Babies are born with an awareness and understanding of their environment, says Dr. Kristy vanMarle, a psychologist and associate professor at the University of Missouri Developmental Cognition Lab. Dr. vanMarle calls this "intuitive physics."
That may not surprise parents, but it flies in the face of some wisdom that infants are born as blank slates and only learn about their world after birth. Here are details from this study, which looked into what children come into the world able to do and how parents can boost those abilities.
* The MU lab conducts on-going testing with babies ages 4-15 months and children ages 30-48 months. Researchers look at how children develop understanding of number, time, and space. "We are interested in learning what infants know about the world around them and how their knowledge changes over time," says the cognition lab website.
* Parents magazine says that babies develop cognitive skills in three areas: communication (smiling, making eye contact, non-verbal gestures, interaction, babbling and later verbalizing), affective (emotional development) and logic (problem-solving, decision-making, environmental awareness). It is that logical cognition that researchers at MU studied.
* MU psychologists noted how infants observed objects, how they followed items visually. Researchers looked at 30 years worth of literature on child development as well as their own laboratory findings. They have determined that infants as young as two months have some innate reactions to their environment. Babies have proved themselves capable of doing things despite not having learned these skills yet.
* Infants at two months have demonstrated understanding that objects dropped will fall. Babies also show some understanding of "object permanence" (that objects do not disappear when hidden from view).
* Babies seem to have some understanding of the physical properties of matter, too. In the sand test, 5-month-old infants showed some comprehension that liquids and non-solids do not stay together when spilled. Babies, like adults have some expectations about how objects in their environment will behave. Babies use these expectations to interact with their world.
* At 10 months, babies showed some understanding of quantity. In the Ordinal test, children are presented with varying amounts of food, particularly food that could be divided into numbered quantities (pieces of cereal, graham crackers). Dr. vanMarle said that if the difference in number of food items was obvious, babies consistently chose the containers with larger quantities.
* Study authors say that based on these findings, parents don't need to worry about buying expensive videos, cellphone apps, products or toys aimed at improving cognitive skills. The skills are there: babies just need opportunities to practice.
* What parents can do is to interact naturally with their children. Researchers suggest parents cuddle children, read and talk to them, play interactive games and sing songs. Parents magazines suggests that parents play games like peek-a-boo (to show that though someone may hide she is still there), pat-a-cake (which teaches children about patterns and responses) and simple counting songs and games. Aurora Health Care shows other simple games for parents to play with babies. Kids Fun and Games lists other interactive tips for parents.
Marilisa Kinney Sachteleben writes about parenting from 23 years raising four children and 25 years teaching K-8, special needs, adult education and homeschool.
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