Does Infant Stimulation Create Smarter Kids?

Many people think that providing added sensory stimulus to infants will help them be more intelligent. Infant stimulation means to provide extra visual opportunities, unusual and interesting sounds, more tactile (touch) experiences, increased varieties of smells and tastes. This, it is believed, stimulates the senses and creates more brain growth than would be the case if added stimulation were not provided. Parents put pictures in babies’ cribs, play classical music, increase their massaging and caressing, and when appropriate introduce new foods and smells.

This idea was given a boost by an anecdotal story famous in developmental psychology. It is about girls attending a Catholic school who helped nurses in a foundling home. As part of their school work they were assigned to spend time providing care for abandoned infants. This consisted of feeding and changing them each day. Someone noticed that some of the infants grew faster, gained weight, and thrived in other ways while some did not. A little investigating revealed that the girls liked some of the babies better than others and those they liked best they spent more time with. Sometimes this was only thirty minutes. This was enough, however, for the added stimulation to give these infants a boost in growth.

This apparently true account may have led scientists to investigate the effects of other forms of stimulation on intelligence. Over the years much research has been done resulting in the conclusion that in fact some stimulation makes a positive difference but there is a ceiling on how much can be accomplished. That is, it is not true that the more stimulation parents give their babies the more intelligent they become. Some stimulation appears to benefit children up to some limit.

Much of intelligence is inherited and if infants have inherited more then greater possibilities might exist. The point is this. If you want to give your children every advantage you would provide a variety of stimulating experiences. This may include talking, singing, and making interesting but unusual sounds when you are changing a diaper or spending other time around the child. It will also consist of providing a variety of things for the baby to see and hear early in his or her life. Further, it will consist of much touching, hugging, caressing, rolling, massaging, and loving. It will also include providing the baby with interesting things to touch and taste. When these things are taking place the nervous system is active and benefiting from receiving sensory messages. When it is active it stimulates brain and muscle growth.

When babies spend too much time alone, as in a crib or fenced in area, they may not be able to move enough, touch enough, or spend enough time with people. All these may limit stimulation and may limit what could be.

What does this mean? Generally we needn’t organize big campaigns but we do need to provide a lot of contact and be with babies a lot of the time. In an age where parents are busy and sometimes ignore their children, hoping they will sleep a lot, it is crucial instead to wholly commit to their growth. As it turns out, parents are usually tied emotionally and physically to their children and stimulation benefits parents as well. This contact may not make us more intelligent but providing the right kind of stimulation for infants makes us feel good and is a sign we are very smart.