How Early Childhood Environments Shape Communication and Cognitive Growth

The first five years of a child’s life are an incredibly important contributing factor to their overall brain development. Not only is this when they begin to learn behaviors that will shape the trajectory of their educational experience, but it’s also the time when their brains are the most elastic and therefore most influenced by external stimulation.

Most people understand how their diets influence the way their bodies develop. But how much time and energy do we put into thinking about how early cognitive stimulation influences brain development?

If you want to give your child as much of an advantage as possible, read on for an overview of how early childhood environments shape communication and cognitive growth.

Understanding Early Brain Development

Many people don’t realize that the first five years of a child’s life have the biggest overall impact on their eventual brain development. It’s during this time that 90% of brain growth and development takes place. The brain forms more than 1 million neural connections per second in early childhood years.

Now, if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t necessarily think in quantities of neural connections, you can at least understand that the amount of growth and development taking place over this period is considerable. A phrase you might often hear in this context is plasticity. Children’s brains are very adaptable, which means there is an enormous amount of potential within these first few years that should be taken advantage of.

For better or for worse, this is the point in a child’s life when they are most responsive to their environment. Prioritizing the development of language and social skills can be very impactful at this age range.

What Does Environment Include?

Environment in this context is the physical space that a child occupies, but it’s also their realm of experience in terms of social interactions, learning opportunities, and culture.

For example, children who grow up in language-rich environments will learn communication and early literacy skills much more efficiently than those who do not. In this way, prioritizing development can be as simple as making a point of conversational turn-taking with the child. It’s very straightforward: the child says something, and you respond. This can be done even with babies as they coo and babble. Speak back to them. In many cases, the baby will respond using a rhythm surprisingly similar to that of more sophisticated communication.

There are many other ways to provide your child with a language-rich environment: read to them aloud, ask open-ended questions, and expand on their statements. For example, if they point to your dog and say, “Puppy,” you might respond, “Yes! That is a puppy. Our puppy has brown fur and he barks too much.”

You’re giving the child more context and potentially equipping them with a greater range of useful communication. This will increase their vocabulary by the time they reach kindergarten, which is a major indication of their future reading ability. Having strong communication skills by school age is also just an important component of how teachable they are.

Will your child spend the first year of their education focused on learning, or on learning how to learn? That’s the question. Their early communication abilities will determine the answer.

Identify Early Barriers to Speech

Barriers to speech are very common, and while they can be alarming for parents, they are also very treatable. In many cases, the earlier you catch the problem, the more effective the eventual solution will be.

Raising your child in a language-rich environment is a good way to both help identify early barriers to speech and support the child in overcoming them. That said, professional intervention is often the most impactful response. The services of a speech-language pathologist can go a long way toward helping your child with speech barriers.

School-aged children are eligible for free assistance, while insurance plans will often cover a significant portion of treatment for non-school-aged children. It’s certainly a worthwhile investment, as the earlier you address your child’s speech barriers, the more effective and expedited the treatment will be.

While speech barriers are not inherently problematic, they can negatively impact a child’s ability to learn and influence their mental health in the classroom. The best response is simply to be as proactive as possible in addressing speech difficulties.

Understand the Importance of Play

Many parents lack confidence in their ability to engage with their children in the context of play. This is a natural reaction, particularly given how imaginative and energetic children often are. However, play is extremely important for growth.

It’s how children learn imaginative or abstract thinking. It’s also a great way to model problem-solving, develop language skills, and generally improve cognitive growth.

You don’t have to be extremely creative to engage satisfactorily in play. Just meet your child where they are, remain present, and accept feelings of discomfort or embarrassment as part of the territory.

With a little repetition, you’ll most likely find that not only are you better at play than you realized, but you also derive genuine enjoyment from it.

Easier Said Than Done

All of these recommendations sound simpler than they actually are. While it is true that anyone can play with their child or read to them, there is still an element of privilege that comes with the territory. You need the time and flexibility to interact with your child in a way that is satisfyingly rich in communication and creativity. In areas where even adequate childcare is either unaffordable or simply inaccessible, it can be hard to find time for imaginative situations with your child.

If you are in a situation where every day feels like a struggle, make the most of every opportunity you have. Providing your child with a language-rich early environment is not a matter of meeting certain quotas—it’s about consistency. Even if you only have 30 minutes a day, you’ll make a big difference in their lives.

Be proactive. With continuous effort, you’ll not only connect more intensely with your child, but you’ll also give them the skills they need to engage as thoroughly and impactfully as possible with early education opportunities.