Did you know that babies . . .

Did you know that babies are born with 100 billion neurons and that brain development is a connecting and pruning process? In the first 2 years of life babies form 1 million new synaptic connections . . . not per hour . . . not per minute . . . but per second (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University).

During this critical period of dramatic growth of synaptic connections, elaborate brain circuits are forming, and neurons are getting pruned. It is during this period in the first 2 years that a baby’s experiences have the greatest potential to shape the developing brain.

What we do and say around babies really matters. Learn how to support the development of early social communication milestones and encourage the magic of learning.

• Help a family join Baby Navigator so families can track their baby’s milestones from 1 to 24 months, and find out how to support their child’s learning in everyday activities with our Social Communication Growth Charts.
• Learn how simple interactions — in activities parents are already doing each day with their babies — create learning opportunities needed to support brain development. Register for our webinar What Does it Take to Learn to Talk?
• Detecting small gaps early can prevent delays later. Enroll in our course on Social Communication Development in Infants and Toddlers (SC•DIT) and register for our free 6-week SC•DIT webinar series offered 4 times a year. Mark your calendar for the summer series starting on August 2.

Before you say, “let’s wait and see,” think about the million synaptic connections forming each second in a baby’s brain. Starting early to help families support their baby’s learning shapes the developing brain so much easier than intervening later.

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It’s All in the Hands

How do you know what babies are thinking before they can talk? You’d be amazed at what a baby’s hands can tell you.

What babies do with their hands sets into motion learning to talk. Learn what babies are doing with their hands each month from 9 to 16 months by flipping through our Baby Navigator Lookbooks — 16 Gestures by 16 Months and 16 Actions with Objects by 16 Months. By observing early gestures and actions with objects, you can get a critical snapshot of what a baby knows and is thinking about.

Why is Social Communication Development Important?

Good communication development starts in the first year of life and goes far beyond learning how to talk. Communication development has its roots in social interaction with familiar caregivers during everyday activities. A child’s growth in social communication is important because it helps the child connect, learn language and play concepts, and sets the stage for learning to read and future success in school. Good communication skills are the best tool to prevent behavior problems and make it easier to work through moments of frustration that all infants and toddlers face.

Earlier is Better

Catching communication and language difficulties early can prevent potential problems later with behavior, learning, reading, and social interaction. Research on brain development reminds us that “earlier IS better” when teaching young children. The most critical period for learning is during the first two years of a child’s life. Pathways in the brain develop as infants and young children learn from exploring and interacting with people and objects in their environment. The brain’s architecture is developing the most rapidly during this critical period and is the most sensitive to experiential learning. By age 3, most of the major brain circuits are mature, and later it becomes more difficult to make significant changes in a child’s growth trajectory. For more information, see “The Science of Early Childhood Development” at the Center on the Developing Child | Harvard University.

Critical Milestones to Launch Language, Imagination, and Learning

Watching the growth and sophistication of gestures and actions with objects tells you a lot about a child’s communication, play, and language development — and whether to be concerned if a child is not yet talking. Children learn by doing — discovering what they can do with objects leads to learning to pretend — and that launches imagination and fuels language learning. While the specific gestures and actions with objects a child learns may vary depending on their family or culture, having 16 gestures and 16 actions by 16 months is a critical milestone for all children because it sets into motion using first words at 12 to 18 months and moving into a vocabulary burst at 18 to 21 months. That is when children now get the idea that everything has a name, and they learn new words rapidly. By their 2nd birthday, children learn to use words and phrases to describe, inquire, and negotiate with others. It’s this ability to talk, imagine, and create new ideas that sets the stage for lifelong learning.

The richest moments for early language learning are when the child and caregiver are sharing attention on the same thing and the caregiver talks about what the child is doing with their hands, creating opportunities to learn that stem from social interaction. If a child is not using these early gestures and actions with objects, then the parent may not have the chance to respond and follow the child’s focus, which in turn limits the child’s opportunity for both language learning and social connectedness.

As early gestures and actions with objects are developing, you should also see other social communication milestones — the use of eye gaze and facial expressions to share attention and emotion, an increasing rate of communicating with sounds and gestures, a wider variety of actions in play, and an emerging ability to comprehend the meaning of spoken words. If these early social communication milestones are not solidly in place, it is likely that language will be delayed. It is important to keep in mind that delays in many social communication milestones may indicate risk for autism or other developmental delays. By detecting small gaps in early social communication skills, you can get extra help to support your child’s development before significant delays are evident.

The Best Time to Get Ready for Preschool is from Birth to 24 Months

Spotting small gaps in early actions with objects and gestures during the first 2 years is the best time to get ready for preschool so children can reach their potential by kindergarten.

Hands Down, it’s Magical

Come watch videos with us as we explore what it takes to learn to talk. Join our free webinar series, Social Communication Development in Infants & Toddlers (SC•DIT). We offer this series 4 times a year — mark your calendar for the summer series starting August 2nd. Find out more and register. Learn how you can encourage the magic.

Visit our webinar page to learn about all 12 of our webinars. Use the calendar view to plan your schedule. Visit our courses page to learn more about Autism Navigator online courses that expand on the content of our webinars. All our webinars are FREE, but you must register.

Can you Give us a Hand?

