papaWhat happens when you give a baby a doll?
A baby whose every moment is controlled by the adults around her. When she eats. What she eats. When she sleeps. Where she sleeps. What clothes she wears. When she bathes.
And then you give her a doll. She picks it up. She looks at it. She probably smells it, maybe even tastes it. She looks at it some more.
Then, she looks at you. “What’s this?” she asks you silently with her eyes. Or maybe in baby babble she asks “Baby?”
And you tell her, with your ‘Happy Face’ on and your own ‘baby babble’ back:
“It’s for you!” It’s a Doll. Or ‘a new toy for you.’ Or something that indicates that this new thing is hers.
At that moment, neurons light up, synapses start firing and your baby’s brain starts growing. This happens whenever a baby’s brain encounters something new.
All healthy children go through the same early growth stages:
Physical growth of course. They gain pounds and inches.
Explorative growth. Things they see, hear and touch; which becomes brain growth.
New things become new connections in their brains.
New connections become thoughts. And thoughts become memory.
This is why you should give your kids dolls. You are going to make them smarter.