Many parents will spend large portions of their paychecks on toys, gadgets, and special classes that will supposedly make their children smarter. The huge success of the ‘Baby Einstein’ tapes is a good example of this phenomenon.

However, a remarkable new policy paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences comes to a very different conclusion:

• What benefits those tiny brains the most is a nurturing set of parents spending lots of time bonding and playing with them.

“It’s all about playing with your child”, summarized Eric Knudsen, a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. “A child’s eventual ability to learn calculus or a second language starts with the neurons that are shaped by positive interactions with nurturing adults”

The paper expands on a key concept in child development: the first four years of a child’s life forever shape an adult’s ability to learn.