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Title: Things You Can Do To Help Your Baby Develop
Author: Ruth Thomas
Article:
Babies and young children need a great deal of stimulation for
them to learn and grow in their development. In this article I
am going to cover the developmental stages in brief of a 0-1
year old baby and the things that you can do to help them
develop.
In your baby's first week of life they are able to focus on an
object a short distance from their face and respond to bright
colours. Babies of this age can only see things in a sort of a
two dimensional way. Your baby may be able to attempt to grasp
an object but they will not be able to hold on to it. Your baby
will also be able to blink when an object moves quite close to
them at a fast pace. To help your baby develop in these areas
you need to give your baby plenty of things to look at that are
within reaching distance. Babies of all ages enjoy looking at
brightly coloured or shiny objects. They also enjoy looking at
different textures and feeling them. You could draw a big smiley
face on a paper plate and decorate it with lots of bright
colours or you could collect tin foil, brightly coloured
textured wall paper or wrapping paper. When you show these
objects to your baby make sure you allow your baby enough time
to look at them. Babies are much slower to respond than adults
are.
Babies are born with a set of reflexes which over a period of
time disappear. There's the sucking reflex and rooting reflex
both important for the baby to find the mother's nipple and to
suck milk. Another reflex that helps the baby to feed is when
milk touches the baby's tongue, the baby will automatically
swallow. The rooting reflex usually disappears within the first
two weeks. Other reflexes are:
§ The Moro reflex, an instinctive reaction to the feeling of
being dropped. The baby's arms and legs fly outwards as if to
catch themselves. This reflex tends to last for about 3 to 4
months of the baby's life and then disappears. § Stepping reflex
- when the baby's feet touch a hard surface the baby will make a
stepping movement. § Walking reflex - if you hold your baby
upright and place their feet on a hard surface then they will
display a walking movement by placing one foot in front of the
other. This reflex goes away at around 5 to 6 weeks. § Crawling
reflex - if you turn your baby onto their tummy your baby will
bring up their legs and make crawling movements.
By the time your baby is three months old they should be able to
see the things around them much more clearly and reach for those
objects, grasping them in a firm grip. Your baby at this age
will have much better body movement then when they were newborn.
They should be able to move around in their cot much more easily
and have better neck control. To help with this you could place
different toys of varying colours and textures down the side of
the mattress of their cot. This will create a beneficial
learning experience for them and will encourage them to move
around more meaning that they can reach the next stage in their
physical development. You could also buy or create mobiles to
hang above their cot. To create a mobile you would need: § One
plastic coat hanger wrapped in tinsel, fabric or tin foil § Two
or three yoghurt pots decorated with whatever you wish (must be
child safe) § Decorated cardboard cut outs of anything you like,
animals, stars, moon, rockets, spaceships, planets, aliens,
angels, teddy bears, etc. § Bottle tops or buttons threaded
together with string, wool or cotton thread § Multi coloured
feathers (can be bought in art stores. Don't use feathers that
you find outside due to a high risk of germs). Stick these on
some cardboard. § Balloons with a smiley face, a sad face and an
angry face on them. § Ribbons tied to the mobile § Silver foil
either crumpled or un-crumpled for different textures § Fabrics
of different textures, gummed paper, glitter, sequins and
coloured shiny foil squares can also be used. All or some of
these items can then be firmly attached to the coat hanger with
either string, wool or cotton thread. The first two, string and
wool, are probably better because they are less likely to snap
than the cotton thread when tugged. Once you have done this
place the mobile within your baby's reach so that your baby is
able to look at and examine the items on the mobile. To keep
your baby's interest make sure you change the items on the
mobile regularly to keep it fresh. At the age of three months
your baby's language skills should have improved greatly
compared to when your baby was a week old. You will find your
baby gurgling away to themselves for a few minutes and will stop
to listen when they hear a noise. You could help your baby to
develop their language skills by singing to them or you could
buy a CD with children's nursery songs and play this to them. It
would help if you sing along and maybe do the actions to the
song if you know them as this will not only help your baby's
language skills, but will also help their physical development.
The other thing that you can do to help is simply talk to them,
using lots of happy facial expressions. When you talk to them
use pauses and changes in tone of voice as you would in a normal
conversation, this way your baby will come to learn and
understand the right way to communicate with you and others.
Your baby at six months should now be able to sit up without any
help from you. If you place them on their tummy they should
start to make crawling movements enthusiastically. To encourage
your child to crawl you could do several things: § While your
child is on their tummy on the floor place your child's
favourite toy or a bright object just out of your child's reach.
Do not place it too far away as your child may not attempt to
reach for it. § Place your child on the floor on their tummy
regularly everyday. § Talk to your baby when they are sitting
securely and steadily upright. As you talk to them move to the
left or to the right of them and walk further away. This will
encourage your baby to turn their head and look towards you as
you talk and will also help to strengthen their neck and back
muscles.
