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Counting & Emotions

I have always wondered if babies can count discrete quantities like two, three, or five apples in their mind even before they can talk? Do they have pre-verbal concept of quantity? When do they recognize consciously that two apples are less than four apples? These are some questions that quantitative researchers in Infancy are working on in their laboratories. I have done several case studies of some of my smart patients who had been through our "smart baby program" as part of their routine office visits. Let us take for example Alec.

Since Alec was one month old, her mother and her siblings demonstrated to her the concept or appearance of "one" and "two."  Mom showed her index finger pointing up from 10 inches of her face and said "one." Then she would bring her index finger horizontally pointing to the left and say again "one" and one second later point it downward and say "one" again. After these three different positioning of the index finger, her mother would make one stroke downwards touching Alec's left cheek and say, "one." This game is played at least four times a day for three days.

On the fourth day, mother would demonstrate the concept of two with the index finger and the middle finger using the left hand following the same sequence of pointing up, horizontal, and down. Then making two touching strokes on Alexander's right cheek. On the seventh day, mother would bring up the right hand with “one” index finger and the left hand with “two” fingers upward from about 10 inches of Alec's face. She would say, "Show me one" and wait for response. Then she would say "Show me two."

When Alec was 7 months old she consistently reach for the "one" index finger when requested "Show me one" and grab or reach for the two fingers when her mother says, "Show me two."

These counting exercises were done as a game and the mother and siblings doing the counting game were always animated, happy, and enthusiastic. If Alec was agitated, irritable, hungry, bored, or tired they did not any learning activities.

When you show your baby one red Mega Bloks and you say, "one," she should look at it and at the same time hear the word, "one." Most likely she does not consciously, as we adults know, that it is "one" as in quantity. But what her brain does is record in her memory center, the hippocampus, the concept of "one" and in her visual center at the back of the head or occipital visual center the appearance of  "one red Mega Bloks." The sound "one" is also registered at the auditory center. While these three brain centers are recording, there is group of brain cells doing her task simultaneously, taking notice the emotional content, facial expression, and tone of voice of the speaker. This part of the brain is called amygdala, the center of emotion and affect. Each time you show one red Mega Bloks to your baby the three brain centers: hippocampus (memory), occipital visual center, and the auditory center are stimulated and the word "one" plus the appearance of a "red Mega Bloks" is embedded. This process happens very fast in the brain. Depending on the emotional content and expression of the mother, which is extremely critical, the word "one" and the visual appearance of "one red Mega Bloks" is embedded lightly or strongly in the other brain centers. If the mother is animated and enthusiastic while showing the "one red Mega Bloks" the hippocampus or the memory center will record it more permanently. And the visual and auditory centers will see and hear the word "one" clearly. If the mother is depressed, sad, or not smiling when she says the word "one" the hippocampus might not register or record it at all. The visual and the auditory centers might not even recognize that there is "one" red Mega Bloks in front of her. The neural emotional influence of the amygdala is overpowering or drowning the visual and auditory effect coming from the "one red Mega Bloks" stimuli. The baby will just ignore it because she is seeing more of the depressed and sad facial expression of the mother, which is a strong negative influence. The end result is learning and memory failure. And in computer parlance "hard drive crashes."

Babies whose parents are not in sync emotionally and financially, abusive, has substance abuse problem, or depressed literally promote their baby's brain to frequent "hard drive crashes" of the hippocampus, amygdala and other brain centers. These daily "hard drive crashes" of the brain can lead to mental, language, and motor delay. And if the negative behavior of the parents or primary care giver continues until 18 to 36 months old, ultimately the fate of the baby is doomed to behavioral problem, hyperactivity, depression, and school failure.

When Mario was 18 months old his language development was advanced compared to his peers. He could combine two or three words together and can even count in Spanish. When he was two years old, Mario's parents had marital discord and ultimately they separated. During that time Mario had frequent "hard drive crashes" of his brain. Now Mario is 6 years old and having school difficulties, hyperactivity, and other behavioral problems. He is now seeing a psychologist and probably would need medications to help his behavior so he can do his school work.

On the other hand, Kim had parents who did not have any marital problems. At 18 months Kim knew her address and full name. She knew where Mommy & Daddy worked and what kind of job they do. Kim also knew where 5 other relatives worked.  Said ABCDE  and spoke in 4 word sentences. Kim counted up to 10 at 18 months old. At 20 months old Kim read her name.  She listened to Spanish tapes from the library and she called her mother "madre" after hearing them a few times. At 21 months old she knew colors: red, blue, green, orange, yellow, brown, black, white, purple, and pink. She sang ABC Songs and pointed at 6 letters correctly. 

Kim is at 3 and three fourths years old can read simple numbers in an abacus. Her brain did not have any "hard drive crashes" because of her happy, enthusiastic, motivated, and animated parents.

Leo Leonidas, MD, FAAP, Assistant Clinical Professor, Tufts University, Boston