The key to forming strong brain architecture is what’s known as “serve and return” interaction with adults. In this developmental game, new neural connections form in the brain as young children instinctively serve through babbling, facial expressions, and gestures, and adults return the serve, responding in a very directed, meaningful way. It starts very early in life when a baby coos and the adult interacts and directs the baby’s attention to a face or hand. This interaction forms the foundation of brain architecture upon which all future development will be built. It helps create neural connections between all the different areas of the brain building the emotional and cognitive skills children need in life. For example, here’s how it works for literacy and language skills. When the baby sees an object, the adult says its name. This makes connections in the baby’s brain between particular sounds and their corresponding objects. Later, adults show young children that those objects and sounds can also be represented by marks on a page. With continued support from adults, children then learn how to decipher writing and, eventually, to write themselves. Each stage builds on what g came before. Ensuring that children have adult caregivers who consistently engage in serve and return interaction, beginning in infancy, builds the foundation in the brain for all learning, behavior, and health that follow.