Development benefits of 'Hello, Little Muslim!'
'Hello, Little Muslim!' is the first Islamic themed black & white book. Being a new product has its virtues; however, we do admit that some people might be surprised with the book. "A black and white book? Why would any parent buy a boring book is beyond me" some might say. Before we attempt to explain the benefits of the book, we invite you to watch the video created by The Guardian simulating what a newborn experiences from their viewpoint.
Done? Great!
Emotional support
The video we shared with you highlights that in the early stages of a babies life - although will not be remembered - is a significant stage in a humans development journey.
It is crucial that parents talk to their babies.
'Hello, Little Muslim!' is designed to facilitate parents to talk to their babies. As highlighted in the video, it is crucial that parents talk to their babies - creating that emotional bond between parent and baby.
While the simple English used might be odd to adults - reality is, grammar means nothing to the baby. What mattered was his/her parent devoted time to spend with them.
Research on babies vision
The five senses that a human possesses begins to develop in the mother's womb. Over time, a baby will start to experience light and darkness as their surrounding changes. In this process, the baby is drawn to where light and dark meet. Once born, babies prefer to look at simple contrasting patterns, rather than bright colours or pastels. As their eyes develop, they begin to track objects and scan for things to look at.
High contrast images mesmerise babies because the cones, a photoreceptor of the retina that perceives colour, have not yet matured enough to distinguish colours.
During the early stages of a babies life, black and white are the easiest for babies to perceive.
During the early stages of a babies life, black and white are the easiest for babies to perceive. The preference and interest for starkly contrasting shades will continue until six to nine months. Beyond this age, they'll still be entertained by black and white, and also by bright colours - particularly primary ones such as red, blue and yellow.
Parenting healthcare resource Ask Dr Sears has an excellent summary of the benefits of black and white patterns for your baby's development.
Research has demonstrated that babies are most engaged and drawn to bold black and white patterns. For example:
Dr Fantz showed that babies preferred looking at a black and white checkerboard to a plain grey card. (1962)
Dr T.G.R Bower proved that babies chose to look at black and white shapes rather than plain red or yellow cards. (1977)
Dr Craig showed that an infant's vision capabilities mean they prefer the high contrast colours of black, white and red. (2006)
Benefits of black & white
One of the most significant events in post birth brain development is “myelination”. Newborns’ brains contain very little myelin, the dense impermeable substance that covers the length of mature brain cells and is necessary for clear, efficient electrical transmission. This lack of myelin is the main reason why babies and young children process information so much more slowly than adults. Most areas of the brain begin adding this critical insulation within the first two years of life. Myelination of the cerebral cortex begins in the primary motor and sensory areas—regions that receive the first input from the eyes, ears, nose, skin, and mouth.
— Source: Postnatal Brain Development, Www.Zerotothree.OrgNot only can your baby see clearly at birth, but he can fixate or maintain his gaze intently on an object. At first, baby’s fixation or attention span varies from 4 to 10 seconds. When interest wanes, he closes or shifts his gaze aimlessly. The repeated sight of appropriate objects, however, will help increase your baby’s attention span. Many parents have reported that their newborn’s attention span increased from 10 seconds to 60 or 90 seconds after only one week of looking at black and white checkerboards for about 3 minutes a day. Because of this, fixation helps learning. If your baby fixates on one object, information about that object gets through to the cortex – the deepest part of the brain – which means that there is an intact pathway for stimulating the brain’s growth.
— Source: Dr. Ludington-Hoe, S., "How To Have A Smarter Baby", Bantam Books, 1985, P. 74Babies are said to be “tracking” when they try to follow appealing objects with their eyes. The more appealing the object, the more intense and prolonged the tracking. In the first two months of life tracking is difficult, but not impossible. When you use high-contrast designs like black and white bull’s-eyes that move slowly across your baby’s visual field, he will be able to track with more ease because of his interest in the stimulator. Tracking helps your baby to learn where an object is in space and how it differs from its background so that he can reach for it. He discovers that objects have permanence by seeing that they move, yet remain the same.
— Source: Dr. Ludington-Hoe, S., "How To Have A Smarter Baby", Bantam Books, 1985, P. 74A child moves his eyes from one object to another in a series of little jumps. He is “scanning” his choices. When your baby scans, he learns how to see and compare entire objects. This ability eventually helps him to distinguish all the objects in his environment. It takes many babies a bit of time to realize there’s something to look at. Try to leave the object you ant your baby to focus on within his view for at least 30 seconds – long enough for his eyes to follow and come upon it.
— Source: Dr. Ludington-Hoe, S., "How To Have A Smarter Baby", Bantam Books, 1985, P. 75We would like to credit HuggaMind for compiling this research. For more information, visit their website here.