Early childhood educators and their advocates often talk about the crucial development that happens after a baby is born through age 5.
What is happening to a baby’s brain that makes these earliest years so important?
The answers should be universally known, said Beth MeLampy, who directs curriculum and staff training at Gretchen’s House, a network of locally owned early learning child care centers in Ann Arbor.
“There’s a general misunderstanding,” MeLampy said. “People don’t get how important 0 to 5 is in terms of setting that child up for future success if we get this right.” MeLampy said she wishes everyone could take a class to understand the impact of early brain development on a person’s ability to thrive in the future.
“If you want your kid to go to Harvard, make sure they have a responsive caregiver. Better than a tutor later on,” she said.
The Free Press spoke to several scientists and early educators about what’s happening in a baby’s brain before age 5, why it matters, and what parents should know about caregiving’s impact on their child’s development.
What is happening to a baby’s brain before age 5?
When babies are born, their brains are a quarter of the size of an adult brain. In the first year, a baby’s brain doubles in size. By 5 years old, 90% of brain development has occurred, said Alissa Huth-Bocks, professor at Wayne State University and clinical psychologist with expertise in infant and early childhood mental health.
What’s meant by “brain development” here is that before age 5, a baby’s brain is growing rapidly, both in terms of size but also connectivity and strength, she said.
During this period, a baby’s brain is creating connections between newly formed brain cells known as neurons. More than 1 million new connections are formed every second in the first few years of life, Huth-Bocks said.
Baby brains are like loaves of crusty bread, said Erica Schrodt, who used to work as an infant teacher at Gretchen’s House and now teaches there across age groups. Babies are born expecting human interaction and through their relationship with caregivers, these connections, known as neural pathways, get reinforced.
Like a knife slicing through the same spot over and over again, until the pathway is carved deeply, solidified, Schrodt said.
These reinforced pathways set the foundation for a person’s ability to learn, relate to others, and regulate their emotions, said MeLampy.
What do babies and toddlers need, particularly during this time?
The foundation of early brain development is social.
“As soon as babies are born, their bodies and minds are expecting, in some way, human interaction and relationship,” said Katherine Rosenblum, clinical and developmental psychologist and co-director of Zero to Thrive at the University of Michigan.
It takes another person to light up a baby’s brain and make it ready to take in information, said MeLampy.
One key way a caregiver participates in healthy brain development is through a process called “serve and return,” which refers to the back and forth interactions between a baby and a caregiver.
Rosenblum said this could look like a baby cooing and their parent responding to them as though they’re in conversation: “Are you talking to me?!”
Or a baby crying, and a parent giving them a compassionate look, asking what’s wrong, and picking them up to comfort them.
“These are the subtle back and forth ‘volleys’ that you might miss if you were not paying attention,” Rosenblum said.
Through this relational process, the brain’s neural connections responsible for healthy development — including how to interact with others and emotional regulation — become embedded into the brain. This process happens more than 100 times a day throughout infancy, said Rosenblum.
Why do doctors call this period the most important time in a human being’s brain development?
Healthy brain development happens in the context of highly responsive caregiving, said Huth-Bocks, meaning that the majority of the time, when a child indicates they have a need, that need is met in a timely and consistent way.
Consistent, responsive caregiving allows a baby’s brain to put more resources toward learning — from figuring out how to move the eyes in tandem to acquiring language. When caregiving is less responsive or consistent, the brain has less time to devote to developing new connections because it’s spending more energy on making sure it gets its basic needs met, MeLampy said.
The unique window the brain has at this moment in a child’s life makes it a crucial time to create “responsive, reciprocal and safe relationships,” to support healthy development, said Rosenblum.
Brains are plastic and can change and adapt, but Rebecca Knickmeyer, professor at Michigan State University’s Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, who has researched babies’ brains for nearly 25 years, compares the brain to a house.
“You can go back and make significant improvements, but you can’t tear down the foundation and build it back up again,” she said.
How to be a responsive caregiver
Parents should not feel guilty and don’t need more things to worry about, said Rosenblum. “The things babies need are many of the things most parents just do naturally: hold their baby, comfort their baby, talk to their baby, sing to their baby, play with their baby,” she said.
MeLampy says parents can turn to two easy tactics to make responsive caregiving feel less overwhelming.
First, be present — not on the TV, or on the phone. “Nobody is a superhero and it’s not about being perfect,” she said. “You can probably reflect and next time be a little more present and involve your child in conversation even if the child is not reciprocating, they are there and can hear you.”
The second is to build community. MeLampy says there’s so much information out there and confusion around which source is best or can be trusted.
“Instead of getting overwhelmed, call your friend with a 2-year-old or ask the person next to you what’s working for them,” MeLampy said.
And being a responsive caregiver cannot happen 100% of the time. Parents’ lives are busy and stressful, Rosenblum said.
When society recognizes how important early childhood is and values the work of caring for and developing young children, quality child care follows. “It shouldn’t always be on parents,” she said.
Beki San Martin is a fellow at the Detroit Free Press who covers child care, early childhood education and other issues that affect the lives of children ages 5 and under and their families in metro Detroit and across Michigan. Contact her at rsanmartin@freepress.com.
This fellowship is supported by the Bainum Family Foundation. The Free Press retains editorial control of this work.
