Holistic Brain Development Of A Child

 

Every child is different. Their personality traits or extraordinary talents define their aura & uniqueness in the world. And it’s important that there is an alignment of your child’s interests, skills, strengths, & weaknesses with the kind of training they receive for beneficial personality development. If you’re only depending upon your child’s educational curriculum for results, this wouldn’t be your finest decision. However, we at Tickle Right would recommend the holistic development of a child’s mind for greater dynamics.

Early childhood development lays the concrete foundation for an infinite potential to learn new things every day. And as parents, it’s almost impossible to not think about your child’s future growth. So, read ahead to know the vitality of holistic brain development.

 

What Is Holistic Development Of A Child?

The holistic brain development of a child constitutes the development & nurturing of skills to be able to encounter any day-to-day requirements & challenges. These include a child’s cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical growth for their overall development. Which makes it more crucial to recognize the demand for holistic development in the early years of a child’s life than in the later stages.

Right after the birth of a child, a newborn’s brain & brain structures are quite similar. When a child hits their developmental years, especially the ‘sensitive periods’, it caters to the wiring of a brain for particular abilities & skillset. And here comes holistic brain development that assists in the wiring of the brain network via enriched & stimulative experiences.

 

Importance Of Holistic Development In A Child

Holistic development aims to nurture & expand a child’s full potential with the abilities that will help them lead a successful life. It establishes social adaptability alongside emotional intelligence to help them surpass their fears to interact & work as a team. 

Here’s why holistic brain development is important for a child’s complete growth:

• Instills compassion & confidence to meet daily challenges
• A bundle of prolific neural connections with physical, social, intellectual, & emotional development
• Builds social-emotional competence, linguistic proficiency, physical growth, & helps attain cognitive enlightenment
• Caters to the emotional & psychological well-being of a child to counter pressure & daily challenges
• Lays the foundation for academic brilliance & a resilient lifestyle that differs from conventional methods

 

Factors That Help Shape An Holistic Brain Development

There are several factors behind the influence of exceptional holistic development. As parents, you can look after your child’s learning path to success keeping into consideration the following factors:

• Education
• Physical & mental health
• Optimistic environment
• Social status
• Stimulating experiences
• Physical skills

 

What Are The Components Of Holistic Development?

Given below are the components of the holistic development of a child in the early years:

1. Social Enlightenment

A child’s social skills can be uplifted by helping them engage with other children. This helps foster early relationships & grants an ability to develop empathy towards others. Great social skills have several benefits like a chance at having better relationships, educational opportunities & profuse confidence to interact with people. This instills speed listening skills & an ability to cooperate, contribute, & participate with others.

 

2. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence counts for an ability to comprehend, manage, & regulate emotions. It is the ability to understand others’ feelings & be smart about the next response. At a young age, a child begins to express emotions without knowing their real meaning of it. You can put in efforts to develop such emotional intelligence. This is a clear opportunity for your toddler to build a high IQ as it is directly linked to emotional enlightenment. For that, you must show empathy towards your child & make them feel that you’re validating their emotions. Read stories that send out a message on problem-solving & coping skills. Share your experiences & give emotional support.

 

3. Linguistic Competence

Language skills are super important for kids to develop a step-by-step communication mechanism. It’s a part of upbringing naturally, as your child imitates your actions & is most familiar with the language you prefer at this stage. By the means of music, story-telling, reading, and responding to your child’s social cues, you can help them expand their language skills. Keep in mind that you need not pressurize your child into adapting language skills. Instead, get along & engage with your child by starting with small words first & full sentences later.

 

4. Cognitive Enhancement

By the time your child is 5 years old, their brain is already developed by 90%. Cognitive enhancement taps into the potential of a child’s developing mind by helping them explore & coming to a conclusion on their own. Besides, there’s no doubt about how young kids have the ability to quickly transmit information and imply critical thinking skills from a holistic perspective. As parents, you can provide a stimulating environment to your kid & encourage them to play & indulge in extracurricular activities. This also unleashes their potential for active participation and becomes a means of educating your child duly.

 

5. Physical Strengthening

Nurturing your child’s physical & motor skills is very crucial for their holistic brain development. With growing age, children are filled with regular bursts of energy that can be utilized to their advantage. Encouraging your child to move around & play, climb, hop, swim & swing helps build physical strength. For fine motor skills, you can clap with your child, play block games, complete puzzles, open-close containers, & make them hold small objects to teach pincer grasp. From kicking, and crawling to holding objectives, these skills help build muscles & spark sensory abilities.

 

What Can You Do As A Parent?

The means to strike a reasonable balance between providing exposure to play freely & address the physical, emotional, rational, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of a child duly is the key. As parents, you must continuously observe your child’s behavior for holistic brain development. The role of such development skills extends its domain to your child’s health and development constituting mental and physical well-being, educational development, cognitive enhancement, linguistic skills, spatial mathematical learning, & creativity.

Here’s what you can do to help your child develop the above skills:

• Show constant affection towards your child & help them trust you. Such emotional security traits help a child open up to you and lays the foundation for empathy & cognitive development skills. 
• Introduce sensory activities to your child. Create fun scenarios by playing music, helping them feel different objects, bubble games, treasure boxes, & others.
• Speak your most common language in front of your toddler. It helps them adapt to the language & establish communication at the right time.

Conduct an APGAR ( Activity, Pulse, Grimace, Appearance, and Respiration) test. It is done right after a child’s birth. These test scores can be taken into consideration for a toddler’s future gross motor skills over a period of 9 months. It includes rooting, sucking, swallowing reflex, grasp reflex, walking reflex, pupils reacting to light, the opening of eyes when held upright, blinking or opening of eyes widely to sudden sound, startle reaction to sudden sound, closing eyes to sudden bright light, flexing of upper and lower limbs, turning of the head to perceive objects, the establishment of firm eye contact and visual senses.

 

FAQs

1. What is the purpose of holistic development? 

The objective of holistic brain development is to nurture a child’s mind with cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical attributes. These components serve as an opportunity to find uniqueness in a child’s behavior. It lays the bedrock for developing multitudinous abilities that helps attain the below-mentioned traits:

1. Social enlightenment
2. Emotional-intelligence
3. Linguistic competence
4. Cognitive enhancement
5. Physical strengthening

 

2. Why is holistic development important for a child? 

Holistic brain development for a child helps them develop social skills & enriched understanding of emotional essence to engage with others. It makes the learning process easy in the habitat of stimulating experiences. Not only this but it also helps transform a child’s personality linguistically & psychologically. A child’s early years are very precious for nurturing holistic growth. And that’s why it becomes important to approach a child holistically in their sensorimotor stage.

 

3. What is holistic learning & development?

Holistic development is a direct approach to absolute learning methods that lays the foundation of physical, cognitive, emotional, social, & linguistic abilities duly. This approach helps stimulates a child’s personality & uniqueness in the most extraordinary way. You must provide the right environment & experience that activates the wiring of neural connections in your child’s brain. And this practice will lend a helping hand to creating a thorough pathway for your child’s growth & rising potential.

 

Takeaway

Holistic brain development has a very positive impact on a child’s mind. Their early years can be filled with fun activities to activate their senses – sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. And as parents, you must engage with your child & play with them together with toys. Because toys have a greater role to play in wholesome brain development. It not only enhances the bond with your child. Instead, it helps your child develop emotional enlightenment & an understanding to comprehend others’ emotions duly & respectfully.