Faq

SmartBabies a specialty app that teaches new parents how to nurture their babies’ intellectual development based on the world’s most renowned psychologist, Jean Piaget. Dr. Jacob, the author of the app’s educational program, has the unique honor of having studied under Piaget. Since the 1990s, his books have helped tens of thousands of new parents nurture the intellectual development of their children.

The core product is a social education mobile application-based platform that focuses on cognitive development in the first two years of life. Ancillary products include proprietary educational and parenting books and booklets upon which the mobile app is based.

The company’s products and services are based on professor S. H. Jacob’s lifetime work in cognitive development. Among his many accomplishments, Professor Jacob studied under the direction of Jean Piaget, the world-renowned authority in children’s cognitive development. Dr. Jacob’s books include Foundations for Piagetian Education, Yours Baby’s Mind: How to Make the Most of the Critical First Two Years, and Your Inventive Baby.

These products offer parents unique tools to optimize their babies’ natural, spontaneous mental abilities during this critical period, with emphasis on the development of logical know-how – inventing, problem solving, creativity, and imagination – the antidote for meaningless rote learning and empty verbalisms.

Our ultimate vision is to change the world’s educational system.  We want to transform the goals of education so that we can create people who problem-solvers, not memorizers — explorers, not mindless followers — inventors, not copiers.  To quote Jean Piaget: “The principal goal of education…should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not repeating what other generations have done.”

We are dedicated to the development of independent thinking in young children so that they grow to become inventors, creators, and problem-solvers. We believe that action is the mother of intelligence hence, we provide parents the tools to optimize their babies’ natural, spontaneous cognitive abilities during the critical first years of life through meaningful, stage-appropriate interactive play that requires inventing ways of knowing.

The primary means of achieving its goal through a social education mobile application, that focuses on cognitive development. The platform is designed to educate parents on the importance of the first 24 months of life and to teach them how to nurture their infants’ and toddlers’ intellectual development, particularly the development of their independent thinking skills.

In addition, a digital copy of a companion guidebook entitled Your Baby’s Brain, Intellect, and You by Dr. Jacob is offered free of charge to all our clients.

Here are a few suggestions:
First, learn as much as you can about the philosophy, known as constructivism, used to create this app. The core idea is that young children learn best by doing, by constructing knowledge, not by memorizing. You can read about this idea in Your Baby’s Brain, Intellect, and You by Dr. S. H. Jacob.
Second, if your child just turned 2, you might want to carry out the activities suggested for the last Stage of cognition (18 months to 24 months) in this app or in Dr. Jacob’s book.
Third, adopt this framework in educating your child throughout life, but especially in the years leading to elementary school.
Finally, if you are thinking about enrolling your child in preschool, find one that subscribes to the “hands-on” philosophy of learning. Preschools that use Montessori methods are more likely to use this philosophy than others.

Our app teaches how their child develops intellectually. It uses brief animated videos to illustrate how to play with their child. Using animated videos, the app illustrates exactly how parents can play with their baby to enhance problem solving, discovery and invention. Accompanying explanations of each activity enable parents to create more similar activities to use with their babies.

Science-based baby enrichment programs that focus on thinking –creative problem-solving, discovery and invention — are practically nonexistent. There are no baby programs that focus on enabling babies to THINK. Baby cognitive development programs equate language learning with intelligence. The emphasis is on “sing, talk, and read to baby.”
While most mobile apps in this space cover all the developmental domains – physical, social, emotional, linguistic, and cognitive, SmartBabies focuses exclusively on cognitive development. App developers have built their apps upon strong mobile use cases like “never miss a moment” (baby diaries), “peace of mind” (information and guidance) or “quantified self” (child development trackers). SmartBabies does none of that. This type of app may be confusing, bewildering, even frustrating to parents. They offer literally hundreds of activities. We believe in that in this case, less is more.

The answer is an emphatic “yes.”

First, SmartBabies is based on the most comprehensive, the most widely accepted theory in intellectual development to date, that of the world-renowned developmental authority, Jean Piaget. Piaget’s theory has been the leading theory for over 50 years. His work has been confirmed and acknowledged in academic publications throughout the world.

