How Do Babies Learn?

Human babies learn pretty much the same way that humans of all ages learn. It is just that the speed and the amount of knowledge that the brain can acquire, lessens with age. While this may seem like common sense to most, there is a huge section of the population, namely new parents, who are becoming increasingly interested in how babies learn so that they can give their baby the best possible education from the earliest age possible. So let's explore it.

Babies learn at an alarming speed. An example of the vast difference between the rate at which babies learn and adults learn is the acquisition of language. Research suggests that babies learn language by acquiring approximately 9 new words per day. A sixty year old adult trying to learn a new language will not be able to retain the same amount of knowledge at the same rate.

Babies learn much the same way as most learning takes place. They mimic what they see and hear. They observe what they are exposed to and they learn through positive and negative reinforcement. Take crying for example. A baby will cry when it is hungry. This crying starts off as an outlet for the pain and discomfort that the baby is experiencing by being hungry. The baby soon associates that when it cries, milk arrives. Then the baby will begin to cry as soon as it is hungry to bring on the milk. The baby has learned that his or her cries are responded to.

The baby may also learn that the louder the cry or yell, the quicker the response if this turns out to be the case. This process of learning by association teaches the baby not only how to get what it needs but also how communication can take place through sound. At some point in its early life a baby will learn that if no-one can hear the crying there is no point in doing so to get the milk. It can still cry however as an outlet for pain.

Babies will also mimic. Babies need to be extremely observant because their survival depends on it. This is why they are much more observant than adults. They need to learn how to have their needs met so must pay close attention. It is through observing that they will notice that some of their behaviors cause joy in others and some cause anger. They will also experiment as they learn and then learn even more through trial and error. A baby's memory is far more agile than an adult's. Many things are learned as the memory holds all this newly gathered information.

LEARNING THROUGH PLAY

What appears as simple play is often much more than that. As babies play with different objects they are developing eye-hand coordination, spatial awareness and registering various sensations amongst other things. As long as they are playing, something is being practiced. As they get older, play continues to be hard work. In fact, one could say that play is actually practice for adult life.

When a kitten pretends to chase a mouse or a young child pretends to be taking care of an infant or driving a car, these are all actions which are practiced over and over again until the age nears when these actions must be done for real. As real life changes, the way children play changes too. A sight that would not have been seen 25 years ago is a young toddler pushing her doll in a stroller while speaking into a big plastic pretend mobile phone. Children seem to naturally want to practice what adults are doing now.

Learning happens quite naturally. However, as more and more research is done on how babies learn and magazines publish findings like the fact that babies can learn language by listening (who would've thought?) more and more parents buy these magazines to have access to these latest research findings. This is in the hope that they can give their child a head start.

Mothers have been singing lullabies to their babies and telling them stories since the beginning of time. Perhaps we always instinctively knew that speaking to an infant helps the infant acquire language. Research studies now prove that we were right to think this. While articles on these research topics help to promote a very lucrative parental magazine industry, it is really debatable whether or not babies will be smarter because parents now read such material. While cultures in developing countries think it is common sense to interact with your baby and speak clearly to him or her as often as possible, other cultures in the developed world are walking around with magazine articles about the latest findings such as; talking to babies helps them to learn language and toys help them become coordinated.

While the amount of attention these studies get in the magazine industry seems silly at times, it is still not a bad idea to pay attention to the fact that babies are always learning. Some form of learning is going on every waking moment.