In two years a baby learns a complex language, just by being exposed to it. If it hears two languages, it learns them both. If three are spoken, it learns all three. One man taught his small children five languages all at once​—Japanese, Italian, German, French, and English. A woman exposed her daughter to several languages, and by the time the child was five, she could speak eight languages fluently. Learning languages usually comes hard for adults, but with babies it just comes naturally.

Language is only one example of abilities genetically programmed into baby brains. Musical and artistic abilities, muscular coordination, the need for meaning and purpose, conscience and moral values, altruism and love, faith and the urge to worship​—all depend on specialized systems in the brain. (See Acts 17:27.) In other words, genetically established networks of neurons are specially preprogrammed to be receptive to the development of these and other abilities and potentials.

Understand, however, that at birth these are only potentials, capacities, predispositions. There must be input to make them flower. They must be exposed to the appropriate experiences or environments or studies to become realities. And there is also a correct timetable for such exposures to be most effective, especially in the case of infants.

The Push for Genius

“The world could be full of intellectual giants like Einstein, Shakespeare, Beethoven and Leonardo da Vinci if we taught babies instead of children.”​—Dr. Glenn Doman, director of The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential.

“No child is thus born a genius, and none is born a fool. All depends on the stimulation of the brain cells during the crucial years. These years are the years from birth to three. Kindergarten is too late.”​—Masaru Ibuka, author of the book Kindergarten Is Too Late!

THE awesome potential of baby brains presents a decision for parents. When do you start special training? What do you teach them? How much? How fast? Some results have been spectacular: small children two to five years of age reading, writing, speaking two or more languages, playing classical music on violin and piano, riding horses, swimming, doing gymnastics.

In most instances the target is the mental rather than the physical. One two-year-old counts to 100, adds accurately, has a vocabulary of 2,000 words, reads 5-word sentences, and has developed perfect pitch. A three-year-old names parts of the cell as they are pointed out to him on a chart: mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi bodies, centrioles, vacuoles, chromosomes, and so on. Another three-year-old plays the violin. A four-year-old translates Japanese and French into English. One instructor who teaches mathematics to small children claims: “If I dropped 59 pennies on the floor, our kids could tell you right away that there were 59 and not 58.”