WHAT DO WE ALL WANT FOR
OUR CHILDREN?
Early Words, Strong Foundation
HOW DO WE ACCOMPLISH THIS?
Coaching, Videos, and Family Education to Help Your Baby Become
a Lifelong Learner
At BabyWisdom, we are dedicated to empowering parents with the knowledge & tools to make the most of the critical 24-month window of opportunity for their baby's brain development.
Our services are for parents with newborns, whether neurotypcial or neurodiverse/special needs. It’s important to note that the earliest age autism can be detected is 18 months, but very often is not diagnosed until much later, when the child has already started school (2nd to 4th grade).
Both in-person and remote services are offered.
Our core values reflect our commitment to fostering strong neural connections, promoting holistic development, and enhancing early communication and cognitive skills through engaging, multi-sensory activities and music concepts.
Linda Franklin-Biggs is a licensed, professional educator who combined her passion for children with her passion for music by becoming a public school music teacher in the elementary school system 29 years ago, retiring in June 2023.
Linda actively advocates for early learning and promotes early learning right from birth as a speaker, parent coach, private piano and music teacher.
Why Is working with our children from a young age
so important?
Our nation's education system is set up for children to begin formal learning at age five, or age three for children with special needs. There is a crucial window of opportunity that exists in the first 24 months of life. And parents need to know about it.
Encouraging Conversation
Making recordings of babies' conversations can often illuminate actual words being spoken in the playback that maybe wasn't so obvious at the time the word or words were spoken.
This is a YouTube link to a video of a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old interacting. You hear the father coaxing her to "open the window" of her playhouse, and you can hear her say, "I tried. I tried!"
Nurture Lifelong Learning From Birth
85-90% of the brain is developed by age five.
Right from birth, children begin taking in information from their 5 senses.
Start making learning a part of your baby's daily routine, so they come to expect learning new things every day!
Passion for learning will increase.
Great news!
They'll get used to learning & develop a passion for it when they're of school age!
It's never too early to give your child a head start... but it can be too late. Learn more.
"First 16 Months a Critical Period in Toddler’s Brain Development, Imaging Study Finds"
3 Ways to Help Your Baby Become a Lifelong Learner
1 | Don't just say numbers; help the baby count things!
2 | Instead of reading a book,
sing it!
3 | Involve as many of their senses as possible!
For newborns, touch each toe or finger
as you sing count.
Clap babies' hands together, or have
them pat their knees to music and count the number of claps or taps.
When reading, count the number of
pages in the book or count the number
of characters or items on each page.
Count bites of food at mealtime.
Turn simple activities into teachable moments.
You don't have to have a good singing
voice to do this!
Use great variance of inflection in
your voice.
Your vocal muscles move, and the more you contrast a high voice with
a low voice, the quicker it will strengthen the babies' voices.
If you don't have any books on hand,
sing made-up stories!
Add kinesthetic motion & manipulatives to involve more of
their senses and provide greater learning.
Combine motion, sound, sight, & physical objects whenever possible.
For example, when reading about the
concept of up/down, use a high voice &
pick the baby up high in the air.
Use a low voice for down & bring the
baby back down again.
BONUS TIP!
Music, music, music!
Expose your baby to quality music as much as possible. If you have instruments in the home, like a piano, flute or guitar, play for your baby or let the baby explore the sounds!
Sing the notes if you can! Encourage the baby to echo you! In addition, check out all the free concerts nearby!
Check local towns' summer schedules for free concerts on the green. Check your local paper for free musical events, especially around the holidays, at local schools and churches.
Find a really good classical music station on your streaming device and play the music very quietly at nap time in an otherwise quiet and darkened room that is conducive to sleeping.
Many symphonies offer free concerts for children and families; just Google "free concerts near me"!
Not only is it a learning experience for the baby, but it creates a fun memory for the whole family!
Success Stories... Yours Can Be One of Them
Ava was born 2 years ago with Down Syndrome. She was also medically fragile and spent the first 4 months of her life in the hospital. When she was finally discharged, she was still eating through a feeding tube. The diagnosis of DS alone puts a child behind their peers by the time they start kindergarten at age 5 and spending 4 months in the hospital puts them even further behind.
I was introduced to Sarah, Ava’s mother, shortly after Ava was born. I met with her & her partner on Zoom and began sharing with them how to work with their new baby to develop strong neural connections, develop communication skills and understand some of the unique challenges of DS. I have written my master’s degree thesis on the effects of music on preschool children with Down Syndrome and know quite a bit about it, having taught preschool children with DS for many years as well.
Babies with DS typically have proportionately smaller ear canals that often fill with fluid. This fluid causes your voice to sound like you are talking under water to them & it’s harder for them to hear clearly.
I shared science-based music techniques that help the baby to hear better when fluid is present. I provided activities, music links, & lessons for them to do with Ava & encouraged them to do these things daily and repeatedly.
Ava turned 2 last November and when I asked how Ava was doing, Sarah responded, “Ava is doing amazing….Thanks for all the info about music. She dances to the beat and music without prompting. I’ve been singing her to sleep since she was a newborn…. I think being able to communicate is helping a lot for us to not get to (the) tantrum stage.”
This is four month old Remi, held by his mother, with his dad playing the notes to the alphabet song while I sang and videotaped. This was taken during a first meeting and initial assessment.
When I started to sing the ABC’s, Remi jumped up and down in his mother’s lap with his eyes open wide, excitedly smiling, as if to tell me, “I know this song!” So I began to engage in a conversation with Remi, looking him directly in the eyes, asking him, “Do you know this song? Does your mother sing this to you?”
As he began to babble, his mother responded, “Yes, he knows it, I sing it to him all the time,” so he stopped babbling to let his mother answer. This was a teachable moment for the parents.
Don’t speak for your baby, but acknowledge what you know they are trying to communicate and encourage their speech and language. Encouragement is a great tool in developing early communication skills.
Children develop their receptive language long before they develop their expressive language and this is a great example of that. Instead of answering for the child, let the child babble and begin recording their babbling. You’ll be surprised when you play it back that you might hear an actual word amongst the babbling!
The same exact assessment done with this little 8 month old guy yielded no reaction whatsoever. When I said to the baby, “You don’t know this song, do you?”
The father replied, “A lot of things you talked about today, I hadn’t been doing, but I’m going to start doing them now!”
A short little activity like this can reveal to parents how much their child is actually learning and how their baby can express understanding something or not understanding something without being able to actually talk yet.
This is Fran, singing the alphabet and fully conversant at 27 months. I had met with her parents and spoken with them before Fran was born and explained how music techniques could be used to develop the speaking voice and early communication with babies.
I talked about the window of opportunity that exists in the first 24 months and how to develop strong neural connections in their infant. This picture comes from the video they sent of her singing the alphabet and having a short conversation with her dad.
