When parents come to a Baby Sensory class, they discover a myriad of ways in which they can interact and have fun with their babies. They also gain a much deeper understanding of how their babies learn and develop.
Babies are remarkably clever and everything that they see, touch, hear, taste or smell increases the number of connections between the brain cells. By the end of the first year, the baby’s brain has doubled in volume as result of the learning experiences provided to them.
Baby Sensory introduces a wealth of things that parents can do to enrich their baby’s development. Although it is impossible to list them all, here are a few essentials that really do make a difference!
Hide and seek games: Time honoured games such as ‘Peek-a-boo’reinforce the idea that surprises can be fun. What a wonderful way to stimulate smiles and giggles! Hide and seek games stimulate curiosity and teach babies that objects disappear and reappear again. Research shows that having fun with babies improves confidence and socialisation skills. It also gives them a far greater chance of growing up to be optimistic and motivated adults.
Signing:There is no better way to understand what your baby wants than to ‘talk’ through signing. Signing involves the use of voice, facial expressions and large gestures which babies love. Signing reduces stress and frustration, which makes for a happier, calmer baby and parent. This makes signing a very worthwhile activity!
Exercise and dance: Movement activities are very important to relieve tension on the joints and muscles during growth spurts. Exercise also builds new brain cells, which drives learning forwards. This is incredible since it was previously thought that brain cell development was complete before birth. Everyone enjoys the exhilarating interactions which also develop the parent-baby bond and make for a healthier, happier baby. At an age when the brain is developing more than it will ever again in life, exercise is definitely to be encouraged.
Creative Play: Introducing simple ideas to extend play using inexpensive, easy to obtain or make objects and natural materials. Babies delight in exploring the different properties of a natural object, which increases hand-eye coordination and drives learning forwards at a rapid pace. Parents find the ideas invaluable in extending play at home.
Visual Activities:At birth, sight is the least developed sense. The ability to see objects and colours clearly depends on the development of the visual cortex, the maturity of the retina, coordination of the eye muscles and focusing ability. Until these complex systems have matured, images, shapes and colours will appear blurry. By eight months of age, the ability to see clearly has nearly reached normal adult levels. This rapid pace of development is highly dependent on the amount of visual stimulation that the baby receives.
For details of Baby Sensory classes in Eastern Suburbs, please contact Gemma on 0423 919 416 or via Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/northernbeachesbabysensory/
