TKW Consulting

New scientific research suggests that the mind of a baby is a humming, buzzing, supercharged learning machine, capable of taking in and processing enormous amounts of information. Now that we know this, how should we interact with babies and support their developing minds?

Jonah: "For so long we've seen babies just as unconscious, basically just as these lumps that just want to eat and cry and sleep, and now we think babies are actually more conscious than us. And this comes down to the particular ways babies pay attention. So one of my favorite metaphors for this concerns the idea of, adults pay attention using a spotlight, which means we shine a very bright spotlight on a very narrow slice of reality.

"Babies in contrast, use what's called a lantern mode of attention, which is that, even though their attention is maybe less focused, less fixated, they actually pay more attention to a greater range of things."

"Give babies something to look at, give them something to learn, give them ideas to put inside their heads to try to make sense of. And that can include everything from the Mozart symphony playing in the background, to something on the television, to the sound of your voice. There's nothing more important for a baby than ordinary social interactions."