You can influence the healthy development of her brain through nurturing actions, lots of play and exploration, and reading to her as often as you can.
Remember: Never shake your child – this can cause serious, irreversible brain damage.
For more on how you can influence your child’s brain development, see Nurturing.
Principles of Brain Development
- The outside world shapes the brain’s wiring.
- The outside world is experienced through the senses - seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting - enabling the brain to create or modify connections.
- The brain operates on a “use it or lose it” principle.
- Relationships with other people early in life are the major source of development of the emotional and social parts of the brain.
(Source: Canadian Institute of Child Health)