Your baby at this age will attempt to feed themselves and will
grab the spoon whilst you feed them. To encourage your child to
feed themselves further you could place easy finger foods into
their bowl for example: peas, sliced carrots, etc. At six months
your baby has stopped randomly babbling but instead will babble
every time you talk to them. Your baby can now make distinct
sounds such as: ka, v, f, da and ma. To help stimulate your
baby's language skills at this age you could: § Chat to them
about their surroundings every time you take them out in the
buggy. Be descriptive when you talk to them, for example, "look
at that big yellow digger! He's digging up the road", or "ah
there's a lovely brown doggy, isn't he cute? He's got floppy
ears!" § Sit down with your baby facing you on your knees and
sing nursery rhymes to them. Your baby will enjoy listening to
you and watching your facial expressions. § Repeat words over
and over again to your baby when they are looking at you, like
dada, mama, etc.
At nine months your baby should be able to turn around whilst
they are crawling and will display a stepping movement when held
upright. To help them to learn to stand and walk, you can place
your hands under their armpits and hold them upright with their
feet on the floor. You can also hold your baby upright and place
your baby's hands onto a stable object such as a chair. This
will help them to become more independent at standing on their
own. If you do this ensure that you are close to them just in
case they fall. These exercises should be done twice a day in
order to strengthen their leg muscles which are needed for
walking. Don't forget encouragement and plenty of practice is
needed for your baby to develop in this area. Your baby should
be able to say their first word at this age and will be able to
follow simple instructions i.e. "come here". They should also be
able to imitate any animal sounds that you make for example moo,
woof woof or meow. To help your baby develop their language
skills further you could watch a children's video or children's
TV with them. Talk about the things that are happening in the
video or on the TV, for example, "what's Bob The Builder doing?
Oh no look he's about to fall off that ladder! Oops, CRASH!"
"Silly Bob The Builder!" This commentary from you will help keep
your baby interested and will help your baby's language skills.
You could also look at picture books or picture cards with your
baby and talk about everything that you see on the page.
Remember to point to the part of the picture you are talking
about so that your baby will associate the word with the
picture, for example, "look there's a lion". Repeat the word
'lion' as you point to the picture of the lion. At the age of
nine months your baby's hand and eye co-ordination should have
improved immensely. Your baby should now be able to build a two
brick tower and use a pincer like grasp when eating finger
foods. To help your baby improve in these skills you could
provide them with stacking toys, small objects ( make sure you
supervise them with the small objects just in case they put them
in their mouth and choke), building blocks, painting and
drawing. These activities will all help to stimulate your
child's hand and eye co-ordination.
Your baby at the age of twelve months may by now be showing the
first signs of walking independently and will walk if you hold
their hands or when they are pushing a toy. Try to provide them
with plenty of opportunities for practicing their walking skills
whilst making it fun for them. This will enable them to move
onto the next stage of their development, walking completely
independently without any assistance. Your baby's language
skills have also moved on since they were nine months. They
should now be able to say about four words. Dada is usually the
first word they will say clearly followed by simple words such
as dog or cat. To help promote your baby's language skills you
could read them a bedtime story or give them basic instructions
for them to follow. If they understand the instruction that you
have given and they follow it then give them lots of praise and
love. If they haven't understood the instruction then repeat it
again. If they still don't understand then try another
instruction but don't pressure them, they will understand in
time. Your baby can now place simple shapes accurately into a
shape sorter and can make a mark on a piece of paper with a
crayon. You can help promote your baby's hand and eye
co-ordination by playing lots of hand games with them, i.e. Clap
Clap Your Hands, Incy Wincy Spider or the Wheels On The Bus. You
could also collect various textures such as cornflour mixed with
water, oats, pasta, custard, rice, flour, shredded wheat or sand
and put these in different bowls or trays and let your baby feel
all these different textures. This is a fun if not somewhat
messy way of stimulating your child's hand and eye
co-ordination, not to mention their movement skills, for example
their pincer grasp as well as all their senses i.e. touch (the
feel of the different textures), sound (the crunch of the
pasta), smell (the aroma of the different food), and sight (your
baby's ability to see what their other senses are telling them).
In conclusion you will find that your baby will do a lot of
growing, changing and developing in their first year of life and
there are many other things that you can do to help them. There
are many places that you can find this help besides this article
for example your local library will have many books on the
subject of parenting or websites on the internet as well as your
health visitor and GP. The stages of development for a baby
between the ages of 0-1 years written here in this article are a
guideline only and have only been covered in brief. Some
children may develop faster than others so do not be alarmed if
your baby hasn't reached a developmental stage written here. It
is a well known fact that boys develop later than girls and this
tends to carry on throughout all their stages of development
until adult hood. Even then young men tend to be less mature
than the young ladies of their age. If you are concerned about
your baby's development then contact your health visitor or GP
and they will be able to deal with any concerns that you may
have. Good luck and may you have many happy years with your
child or children!
About the author:
Ruth Thomas is the owner of Kidzone-toyz.com, where you can find
parenting advice, children's toys and games. She has two
step-children, 10 and 12. She has gained experience with
children through working in a nursery, after school club, church
crèche and Sunday school for a number of years. She has gained a
qualification in childcare in which she received an A*. You can
visit her website at www.kidzone-toyz.com for more parenting
advice.
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