appetite for learning, their attention span is no longer than two to three minutes. Even when they are playing, the maximum amount of time they tend to spend with any toy or activity is three minutes, after which they become bored and move on to the next activity. Unfortunately, various new parents believe that the child has lost interest in the activity, when in fact, they simply lack the attention span to continue an activity for a longer time. Hence, parents must keep lessons crisp and succinct to avoid loss of focus while also enabling them to learn. This brings us to the next point — repetition.
Avoid repetition
How often we, as adults become bored of repetitive things? Repetition makes an activity boring, resulting in a loss of engagement and interest. Given that babies have less attention span, parents must avoid repeating lessons and activities. It may even make the child dislike a certain activity. So, ensure that you keep it to a bare minimum.
Provide them space to learn and grow
One of the most common mistakes that parents make is pushing their children to fulfill their unfulfilled dreams. For instance, if a parent wished to become a dancer but was unable to for any reason, they tend to push their baby into dancing even if the child doesn’t display passion or interest in it. However, children aren’t born to be moulded into anyone’s ideologies. Therefore, it is important to allow your child the space to grow without piling your expectations onto them. They should have the freedom to choose who they want to be.
Nurture and guide them
There exists a surprisingly fine line between neglecting your child’s needs, nurturing and guiding them, and burdening them with too many expectations. Offering the necessary handholding but also allowing them the freedom to choose who they want to be or what they want to do is vital to nurturing your baby into a smart individual who is capable of making their decisions.
(The writer Raghav Himatsingka is the founder of Raising Superstars.)