Book Review: Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina

Book Review: Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina

If you are interested in the science of your developing child, this book helps to translate it into language most people can understand.  John Medina prefers to use research that has appeared in peer-journals and has been replicated.  He uses analogies like a three-legged stool, dry rubs, and the Golden Gate bridge to help explain the science and reach a wider audience.

Medina offers simple advice based on this research.  He looks at pregnancy and how some of the things we do can affect the baby later.  He discusses your relationship with your spouse and how we need to approach the challenge of raising children with empathy for one another and how the stress of parental tension can affect even really little ones.  For guys, the relationship portion of this book might really help you understand why your significant other might snap at you.

Once the baby is born, he breaks down the topics of “smart baby” and “happy baby” into the seeds and soil, then discusses the moral baby.  The seeds, or nature, are already decided for you for the most part.  This gets deeper into the science of brain development and psychology.  The soil, or nurture, is the ways your actions affect your child.

When it comes to “smart” babies, he notes that there are challenges in measuring intelligence.  The IQ test, which most people associate with measuring intelligence, comes in many different forms and faces challengers.  He briefly mentions Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory, but does not really discuss it.  Medina brings up some of the more popular movements in intelligence building including limiting screen time, sign language and music.  He also mentions studies that examined educational baby DVDs.  He also stresses how the brain will only allow people to learn if they feel safe.

When it comes to “happy” babies, the first thing parents must decide is what it means to them to be happy.  He helps explain how the brain understands emotions as well as the difference between emotions and feelings.  Both in the chapter on moral babies and happy babies, he stresses the importance of empathy and discussion.  Young children often don’t know how to express these big, overwhelming feelings that sometimes swell over them.  Parents should take a moment to get at their level and try to talk through what the child might be feeling in a way they can understand.  Once children have a grasp of their own emotions, they can then practice transferring those ideas onto others.  In a similar way, most parents will find that children obey rules better if they understand why those rules exist.  Talking about the rules does not mean that there should be not punishment though.  Medina discusses the importance of punishment and the different shapes it may take.

This book is nice because it is a way to learn about some scientific research in child development without having to have a subscription to multiple peer-reviewed journals and wade through the sometimes overwhelming scientific jargon.  Even when Medina uses scientific jargon, he then offers an easier to understand explanation.