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The arrival of your baby is filled with vast emotions: excitement, wonder and even anxiety or fear. This new little person for whom you now have full responsibility can even leave you feeling a little intimidated.
Every parent wants his child to reach her greatest potential. But you may feel like you don’t know even where to begin or how you can be part of helping them reach that potential.
At first, your new baby may seem unable to do much. But that could not be further from the truth. Your baby is born with the full ability to hear, smell, touch and taste. In the first year your baby will go from being immobile to rolling over, sitting, crawling, standing and in some cases walking.
Your newborn baby’s brain is only 25 percent developed, but by the time your child reaches 3 years old, more than 90 percent of his brain development will be complete.
You will be dazzled nearly every day when you witness a new facial expression, sound or movement that your amazing baby makes. So, while infants are very capable little human beings there are many ways in which you can support and encourage their growth and development.
One of the greatest achievements in the first year is the creation of the bond and trust that forms between you and your baby. This trust is created when you, and others who care for your baby, are prompt, nurturing and responsive to the baby’s needs. Whether it is meeting the basic needs, such as a diaper change or a bottle feeding, when you respond in a timely manner to your crying and hungry baby, the important message that your baby receives is that I am loved and cared for and I can depend on the people around me to take care of me. When a baby’s basic needs are attended to in this way it allows the baby to focus his attention on exploring and developing. The infant will feel secure enough to begin to interact and explore the world around him.
Play during the first year, and even beyond, revolves around exploration and meaningful experiences, which means it is important that you are a part of your baby’s play. It could be as simple as cooing back and forth with baby, a game of peek-a-boo, singing to your baby, or holding a rattle for baby to swat at and reach for.
You will soon find that the most fun and beneficial playtimes involve you and baby interacting and will include very simple toys, if any. A baby’s favorite toy is you.
Baby can often spend several minutes exploring a set of measuring cups, for example, by stacking and nesting them, teething on them, banging them and dropping them. The benefits are endless when the child can enjoy play of this kind. The saying is often true that the child may have more fun with the box the toy came in than the actual toy itself. Usually the toy that has the most “claims” to turn your baby into an instant super genius goes back to another old saying, “if it’s too good to be true it probably is.”
Lanissa Maggert is the Infant/Toddler Specialist with Early Childhood Alliance, the child care resource and referral agency for northeast Indiana. Lanissa provides enhanced services for parents and caregivers of infantes and toddlers through Indiana’s Better Baby Care Initiative. Contact:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or (260) 745-2501, Ext. 2484.
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