Serve & Return Interactions Shape Brain Architecture

Did you know back-and-forth interactions (also known as serve and return) shape brain architecture, build a child’s vocabulary, cultivate respectful communication, and help children feel more secure?

Serve and return experiences are when we are sensitive and responsive to the child’s signals and needs. In infants, this looks like making eye contact, responding, or cuddling with them when they babble, gesture, or cry. Talk to your baby throughout the day and pause to let them respond, even if they are too young to actually respond.

Serve and return

In toddlers and young children, serve and return interactions keep the conversations going back and forth. Try asking a lot of open-ended questions, taking turns, and narrating throughout the day.

Examples: Why is bunny so hungry? How can this car get around the table? Why do you think is this flower smaller? I wonder why…

Practicing

With practice, serve and return interactions can become second nature.

A Harvard study found the absence of these responsive experiences act as a “double whammy”: the brain does not receive the healthy stimulation it needs and the brain is flooded with (potentially harmful) stress hormones.