Help Your Baby Learn Faster and Better: Understanding Early Brain Development

On-Demand Class · Supporting development

In this course you are going to learn how your baby learns using head, hand and heart; what the learning milestones are; and what you can do to help your baby learn faster and better.

Class Description

Did you know that a child’s brain starts to develop just a few days after conception? Yes! Amazing! Only four weeks after conception, before a mother may even realise that she is pregnant, the foetal brain is already beginning to grow. For the next 4 months, brain cells form at an astonishing rate, around 250,000 every minute. The mother’s diet, rich with folic acid and other nutrients, supports rapid neuron growth. When a child is born, the brain already contains the 100 billion specialised brain cells, called ‘neurons’. Yet, brain development is far from complete in the newborn. Soon after birth, there is a dramatic increase in the number of connections, or synapses, throughout the human brain. By the end of the first year, an infant’s brain will have nearly twice the number of connections as an adult’s. Science tells us that the experience babies have in the first years of their lives actually affect the physical architecture of the developing brain. The child’s experience will play an increasingly important role in shaping and refining the major brain pathways and networks. This overabundance of connections and pathways will gradually decline during childhood. The activity of a neural pathway, driven by experience, affects whether a particular connection weakens or stabilises as part of a permanent network. This is a key factor in supporting the developing brain’s ‘plasticity’ that is its adaptability to experience, which confers great survival value. Positive interactions between young children and their caregivers build the architecture of the developing brain. Building a sturdy foundation in the earliest years provides a good base for a lifetime of good mental function and better overall health.

Class Materials

Please download the Mentimeter app and a QR code reader on your phone. They are going to be used during the interactive parts of the session.

Your Instructor

Dr. Lana Belic

Dr Lana Belic explores how babies learn and discover the world around them. She is an educational expert on the science of learning with more than 20 years of experience in teaching and pedagogy. A fierce advocate for creativity in teaching and learning, Dr Belic creates captivating visuals for her lectures and engages her learners in interactive tasks.

Degrees and Certifications

Dr Lana Belic has a PhD in Education and an MA in Educational and Social Research from UK universities. She is a seasoned, forward-thinking international expert, who promotes the values of competency-based, value-laden education.

More Classes For You

Browse all online parenting classes