Jump leap fly flipping book

How to encourage your baby to move from one developmental stage to the next while having a blast!

Lourdes Bruwer

Carly Tzanos

Illustrated by Claudine Spratley

4

CONTENTS PREFACE

5

INTRODUCTION

6 SLEEPERS: FROM BIRTH TO BOBBING HEADS

ROLLERS: FROM BOBBING HEADS TO STARTING TO ROLL OVER CREEPERS: ROLLING OVER TO CREEPING/LEOPARD CRAWLING MOVERS: CREEPING TO CRAWLING GROOVERS: CRAWLING TO TAKING STEPS TRAVELLERS: TAKING STEPS TO RUNNING ADVENTURERS: RUNNING, JUMPING & LEAPING

13 22 44 65 89 115 143

LAST THOUGHTS

170

APPENDIX A – Recipes

171

APPENDIX B – Songs & Rhymes APPENDIX C – Babywearing APPENDIX D – Breastfeeding

174 181 184

APPENDIX E – Sensory Personality and Temperament REFERENCES

190 195

THANKS

199

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

200

GROOVY ADVENTURERS

6

INTRODUCTION “There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one.” – Jill Churchill

The key to a fantastic relationship with your precious child is setting aside regular time to give him your focused attention and being his biggest fan. Hidden between these pages you will find the ingredients to encourage your little treasure to discover his full potential while having a blast!

This book contains many activities that should be loads of fun; they are all designed to be beneficial for your child’s body development and/or brain development. We firmly believe in each child’s individual developmental rate and we have therefore divided this book into stages rather than ages. Although there are specific age norms at which milestones are expected to be achieved, the rate of maturation varies from one individual to the next. The range is therefore large to accommodate early and late developers who are ALL NORMAL! We hope that this will take your focus off worrying about the milestones achieved by certain ages and place it on encouraging and supporting your child to build his skills in a helpful sequence of development.

You will be introduced to sleepers (from birth to bobbing heads), rollers (from bobbing heads to rolling over), creepers (rolling over to creeping/leopard crawling), movers (creeping to crawling), groovers (crawling to taking steps), travellers (taking steps to running) and adventurers (running, Body Building: informajumping and leaping). Each stage will have a section on tion and activities related to Body Building and one on Brain Boosting. Body Building gross motor, fine motor and includes information and activities related to gross motor, sensory development fine motor and sensory development. Brain Boosting will have information and activities related to perceptual, speech, cognitive and emotional development. Some activities have elements of both Body Building and Brain Boosting, and may thus be repeated in both sections.

GROOVY ADVENTURERS

Brain Boosting: information and activities related to perceptual, speech, cognitive and emotional development

11

ongoing basis, especially in new situations. Look out for signs of enjoyment and signs of sensory overload.

Signs of Enjoyment kicking legs and arms smiling

Signs of Disinterest looking away from your face avoiding eye contact

cooing gurgling making a big “oooo” with his mouth looking at you

Signs of Sensory Overload hiccups flushing of the cheeks

moaning

pallor or loss of colour in the cheeks

back arching

arm flailing

starting to cry

pupils dilating increased breathing rate / heart rate a baby who becomes overly quiet or overly vocal (whichever is out of character for your child) crying

Just as you are learning to get to know your baby’s sensory signals, you will also start to see his temperament emerge. This is his natural style of interacting with his world. His reaction to his sensory world will affect his social and emotional responses. Although he is born with a certain temperament, his environment (physical, emotional and social) can influence this. It is important for you to get to know not only your baby’s temperament, but your own temperament as well. The “goodness of fit” between the two are like puzzle pieces.

Either they will fit together easily or they will need some extra work to fit. As the adult in the relationship, you may need to make some adjustments to the way you would respond to or the expectations you place on him. See Appendix E (page 190) for further information and tips to help make the “fit” Your baby needs time to respond; between your two temperaments a little easier for both of you. you may have to wait 20 seconds or longer! Remember he needs to Just as they need to eat and sleep, babies need to be held. collect a lot of information and Baby-wearing is a wonderful way of “holding” your baby then formulate a response. With whether you use a sling, a wrap or a structured carrier. Wearing a toddler focused attention with your baby or toddler allows you to communicate closeness eye contact will help him to reand love while you go on with your everyday tasks. You will spond quicker. be able to pick up on your baby’s cues much quicker and therefore respond earlier, before he gets to the point of being INTRODUCTION

22

ROLLERS: FROM BOBBING HEADS TO STARTING TO ROLL OVER

D

During this stage your baby will give you a real taste of his developing character. Your roller will sleep less, move more and start engaging socially with others during his “awake time”. Enjoy learning how to play and make your baby smile and even laugh during this stage.

We have coupled activity ideas with routine tasks for rollers to make it easier to include them in your day and so that your baby does not become overwhelmed. Try to include a few activities in your day, but do not try to do too much.

