8 Muharram 1435
There are two stages of brain cells development in children. First stage is the brain cells in pre-birth period, and second when they are inside the shell of main brain, during which brain cells grow rapidly. Learning ability, intelligence and creativity are all developed at this stage.
Parents are advised and encouraged to help expedite the development process in building series of brain cell networks, particularly in the first 1,365 days or three years after birth, as children's brain cells typically reach 80% of their full capacity during this period. During the same period, ensuring your child gets good nutrients with important ingredients, such as DHA and ARA, is also essential in helping brain development.
Play.....A simple, fun method for your kids to increase their learning power in four development aspects...and bring out the genius in them.
Play can be a very powerful learning tool for your child. But why play? Playing activities, especially those that encourage children's development in four important aspects, actually affect their intellingence and learning ability. Playing with suitable toys designed specificallyfor their ages is also very important as well. Playing with toys is one of several ways to encourage development of four aspects - intelligence, sight and vision, problem-solving skill, and language skill.
Children should be encouraged to play regularly through the active use of all their five sensorial organs. It can be said the more they play, the quicker and better learning ability and knowledgeable they will be. This will be necessary for the potential development of all four important aspects described as follows:
INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPMENT
It is not really difficult to encourage children's intelligence development. Their five sensorial organs should be consistently activated through playing - with jigsaw for example - to help the development of systematic thinking, observation, and understanding of inter-related elements, including the ability to differentiate various colours and shapes. Moreover, playing provides physical development of children's muscles and biceps just as well.
Pick-A-Boo : During the game, children will naturally focus their attention to the location where the others party is standing before hiding and expecting his/her reappearance there. Instead they see him/her coming out at a different location. This will make them think of other possible locations the next time around. In other words, it encourages their thinking development process.
Toy Hiding : There have been researches showing how a young child, with adequate observing and analysing skill, is able to successfully solve immediate problems. Parents can use these methods when playing with children, for example, covering up a toy then ask them to find it, showing them a toy then slowly hiding it behind them to see if they will turn around to get it, or ringing a bell then hide it under a pillow and challenge them to find it. This is to help develop their logical thinking process and in learning of observation and memorisation.
SIGHT AND VISION DEVELOPMENT
In the early stage of development , children's sight and vision are far from perfect but continually improves while they are growing up. A large portion - around 83% - of their learning is obtained through visual means. Bright, colourful books and jigsaws draw their eyesight to them so they can analytically differentiate various colours and parts that make the complete picture. Children can also be taught or trained to observe surrounding things. This will have a great impact on their sight and vision development.
Jingled Toys : When heard, children will pay attention to the noise and search for its whereabouts. This will help develop their observation skill. Bright coloured toys can also help activate the rear sector of the brain responsible for seeing and gathering information.
Mirror : Using a large household mirror, parents can tell their children to look at themselves in it and teach them names of various body parts. This is to encourage their visual sensory along with language learning at the same time.
PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILL DEVELOPMENT
Children already have this certain skill in them, i.e., cry when they are hungry or in need of someone to be with. This skill could be easily expanded by having them play with pattern and puzzle blocks. The activity will encourage their analytical thinking in identifying various geometrical shapes and forms and their matching locations. In addition to learning the basic mathematics, it also strongly helps develop their hands-eyes co-ordination as well.
Wood Block : These toys are simple and uncomlicated yet provide valuable learning tool about inter-related shapes and forms. These, in turn, activate the front sector of the brain responsible for thinking and problem-solving process.
Magic Mountain : Placing pillows for children to climb and jump over encourages development of the cerebellum sector of the brain responsible for controlling body movement. In addition, it encourages children to think of or experimenting with various other ways to overcome obstacles and problems.
Shapes and Forms : Placing pieces of various shapes - square, rectangular, triangle, circle - into slots with corresponding shapes requires logical thinking and memory. An incorrect piece will make children search for the correct one. In the process, they will learn to memorise and gain knowledge of ways to solve a problem when faced with it.
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Children with good hearing ability have a better starting point for their language development. Jingled toys will help them memorise and differentiate various sounds. They will be able to learn about words and meaning of all geometrical shapes through reading and drawing. And of course, there are other items, such as clay, stickers and colour pencils that can be used as teaching tools. So, they would be learning and, at the same time, entertained during the development process.
Large Picture Book : Books with big and colourful alphabets always grab children's attention. Colourful pictures help in learning development visually. Reading stories to them will help in learning development visually. Reading stories to them will help in learning more about the meaning of words and vocabulary memorisation. Together, they contribute to the overall language development of children.
Little Drum : Toys that produce sound directly encourage children's hearing ability. Varying high and low tones indirectly activate the side sector of the brain responsible for hearing ability, language learning, memory, smell sensory, and emotion as well as mind.
While playing and having fun with different toys, children have to use several different development skills that include the thinking process. Their brain will be quickly developed to keep up with their new learning. This will amazingly encourage the process of building up children's brain cell networks.
In order to encourage the development of the four important aspects, namely, intelligence, sight and vision, problem-solving skill, and language skill mentioned earlier, it is recommended that parents support their children's playing activities. Parents should also make sure that their children receive good nutrients, DHA and ARA in particular, as they are also the very basic and necessary fatty acids deemed important to the development of brain cell networks and learning ability of children.
- Sources from MAMAtoMAMA -