Please help us spread the word by sharing this Blog with professionals, families, and friends in your social networks.

It’s All in the Hands

How do you know what babies are thinking before they can talk? You’d be amazed at what a baby’s hands can tell you.

What babies do with their hands sets into motion learning to talk. Find out what babies are learning to do with their hands each month from 9 to 16 months by flipping through our Baby Navigator Lookbooks — 16 Gestures by 16 Months and 16 Actions with Objects by 16 Months. By observing early gestures and actions with objects, you can get a critical snapshot of what a baby knows and is thinking about.

Hands down, it’s magical. Come watch videos with us as we explore what it takes to learn to talk. Join our free webinar series, Social Communication Development in Infants & Toddlers (SC•DIT). We offer this series 4 times a year — mark your calendar for the summer series starting August 2nd. Find out more and register. Learn how you can encourage the magic.

Check out our Improving Early Detection of Autism with an Eye Toward Infancy webinar to sharpen your observation skills — Join us on Tuesday, July 11th at 8:30pm ET. Learn more and register.

Visit our webinar page to learn about all 12 of our webinars. Use the calendar view to plan your schedule. Visit our courses page to learn more about Autism Navigator online courses that expand on the content of our webinars. All our webinars are FREE, but you must register.

Can you give us a hand? Please help us spread the word by sharing this email with professionals, families, and friends in your social networks.

Can you spare 2 minutes?

It takes even less time than that to learn the early signs of autism.

Autism Navigator tools, courses, and webinars offer a rare collection of videos of infants and toddlers with autism, so you can learn what autism looks like long before it’s usually diagnosed.

Can you spare 2 minutes? Go to Baby Navigator and click the first “Watch Now” button. Once you’ve watched this video teaching you the early signs of autism, can you spare another minute? Click the second “Watch Now” button at Baby Navigator. See what early signs of autism you can find in this toddler.

To the untrained eye, these early signs may seem subtle and can be easily missed or dismissed. We invite you to watch many more videos with us to learn what the early signs of autism look like in infants and toddlers and sharpen your observation skills.

For professionals who screen in primary care, diagnose, or determine eligibility, we have two webinars for you to learn how to improve early detection of autism, so your families can start intervention earlier:

• Improving Early Detection of Autism with an Eye Toward Infancy — Join us on Tuesday, May 9th at 8:30pm ET. Learn more and register.
• Sharpen Your Observation Skills Using the SORF for Earlier Detection — Join us on Thursday, May 11th and 25th at 12:30pm ET. Learn more and register.

For families or anyone who wants to learn more about autism, check out our free course and webinar, About Autism in Toddlers. Join us on the first Friday of each month at 12:00 noon ET. The next one will be held on Friday, May 5th. This webinar is a companion to our signature course, About Autism in Toddlers. Learn more and register.

For professionals working with families of young children, learn how to catch small delays early. Enroll in our course on Social Communication Development in Infants and Toddlers (SC•DIT) and register for our free SC•DIT webinar. This six-week spring series starts on Wednesday, May 3rd from 1:00pm to 2:30pm ET. Find out what it takes for children to learn to talk. We’ll present our social communication milestones with video illustrations — a critical window into the wellbeing of infants and toddlers, and the earliest signs of healthy development and school readiness. Learn more and register.

Watch, learn, and spread the word with professionals, families, and friends in your social networks.

Everything Grows out of Productive Roles

A child’s drive for learning comes from their interest in everything that captures their attention. They explore what they can do with objects and experiment to figure out how things work. While they’re so eager to learn, it’s easy to build more and more learning opportunities in everyday activities by offering a child many different productive roles. A productive role for a baby is using an action with an object in an activity you are doing together.

Everything babies need to learn can grow out of productive roles. Discovering what they can do with objects leads to learning to talk and pretend — and that launches imagination. This can be done simply by parents asking, “What are my hands doing right now that I can teach my child to do?” This can be as easy as helping a child stir cookie batter, scoop dog food into a bowl, turn pages in a book, or raise their arms to get their shirt on.

Flip through our 16 Actions with Objects by 16 Months Lookbook to learn the age babies use new actions each month from 9 to 16 months. The photos give you lots of ideas of different roles for babies. For example, babies start dropping objects at 9 months and, with a little help, they can drop a napkin in the trash. They start taking objects out at 10 months and can help you pull clothes out of the dryer.

To get more ideas, our Social Communication Growth Charts have hundreds of video clips of children from 1 to 24 months of age interacting in everyday activities with their families. There are lots of examples showing parents expanding the roles of their child in many different kinds of activities. Families can get to our Social Communication Growth Charts by joining Baby Navigator. They can join when they’re pregnant, as soon as their baby is born, or any time until their baby’s 2nd birthday at 24 months. Parents can track their baby’s progress and learn how to encourage the magic of learning to talk.
Learn more and register.

Join our free Baby Navigator webinar, What does it take to learn to talk? at 1:00pm ET on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month. We watch videos together that show how to turn activities parents are already doing everyday into learning moments for their baby. We welcome parents and anyone interested in being amazed at how babies learn to talk. Read more and register.

Productive roles in everyday activities can make a big difference in a young child’s learning and development and open the door to so much more. Spread the word by sharing this email with professionals, families, and friends in your social networks.