How to Encourage Development in Infants
A baby is like an absorbent sponge. Surround the baby with developmentally interesting objects, sounds, toys and people and she'll just soak it up. While encouraging development may seem unnecessary given the investigative nature of infants and the ease with which infants grow and learn, there are nonetheless easy and cheap ways to aid your infant's development.
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Things You'll Need
- Used water bottle Duct tape Sand, gravel or small pebbles Black electrician's tape Wire hanger Stiff, white paper Music Together CD
Instructions
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Listen to developmentally appropriate music. Simple melodies and harmonies, basic rhythms, atonal chants and slightly off-beat rhythms will help your child's brain develop. Music Together has a wonderful program that starts at the infant stage that enables your child's musicality, and thus his brain function (see Resources below). Remember that music and math are closely aligned functions in the brain. Early learning of music is often a precursor to strong math skills.
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Cut three disks of stiff white paper. Stripe them with black electrician's tape and hang them from a wire hanger to make a simple mobile that you can hang above the changing station or crib. Infants' eyes focus more easily on black and white than on color at this age, so a simple stripe of black and white is terrifically engaging and helps a child's optical development.
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Take a used water bottle and fill it with sand, pebbles or gravel. Use duct tape to securely affix the cap. This is critical as babies feel with their mouths; a loose cap is a strangulation hazard, so make sure the duct tape is strongly secured on the cap. The shaker you've created is simple, cheap and interesting aurally to a baby. This can help aid not only her hearing, but also help with toning her neck muscles as she turns to look at the interesting sound, and her fine motor development as she attempts to reach the shaker.
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Cut a large disk and stripe it with black electrician's tape. Hold it above your baby while he is lying on his back and pass it from right to left, crossing the midline of the body. At first, he may see it from one side and lose it when it crosses the midline, but once he begins to track it across the midline, you're helping the left and right brain connect with one another and strengthening the corpus callosum that is the bridge between the two halves of the brain.
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