How Kids Learn
Babies are quick studies-and parents are cramming them with Mozart and French lessons
It is a big day for the "expert baby." A minivan bearing an official University of Washington seal picks up the 14-month-old boy and his mother and takes them to a Seattle day-care center. Once inside, he is placed at the head of a table surrounded by his "students," a bevy of babies his age. Researchers from the university's psychology department observe and take notes.
The miniprofessor begins his lesson: Whaaack! He smacks the top of a special camping cup with his palm, and it collapses. His pupils look at one another, wide-eyed. Then he deftly pulls apart a puzzle and puts it back together. As a finale, he hits a hidden button on a box, which produces a buzzing sound. A delighted squeal rises from the audience. Wunderkind is then whisked away.
Two days later, a researcher visits the houses of each of the young pupils, unpacking a black bag to reveal the little professor's toys. The infants grin in recognition and repeat the tricks they observed. Like the expert baby before them, they have mastered these routines. But when the researchers visit babies who haven't been primed, the results are decidedly different. Those babies bang the cup on the table, but never collapse it. They chew on the puzzle, but don't assemble it. They rub the box, but fail to find the secret button.
The expert baby and his cohorts are part of a revolution in how scientists view very young children. For most of this century, infants were regarded as gurgling blobs, soaking up sights and sounds but unable to make much use of them. But it turns out that babies are reasoning beings even in their very first months. "Before they have the ability to use language, infants can think, draw conclusions, make predictions, look for explanations, and even do miniexperiments," says Andrew Meltzoff, head of developmental psychology at the University of Washington and coauthor of The Scientist in the Crib, published this week.
Harmful myths. These insights have unleashed a torrent of views about bringing up babies. Do they need organized activities to satisfy their inquiring young minds? Are there "critical periods" for learning in the first three years that must be exploited, lest a child be forever at a disadvantage? Many parents and educators have embraced these notions, even though there's scant proof of a connection. "There is this pervasive belief that by investing in the early years, you're going to inoculate your child against later academic shortcomings," says John Bruer, the author of the newly published The Myth of the First Three Years. "It's an abuse of the neuroscience, and it's misleading to parents. We all feel anxious enough already."
Indeed, in the quest for a better and brighter child, parents can today choose from a dizzying array of "enrichment" products. They can buy videos like Brainy Baby Vol. 1 ("for your child's right brain") and Vol. 2 (for the left), which promise to "actually make your child smarter!" Educational software for children as young as 6 months, called "lapware" because the children are so small they must be held in a parent's lap at the computer, is now the fastest-growing segment of the software industry, with titles like JumpStart Baby. "Ivy League" preschools have sprung up across the country (box, Page 48). And in Chicago, tots can blow off steam at the Children's Health & Executive Club, the first fitness center for members as young as 17 months. The workout experience includes tiny stair-climbing machines equipped with Magna Doodles (a second-generation Etch-a-Sketch). "If you have good eye-hand coordination, you'll be better at reading. If you have body balance, you'll learn math more easily," says owner Latrice Lee, who charges $5 for an hourlong session.
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