Develop
Artistic Skills and Musical Talents
As a parent, if you want your baby to become smart, you need to
explore and develop your baby’s artistic and musical talents and potentials,
which play a pivotal role in enhancing the development of creativity brain
cells in your baby further down the road. In addition to your daily
interactions with your baby through activities and games, you must also develop
his or her artistic creativity which is fundamental to intelligence.
Arts
Do encourage your baby to pick up a crayon, but don’t if he is
still chewing it in his mouth. Do let him express himself through
representational art on a blank sheet of paper. This may form the foundation of
your baby’s creativity and imagination, which are the main components of
smartness and intelligence.
Do pick up a paintbrush yourself, and show your baby how you
express your creativity (even though you may not be versatile in art or
painting). Don’t let your baby see your own frustration with your own artistic
expression. It is also important not praise his artwork; instead, praise his
effort (the explanation is that he should not be given the impression that
comparing his artwork with that of others, or even with that of his own, may
inhibit his creativity). Your baby should make his own judgment of his artwork,
and not based on what you think. Don’t express your favoritism of one piece of
his artwork over another, unless he asks for your opinion. Do ask your baby to
express his comments on his own artwork, and do ask him why he likes it,
meanwhile helping him to say something like “This color is good.”
Music
All children were born with musical abilities, but most of them
were not given the opportunities to cultivate and develop their innate gifts
after birth. After spending months in the mother’s womb, listening to the
regular and rhythmic heartbeats of the mother, the baby’s brain is smart-wired
to the rhythm of music.
During the months of pregnancy, your baby inside the womb had
already experienced many different types of auditory stimulations—such as
gurgles, pulses, heartbeats, and digestive noises, including human voices—that
have formed the groundwork for your baby’s inherent interests in and
preferences for rhythmic sounds, not to mention his possible inborn talents in
music.
According to studies, babies have a tendency to increase their
sucking rate of their pacifiers with rhythmic music or noise. In addition,
babies respond well to changes in pitch and tempo even at any early age.
Furthermore, music can enhance babies’ brain development in terms of science,
mathematics, and spatial relations. A case in point, Albert Einstein started
playing the violin at the age of five because his mother was a devoted
musician.
Soft background music can improve your baby’s moods, and thereby
enhancing his learning abilities by facilitating his brain to acquire new
information. Studies have also shown that music helps babies not only gain
weight but also develop motor coordination through relaxation. Research
conducted at the University of California , Irvine United
States
Given the many enormous benefits of music on the brain development
of your baby, do continually provide in your baby’s living and play environment
soft classical music in the background. Choose your music from Bach, Beethoven,
Brahms, and Mozart. If you can play a musical instrument, play it in front of
your baby; if you cannot, sing before him. Always use music to engage his
attention or dance to the music.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by
Stephen Lau
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