What's happening in a child's brain?

Most of what we know about early childhood development comes from studying children and asking: what's happening in a child's brain?

In the latest episode of Birth of a Parent, developmental neuroscientist Professor Victoria Leong who leads the Baby-LINC Lab asks a different question: 'What happens between two brains?'

Prof Vicky's pioneering research was among the first to demonstrate measurable brain-to-brain synchrony between babies and their caregivers. Her work suggests that development may not happen in isolation. It emerges through relationships.

A smile. Eye contact. A shared laugh. The same nursery rhyme repeated for the hundredth time. These seemingly ordinary moments may be doing more than helping a baby learn. They may be shaping parents too.

For decades, research on children and research on parents largely travelled on parallel tracks. Prof Vicky's work invites us to think differently. If children develop through connection, perhaps understanding early development requires us to pay closer attention to what is happening in parents as well.

An insight from this conversation is Prof Vicky's suggestion that parenthood may help adults rediscover from children something many of us lose along the way: the joy of play, and its central role in how we grow and learn.

Click here to listen to the latest episode of Birth of a Parent.