You just brought home your beautiful bundle of joy and as far as you can tell, all your baby does is sleep and eat.

Not so.

Your baby is learning from birth!

During the 2009 Early Care and Economic Summit held April 27 in Harrisburg Pennsylvania, Harvard Professor Dr. Shonkoff explained that 700 new synapses are formed every second in the brain.

A synapse is a connection between cells in the brain to make the circuitry necessary for everything we do, think, and feel.

According to Dr. Shonkoff, by the age of two the circuitry for vision and hearing sensory pathways, language, and much of higher cognition have been developed. The more interaction babies and young toddlers receive through positive experiences, the better. The bottom line, 90% of a child’s brain is developed by five years of age.

Simple Ways You Can Help Build Your Child’s Brain Power before Age 2

• Provide a safe, loving and nurturing environment. Ensuring a safe, loving environment is essential to helping babies and toddlers feel secure. Speak in a soothing tone. Make one-to-one connection by giving gentle hugs, kisses, and touches to which your baby responds. Help them to safely explore their environments. Child proof your home by using safety locks on cabinets, plastic plugs in unused electrical outlets, and gates on stairways.

• Take your child to the Doctor for “Well Child Visits”. Taking your baby or toddler to the Doctor regularly will help ensure your child is healthy and developing normally. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends well visits and immunizations occur at 1-2 weeks, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 18 months 24 months and 36 months. If a developmental delay is recognized early, steps can be taken to get the help your child needs.

• Consider quality child care. If your schedule requires outside care, don’t forget to look for licensed providers who participate in the Keystone STARS program. All STARS’ facilities provide quality early learning experiences.

• Talk to your child. From birth babies recognize and especially love the sound of their parent’s voices. Talk about what you see and what you’re doing during every day activities. Babies learn and build vocabulary by listening to you talk.

• Sing to your child. Music helps babies and toddlers develop language and cognitive skills such as mathematics. Since babies and toddlers learn through repetition, sing songs with repetitive versus. Put music to nursery rhymes and stories as you read. Lullabies sung before bed creates a soothing environment and can build a special bond between parent and child.

• Read to your child. It’s never too early to read to your child (even at birth). By reading to your child every day, you are building the foundation for word recognition, sound identification, and early literacy. You can be the reason your child loves to read! Introduce cloth and board books to your infant. Choose books with brightly colored pictures. Photo albums of family members are also good. You can “tell a story” about what is happening in a particular photo.

• Turn off the TV. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television for children under 2 years of age. Babies and toddlers learn best by interacting with their environments. If your baby or toddler does watch television, choose shows that are educational. Make sure you watch with them. Engage them in the story by asking questions about what they are seeing. After viewing, extend the learning experience by incorporating what they saw into real life.