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Help your baby learn: 5 things that you can do today to stimulate and teach your baby…
1). Hold your baby to calm them. Did you know that your touch is a soothing as Tylenol? A caregiver’s touch has the same affect on a baby as a dose of Tylenol. So the next time that your baby isn’t feeling good, a good cuddle with you might be just the thing that he/she needs.
2). Touching a variety of things. Letting your baby lay on different textured fabrics is great for a baby when they are learning. Let your baby lay on and hold different things. I like to touch our baby with silk, feathers, tissues, wool, terrycloth, even harder plastic toys. I talk about the way that it feels and if it feels good or if we don’t like the way that it feels.
3) Read to your baby! It is proven that even babies as young as eight months can recognize words in a story if it is read twice in a row. This will help your child learn their language and learn to appreciate books, not to mention the bond built between the two of you.
4). Sign with your baby. Sign language is a great way to teach new words. Did you know that babies that learn sign language actually talk sooner than babies that don’t? Signing can be very easy! I always start out with More, Mine, Drink and Eat. You can find these & more by just doing a simple Google search for Baby Signs.
5). Hold up patterned pictures in black & white. A newborn baby’s eyes don’t focus well yet, so everything looks a little blurry to your baby. A solid-colored items will not hold their interest long, but black and white patterned things hold their interest twice as long. The patterns get their visual attention. Our babies’ eyes are drawn to contrasts (black & white, or patterns such a stripes & polka dots). They can only see 8-10 inches in front of their face, as well, so get close to that sweet baby! Here is a free set of flash-cards that I found online that are black & white. This would be great for a 10 minute activity for your baby. GET FLASHCARDS.
TIP: If you noticed, I do every activity in 10-20 minute increments. I follow the “EASY” schedule and have for every baby (Thanks to The Baby Whisperer).
E- EAT
A- Activity (starts out at only about 10-20 minutes, but gets longer as they get older). This could be a diaper change & a song, or one of the activities provided above. I used this time to stimulate my baby.
S- sleep (I put our kids to bed to sleep, in their cribs, for this nap).
Y- You time. This is because your child is on a schedule and is sleeping, so you will have about 1 hour (more as they get older) of You time here.
Follow Your Modern Family…
Did you miss Day # 1 of “ways to stimulate your newborn?” See it here:
And if you need some ideas, here’s a post that might help you!
