About

The present format of briliantbaby.com is our third version and we think this is the best and useful.

Why? Because it is based on Scientific Evidence or studies just like what is used now in medical practice called Evidence Based Medicine. We will post new Evidence on parenting at least once a week. My goal is to ultimately create a site where parents can surf and read the Evidence since most parenting advices, as well as medical, are not yet 100% based on Science. Most of them are handed down experience and opinions, and unfortunately some are not effective.

Most of the studies posted here will come from the labs of psychology professor from all over the world mostly from the United States.

An example of this is from the lab of Dr. Carol Dweck who has done the most extensive research, for at least 30 years, in the secret of performance in children -- effort. Children whose parents or teachers praised effort, in longitudinal studies with control and experimental groups, was the winner. Praising children because of they are smart or intelligent is not as effective and sometimes harm the child.

In the field of language development, the most widely referenced and quoted researchers are Hart and Risley. They found that one of the boosters of better language development is the number of words parents used. Over a three-year period, Hart and Risley recorded one full hour of every word spoken at home between parent and child in 42 families with children from 7 months to 36 months of age. The researchers found that the words parents spoke directly to their children average from 2,153 words per hour among professional parents, and 616 words per hour amont welfare families. That amounted to about 30 million word-gap by age 3 years old.

From the research department of Patricia Kuhl came the finding that infants acquire their native language between six to nine months old. Before this age, any newborn has the ability to speak any of all the worlds hundreds of languages.

Parents spoke 770 fewer words to children, for every hour in front of the TV, according to a study of 329 children, ages 2 months to 4 years, in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

On average, parents usually speak about 941 words an hour, but when the TV is on the background the number of words spoken goes down, according to researcher Dr. Christakis.

When a TV is in the background, the two of them talk much less. A mother may think she's engaged with a baby or child because they're both on the floor playing toys.

These are some examples of the Evidence Based Parenting (EBP) studies that will be reported in www.brilliantbaby.com.

Please recommend this site to your child's physician, friends, day care owner, teacher, and other parents. And please send me also your suggestions or comments to improve this website.

Cheers.

Leonardo L. Leonidas, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor in Pediatrics (Retired 2008)
Distinguished Career Teaching Award, 2009
Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, USA

Outstanding Alumnus UPMAS, 2010
Overseas Teacher of the year, UPMASA, 2006

Author: Brilliant Babies of Maine; Baby Math

email: nonieleonidas68@gmail.com