“What do we think of when we think of education?
The schools. Why don’t we instruct parents scientifically
about how to educate their children? The earlier we start stimulating
the brain the better. Why don’t we motivate and instruct parents,
grandparentsand others around the child? Can we conceive of any
programme more important."
Dr
Luis Machado, Minister for the Development of Human Intelligence in Venezuala
2 Sensory Pathways To create the learning
pathways vital to your child's future, he/she will need a rich diet of sensory
experiences . It is through these sensory experiences only you can provide that
brain growth is stimulated and nuerons (brain cells) establish more links with
each other. The alternative is that many cells die because they do not receive
the stimulus for growth.
There exist windows of opportunity when your child
is ready to develop in specific areas. It is at
these crucial times that sensory stimulation providedby the experiences you give
will have the greatest impact on his/her development. The windows of
opportunity for sight and motor skills close early in life.They are opportunities that
should not be missed because they will not come again.
Don't panic! Being a parent
can seem a daunting proposition especially when 'well-meaning' friends and family tell you
"it doesn't get any easier." A lot of what you do instinctively will help your baby grow and
develop and our children still develop regardless of our input, be it negative or positive.
Obviously we would want our influence to be a positive one.
Most of us when given a baby to hold
for the first time will ‘rock’ back and fro. This instinctive act on our part actually helps
the baby’s brain grow. It stimulates what is known as the vestibular system. Give your baby regular periodic vestibular stimulation like rocking and he/she will gain weight faster, develop
vision and hearing earlier and develop
distinct sleep cycles at a younger age. Would you like
me to repeat that last sentence! When you consider we only use
about 4% of our brains the more we can help our children atthis crucial period the
greater the future implications for learning and life.
Hearing Alert!
If your child appears unable to hear you properly it is probable he/she will develop speech problems. If
the problem is not identified early on it is likely he/she will not be able to speak
properly. This needn’t happen if he/she receives regular hearing tests.
One of the most common
conditions is known as ‘glue ear’ and if it is not treated can lead to a dramatic loss of hearing with
accompanying learning difficulties. If a child can speak fluently they will eventually
write fluently. The ability to speak fluently is therefore one of the most important gifts
you can give to a child. If you spoke three languages
in your house your infant would learn to speak them all. How long would it take us?
The ability to speak fluently is absolutely crucial to your
child’s future success. Start talking to your baby
from birth. Although he/she won’t be able to answer he/she will be able to hear. The
more speech he/she hears the better able he/she will be able to reproduce it later.
When you talk to your baby
look into his/her eyes. You may then find yourself ‘taking turns’ with baby – she waves
her arms, you talk; he waves his arms to get you to talk more and so on. Once
baby is taking turns to ‘talk’ turn it into a game. When baby makes a sound imitate it
in a singing voice and make more entertaining movements for the baby – shake your head,
throw your arms up, your baby will make more sounds to keep you play acting to
amuse him/her
We
are looking specifically at how your child develops in his/her first crucial
months.
This is the time when you
will assume the responsibility for your child’s development. We shall look at distinct periods of growth:
Birth to 1
½months
1 ½to3 ½months
3 ½to5
½months
These represent windows of opportunity for:
Language Development
Intellectual development
Social & Emotional Development
Motor Development
We shall also examine:
The distinct characteristics
of your baby during a specific period of growth;
What you can do to assist
that development.
The most important time of a
child’s development is before they start school.
So whether you intend to home-school
your child or not you are your child’s first and most important teacher.
