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Safe and sound
Parents worry endlessly about how to protect their children from stranger abduction and violence, but many manage to overlook one of the biggest threats to their children's safety and well-being -- their own home. Experts say that children ages 1 to 4 are more likely to be injured by fire, burns, drowning, choking, poisoning, or falls (in that order) than by a stranger's violence.

Gadgets galore
In stores and catalogs, you'll find all kinds of gadgets that really can help your home childproofing efforts. A professional childproofer who will choose and install safety devices for you is another option, if you have the money. Remember, though, that gadgets are no substitute for your eyes and ears. Anne Altman of Childproofer, a consulting and contracting company in Santa Rosa, California, says: "The best device is still supervision. I'd rather not recommend a product than suggest one that gives parents a false sense of security."

Because childproofing and other safety measures can seem overwhelming, we've created three checklists that let you see at a glance what to do before your baby arrives, before your baby crawls, and before your baby starts toddling and climbing. You'll also find safety tips in our articles about childproofing your nursery, kitchen, and bathroom. What follows are some additional recommendations -- along with some interesting statistics -- about home safety concerns.

Scope out the territory
You really need to get down on your hands and knees when your child is an infant, and then start looking up as he begins walking and climbing to determine which cupboards, drawers, and other spaces he might get into. Carefully lock up or move to an inaccessible spot every potential poison or other hazard -- cleaning fluids, medicines, vitamins, knives, tiny objects that a baby can choke on, and so forth. Use gates to control the areas your child has access to.

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Shortly before my first child was born, the governor of my state -- Zell Miller, now a U.S. Senator -- made a startling announcement: Every baby born in Georgia would receive a free classical music CD at the hospital. This wasn't just some bonus prize for being born; it was a start to making Georgians smarter. "Listening to music at a very early age affects the spatial, temporal reasoning that underlies math and engineering and even chess," the governor's statement said. Wow, I thought, all that from a CD? My soon-to-be Georgia peach would be smarter than her mom and dad combined.

We got our CD, but it turns out that in the world of baby smarts, as in life, there are no quick, easy, free solutions. Governor Miller, who based his initiative on an article in Time magazine, got it a wee bit wrong. In fact, the much-referenced study, which gave rise to the phrase "the Mozart Effect," showed that college-age students who listened to Mozart for 10 minutes did better on a spatial relations test a few minutes later. The Mozart Effect, such as it was, was specific, fleeting, and had nothing whatsoever to do with babies.

Nevertheless, the study managed to make believers of a whole generation of new parents who got sucked into buying all manner of pint-size instruments and musical toys and enrolling their 4-month-olds in music classes. The trend seemed to be a side effect of bad science reporting in the popular press over the last decade or so.

In addition to the myths about the Mozart Effect -- and the ensuing number of musical toys with grand claims about making babies smarter -- there was a lot of ink devoted to the importance of the first three years of life. Parents were sold on the "use it or lose it" theory -- the notion that unless certain areas of the brain (those that would turn Johnny into a brilliant mathematician, for instance) were stimulated in those crucial early months of life, the window of opportunity would snap shut, never to open again. Classical music was considered an important stimulus, so a parent who failed to play hours of the stuff for her infant was clearly irresponsible.

Well, all those parents out there can relax. "There is no scientific research on the effect listening to music has on a baby's intelligence," says Frances Rauscher, PhD, a psychologist with the University of Wisconsin and the lead researcher on the college-student study that launched all the brouhaha. Our Mozart Effect research was blown way out of proportion."

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David Laurino: Babbling
A baby may also begin what psychologists call 'jargon' or 'pseudo' conversations. Your baby will babble just as if talking in sentences–imitating an adult's speech pattern, facial expression and tone of voice. This conversational babble is another sure sign that your baby is getting ready to talk. Keep Talking!

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Help With English
Bloom's fear that Spanish would only serve to confuse her son's understanding of English is a common worry. However, DeBroff says the lessons learned in another language may help youngsters to grasp the first. "Parents may wonder whether learning a second language before your child has yet to fully master English will detract from his learning ability," she says. "To the contrary, learning the roots and structure of a second language typically enhances your child's English. As long as children hear these languages methodically and regularly, they can learn more than one simultaneously."

Learning a second language can help children grow and develop in cognitive, language and social development, DeBroff says. The more language learning there is, the more cognitive development there is. "The more languages a child is learning in the early years, the longer it will take him to speak, but once he starts speaking, he will speak in all the languages he knows," she says. "The receptive learning part of the language development process takes longer because the understanding process of two or more languages takes longer. Socially the child is enhanced, because he will be able to relate to people from different cultures. He will acquire more experience with different kinds of people – It is important to understand how truly beneficial it will be for their child to speak and understand easily and comfortably in more than one language."

"By 6 months, children in English-speaking households already have developed different auditory maps, shown by electrical measurements, that identify which neurons respond to different sounds, from those in Swedish-speaking homes," she says. "This is why learning a second language after, rather than with, the first is so difficult. The auditory map of the first language restricts the learning of a second language."

DeBroff says that while children engage in fun activities in a foreign language, such as singing, story telling or cooking projects, they naturally take in and start to use the new language comfortably and effortlessly. But this natural talent for learning language has a shelf life. As children approach puberty, neural connections develop, and the nature of language learning and storage changes becoming less flexible, DeBroff says.

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About Susan Henrichs: Memory for a Sense of Humor
Because your baby is starting to anticipate, she now notices when things don't happen as expected–voila, a sense of humor is born! Your baby may break into giggles if you put a mitten on the ear, or a cap on the foot. She anticipates the 'normal' way and laughs when things are thrown out of whack–something not possible when she wasn't able to anticipate.

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When it develops
Most children are able to grasp a crayon and shove it around on a piece of paper when they're about 12 or 13 months old. From then until sometime between their second and fifth birthdays, children will gradually get better and better at writing and drawing until they're able to put a few letters down on paper and, eventually, spell their own name.

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Memory For Anticipation
A baby's increased memory skills also lead to anticipation. For instance, when you put on your jacket, your baby probably knows it's time to go 'bye-bye'...open the refrigerator and your baby may expect to be fed. By about nine-months, babies begin to pick up and 'remember' these cues that lead to anticipation.

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Waving Bye-Bye
For the first time, baby may be able to follow a simple instruction such as 'Wave bye-bye,' 'Bring me the teddy bear,' 'Stop that' or 'Kiss me.' This shows that your baby has learned not only separate words and their meanings but can understand a whole idea expressed in words. This is an important milestone in language development, and it is a good sign that your baby will be talking before you know it.

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