Two Quick Ways to Influence Brain Development

If you could give a parent or caregiver just two tips on how to positively influence their child’s brain development, what would those be?” We are glad you asked! Below are two of our favorite everyday tips to help your child integrate the different parts of the brain, develop a connection with themselves and others, and process their experiences.

1. Connect and Redirect: We need to first connect emotionally with the child’s emotional experience. This could be sadness, anger, joy or any other emotion. Once we empathize and connect with the emotion the child is experiencing, coming from a place of understanding and empathy, we can then connect to the left, logical side of the brain to discipline or teach lessons to the child.
2. Name it to tame it: when a child is emotionally charged or out of control, we should name the emotion the child is experiencing. By doing this, we are helping them tell the story of what happened using the logical, left side of the brain. By naming the emotion and experience, then telling a story about it, we are integrating the two hemispheres of the brain. This helps the child feel more in control of their emotional responses and able to process their experiences.

To learn more about your child’s brain development and how to influence this development using everyday moments, we recommend Whole-Brain Child by Dan Siegel and Tina Bryson.