I am writing this article in honor of my confusion of what I'm supposed to do with my newborn child.
Even though I have a degree in Early Childhood and over 10 years experience working directly
in the early childhood field, now that I have my newborn baby in front of me,
all of the knowledge and experience I have seems to mysteriously flown out the window.
Being a new mom, I naturally started to go frantic with what I can do with this little bundle of joy,
who by the way, only seems to cry for no reason and use the bathroom.
Why, oh why, have I gone brain dead now?
Once I had a chance to calm down (and breath into a paper bag),
I began to look through some books from my college days (hopefully to jog my memory)
to give me a reference point of where to start from.
I started by looking at what I can begin to expect out of this beautiful child.
Once I found out what my child can do and what he will be able to do,
I then researched what I activities I could do to enhance his development.
The following are the skills that most newborns to 5 months are expected to do,
as well as, how to develop those skills:
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Age Group
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Can Do
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Activity
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Newborn
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•Taste, feel,
smell and hear
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•Gently caress the baby,
possibly using infant massage
•Always talk to the baby,
especially during routine care
(feeding, diapering, etc.)
|
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•Move arms and legs
|
•Give the baby plenty of
supervised floor time
so that you can continue to
encourage this activity
•Gently move the legs & arms
back and forth.
|
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•Cry when needed something
|
•Pay attention to the baby's cries
and learn what each type of cry means
so that you are better able
to met the baby's needs
(I have not yet mastered this skill)
|
|
•Begins to turn head
|
•Hold objects or toys about 8" to 12" away from
the baby and move them from side to side
and allow the baby to follow the object.
|
|
•Make eye contact
|
•Always try to make eye contact with baby
whenever talking to them.
The best times to do this are
when you are feeding and diapering
|
|
•Look at simple pictures
|
•Always have picture books
available for the baby to look at
and describe to the baby
what they are looking at.
|
|
Five Months
|
•Lift head
|
•If possible, keep picture
at the child's eye level
(diapering, station, backs of low shelves, etc.)
•Give plenty of supervised belly time
and dangle objects a little off the floor
so the baby will have to
lift their head to look up at.
|
•Follow objects from side to side,
Reach for toys,
Bat or hits things.
|
•While the baby is on their back
slowly move an object back and
forth across their line of vision
•Give the baby an opportunity to
reach for the object, as well as,
allow them to hit or bat at the toy
|
•Support head and chest with arms
when on stomach.
Reach out when on stomach.
|
•Again, give the baby plenty of
supervised belly time
•Play games by placing objects
away from the baby so that
they will have to reach for the toy
|
|
•Bounce when in a standing position
|
•Either hold the child while they are
standing or give them a sturdy surface
to hold themselves up on (Infant Pull-Up)
|
|
Helpful Hint of the Month...
The Infant Pull Up Storage (WD40400)
is a great product to use in the infant room
to protect the non-mobile infants from the mobile infants.
Just place two Infant Pull Up Storage shelves
in an "L" shape and place the needed material
for the non-mobile infants within the sectioned off area.
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Shown above:
WD40400 Infant Pull Up Storage
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Check us out in this article on the web...
The Ultimate Early Ed Blueprint
Creating an ideal early childhood education space in your school district is a no-brainer,
once you understand how to see and think like a tot.
By Julie Sturgeon, DistrictAdministration.com, May 2004
http://www.districtadministration.com/page.cfm?p=734
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Teacher Resources: Helpful Hints Archive
Our past Helpful Hints articles, organized & archived
for your convenience in setting-up your own classroom.
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Enhance interest areas by providing enough shelving & storage bins
for the amount of materials provided in the classroom.
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