Zahra Kassam / How to Expand Your Baby’s Potential with Education from Birth

Welcome back, incredible BookDuck fans! It’s important to educate your children from birth. If you are a parent and don't know how to do this, we encourage you to listen to Zahra Kassam's Ted Talk speech.

Studies at Harvard University show that genes implicated in learning are turned on or off based on a child's earliest experiences. And yet there is an education void during the most formative time in a person's life.

Zahra will talk about how parents and caregivers can address the education void during their child's most critical years.

Zahra wanted to be a teacher. Since she was 10 years old she spent her after-school and summer jobs teaching and pursuing degrees in psychology and education, went through Montessori training and finally began her dream job as a preschool teacher. Zahra was so excited to give her baby the best education from birth and when he arrived she got a seven-pound 11-ounce reality check.

Between diapers and feedings and sleep deprivation Zahra couldn't keep up with his developmental needs and she felt like she was failing him. Zahra realized that parents like her are the baby's first teachers. Zahra left her classroom and devoted herself to empowering new parents in their role as educators.

So, what is education for babies?

Talking about education for babies assuming it might steal away from the ease and joy of babyhood. Toy industry advertising has colored our ideas of

what babies should be learning. Decades ago marketers at some of the biggest toy companies added letters and numbers to baby toys against the advice of their learning experts simply because they sold more products. Education from birth to three is not about racing to academics like reading and math. Now it is the time to take advantage of compelling research and proven practices in toddler classrooms to determine what infant education looks best.

The most effective thing you can do to educate your child, besides offering love and tender care, is thoughtfully preparing his environment. Babies are preparing a learning environment, learning how to learn. We make the biggest impact by helping them develop healthy learning habits such as concentration and persistence, as well as creative problem-solving. And the love of learning these habits is an early building block in a set of skills that researchers call executive function. The executive function is what allows us to achieve goals by controlling our thoughts.

Emotions and behavior are better predictors of academic achievement than IQ.

Montessori learning environments have been proven not only to predict long-term income, well-being, and health but also to help children learn executive function skills that will serve them throughout their lives

Preparing a learning environment for your child at home.

One that is beautiful, attractive, and rich in experience doesn't have to be complicated, it starts with a low shelf and a few toys. More toys don't mean more learning. Just like an adult who finds it difficult to focus on work when the office and desk are cluttered, a child feels overwhelmed by a crowded playground. Research shows that adults perform better in a disciplined environment, and the same applies to children.

Choose toys that are baby powered not battery-powered. Electronic toys with sounds and lights can put your child into passive mode pushing a button and waiting to be entertained. Simple wooden toys, on the other hand, need a child to activate them, so they naturally invite engagement and creativity. Keep in mind that if you place both electronic and non-electronic toys on the same shelf, it's like offering your child a plate with junk food and brain food side-by-side. The best way to encourage healthy choices is to curate their environment beyond toys.

We can create opportunities in our homes for babies to exercise executive function skills.

For example, setting up a water cooler where a newly walking child can get a drink when they're thirsty not only allows them to practice their motor skills and independence. It also allows them to build up their planning and goal-setting skills and their self-control key elements in the development of executive function. We can build similar skills by hanging low hooks for their hats and jackets and providing a mirror at eye level, so they can actively participate in dressing and caring for themselves. Observing your child in their environment will allow you to present the appropriate level of challenge to stretch their skills, not so little that they are bored and not so much that they give up.

To sum it up, the environment is important for viewing. Babies aren’t your masterpiece but a work in progress, watching your child closely will help you see when the environment needs to be adapted. To meet their changing needs, you can only observe if you approach your child with curiosity rather than expectation, which brings you to the most important element of the child's environment, his caregivers. The most influential form of learning is adult modeling, where you show babies what it means to be human. If you want them to love learning, you can model your excitement to explore and discover with them. If you want them to be confident, you can model, accepting our mistakes, shortcomings, and all. But perhaps they need to see that you are being kind to yourselves so they can grow up with permission to do the same. If you carefully prepare these types of learning environments for babies, it won’t only allow them to reach their maximum potential from birth to three years of age but also expand their potential for the future.