Second, SmartBabies is supported by psychological, educational, and neuroscientific data. This claim is confirmed by the research findings outlined in the companion guidebook to the app authored by Dr. Jacob entitled Your Baby’s Brain, Intellect, and You.
Psychological research. The activities are based on the celebrated Piaget’s sensorimotor stage, with its six stages of intellectual development in the first two years of life.
There is a great deal of evidence that meaningful intervention in the first two years results in dramatic, positive outcomes that last well into adolescence. The science clearly shows that early intervention also shows uniformly positive effect on school success. Gains in IQ resulting from intervention in kindergarten fade rapidly upon entering elementary school, but gains realized in the first year of life persist well into adolescence!
For over fifty years, we have had evidence suggesting that early experiences impact later cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioral functioning. Of particular interest to us here, is a specific type of experience that incorporates all these domains into one activity, namely, play. Recently, Brenna Hassinger-Das, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff reviewed the current literature on how play impact a baby’s overall development. Here’s what they conclude: “A growing body of behavioral research establishes relationships between children’s play and development in several areas, including language (Toub et al. 2016), executive functions (Tominey & McClelland 2011), mathematics and spatial skills (Fisher et al. 2013), scientific thinking (Schulz & Bonawitz 2007), and social and emotional development (Dore, Smith, & Lillard 2015).
Neuroscience. Research shows that early intervention impacts the brain in profound ways. Scientists were able to show that children who don’t play much, or who are rarely touched, develop brains that are twenty to thirty percent smaller than normal for their age! Clearly, sterile environments result in brain deficits that affect intellectual development. Very young children who are neglected or abused bear scars that are difficult if not all domains of development – physical, intellectual, social, and emotional. To sum it all up, poor early experiences produce poor brains; conversely, rich early experiences produce rich and inquisitive brains.
Psycho-educational research. The writer of the app’s content, Dr. Jacob, has the distinct honor of having studied with the Piaget cadre. His books have helped tens of thousands of new parents nurture their children’s intellect. This app cuts out the clutter of other apps in this space in that it does only one thing…teaches parents about the cognitive development of their children and what to do about it nurturing it. There aren’t any apps that present a single, coherent theoretical rationale that ties all the activities together under one psychological framework.

Yes.  The intellectual property is proprietary to – and is licensed exclusively to — SmartBabies?

Yes. While many of the items we suggest for the activities you engage with your child can be found in your own home, you will need to purchase some toys that are suggest by us.

Yes. The SmartBabies platform encourages its clients to use the community-based platform to upload short video clips to share with its community.

Our mobile app provides:

1. A comprehensive cognitive enhancement program for the first 24 months of life.
   • With an introduction to the most widely accepted theory of cognitive development in the world.
   • With120 animated videos of stage-appropriate activities across 6 stages of cognition designed to show parents exactly how they can play with their baby.
   • Each stage consists of:
     • Introduction to each of the 6 stages.
     • Here’s What You Can Expect
     • Enrichment Objectives
     • Why Is This Important?
     • Safety CHECK!
     • All video animations of activities of that stage with explanation of the importance of each activity.
     • Conclusion
2. Free companion e-book, Your Baby’s Brain, Intellect, & You
3. A community portal for parents to upload video clips of their baby performing cognitive activities to share with our community.

First, SmartBabies is a specialty app, it only does one thing, baby cognitive development!
While most mobile apps in this space cover all the developmental domains – physical, social, emotional, linguistic, and cognitive, SmartBabies focuses exclusively on cognitive development. App developers have built their apps upon strong mobile use cases like “never miss a moment” (baby diaries), “peace of mind” (information and guidance) or “quantified self” (child development trackers). SmartBabies does none of that. This type of app may be confusing, bewildering, even frustrating to parents. They offer literally hundreds of activities. We believe in that in this case, less is more.

Second, SmartBabies provides the most comprehensive, the most widely accepted theory in intellectual development to date, that of the world-renowned developmental authority, Jean Piaget.

Third, the activities are based on the celebrated Piaget’s sensorimotor stage, with its six stages of intellectual development in the first two years of life. Parents can follow the incremental stages of their children’s cognitive development.
Fourth, SmartBabies is supported by an-easy-read guidebook entitled Your Baby’s Brain, Intellect and You by Dr. Jacob.

Fifth, SmartBabies is supported by psychological, educational, and neuroscientific date. This claim is confirmed by the research findings outlined in the companion guidebook to the app.

Sixth, the app is global in nature. Cognitive development in the first two years is universal, it transcends cultural as well as language influences of the child. Therefore, with little or no modification, our app can be translated to any language. The market for our app is potentially limitless. All that needs to be done to keep up with the trends is to adapt the app presentation to the parents of different cultures.

Yes, there are in-app e-books and e-booklets that our clients can purchase.  A companion book entitled Your Baby’s Brain, Intellect, and You is offered free of charge with subscription to the app.

Over half a century of developmental theory, psychology, neuroscience, and educational technology.  Our philosophy, psychology and developmental activities are:

• based on the most comprehensive theory of – and evidence on – cognitive development, that of Jean Piaget;
• supported by evidence from neuroscience;
• consistent with the most highly regarded educational practice in early education, active learning.

Absolutely.  We use top of the line antivirus protection, a firewall, and Paypal, which is one of the safest, most popular payment platforms on the Internet.