Towards the end of this stage, you can introduce some toys.

Pick toys that have stark, contrasting colours (red-white, blackwhite contrasts) with definite lines. Remember to take the toy away when you are presenting a new toy.

Bath time can be especially overwhelming so do not try to “play” too long. Rather take your roller out the bath while he is still happy so that dressing time is not too traumatic.

GROOVY ADVENTURERS

Pick toys that have stark, contrasting colours (red-white, black-white contrasts) with definite lines. Remember to take the toy away when you are presenting a new toy or stimulus so as to avoid overwhelming your sensitive roller.

31

– Assisted roll: place your baby on a blanket (on a bed), then gently pull the side of the blanket up and towards him and assist him to roll, remember to roll to both sides.

– Log roll: while your roller’s lying on his back on a bed, hold his right hand and foot in your left hand and his left hand and foot in your right hand. Now rock him from side to side (gently at first and a little faster and farther if he enjoys it). Once he is used to this movement you can try rocking a few times and then rocking him right over onto his tummy.

CARRYING

Arm balancing – To allow your roller to view his world from a different plane, carry him on your forearm, lying on his tummy with his head near the crook of your elbow and his legs straddling your wrist. In this position, he will be encouraged to lift his head and look at the world around him.

ROLLERS

67 Tying shoelaces Drawing Cutting Reading Writing Sitting at a Desk Attention and Concentration Writing from the Left to the Right Side of the Page Fastening Buttons and Zips Brushing Teeth Feeding Himself (Bringing his Hand to his Mouth) Picking up Small Objects

Motor Planning (Being able to Plan and Execute Purposeful Movement) Moving Arms and Legs Independently Independence Speech and Language Development

Development of his Sensory Systems (e.g. Where his Body is in Space) Development of the Arches of his Hands Crossing the Imaginary Midline of his Body Bilateral Integration (Using the two Sides of his Body in a Coordinated Way) Eye-Hand Coordination Shoulder Girdle Strength and Stability Dynamic Balance Left-Right Brain Development

The Importance of Crawling MOVERS

92

Your groover’s big muscles develop fastest and most furiously during this stage.

“Posting” objects into holes, couches, drawers, toilets, etc. will be a favourite past time during this stage. Providing safe opportunities for this type of play might save your cell phone from being dropped in the toilet, but there are no guarantees! As you tend to use “no” more firmly, he may seek out this reaction from you by purposefully testing the boundaries. This is a new experience for both of you and once again signals toddlerdom on the horizon. If you haven’t “baby proofed” your home, this may be the time to do it!

TARGETS

He can reach toys next to or behind him without losing his balance while sitting.

He can use his hands to stop himself from falling to the side or backwards if bumped when sitting.

He can sit down unaided from standing (usually he will plop down).

He can take a few steps if held by both hands.

He can walk sideways while he holds onto furniture.

He can move between postures (e.g. from lying down to sitting up, from standing to sitting down, from lying down to crawling).

He may start to hold onto and push an object like a small chair or a trolley to help keep his balance while walking.

He can walk forward while being held by one hand, although his balance is still very unstable.

He may attempt to kick a ball while you’re holding his hands for support.

He walks with a wide base of support as he learns to walk (i.e. with his legs spread widely apart and with his hands held up in the air).

He can bend over to pick up a toy from the floor without falling over.

He can move from squatting to standing and back to squatting.

He can walk up a few stairs if you hold his hands.

He crawls more fluidly.

He may start to “bear walk” (crawling on his hands and feet).

He can crawl up a few stairs.

GROOVY ADVENTURERS

Your groover will especially enjoy being swung around and held upside-down, as this feeds into his movement sense. This will in turn aid the development of his muscles and core stability.

Core stability provides the basis for movement such as walking.

156

cardboard, pegging one side of each item or folding the tip of the “clothes” over the “line” so that they hang before he has to put a peg on.

It is helpful to repeat the correct sentence structure, but don’t criticise your adventurer’s efforts.

Button posting – Cut a narrow slit in the lid of a tin or box. Give your adventurer an assortment of buttons, large ones, small ones, thick ones and thin ones. Have him post the buttons by pushing them through the narrow slit. The narrower the slit, the more his little finger muscles have to work to get the buttons into the tin/box!

Egg box hammering –You can get all sorts of toy hammers, but a stick, a spoon or a block is just as good. Your adventurer will love smashing egg boxes. Stick the egg boxes up against the wall at your adventurer’s eye level, as this will encourage shoulder strengthening.

Window wiper – Use some of Dad’s shaving foam or you can buy some “child friendly” bath foam. Squirt some foam onto a mirror, window, shower door or sliding door. Let your adventurer stand or sit in front of it. You can both smear the foam over a surface to make a “page” and then use your fingers, a paintbrush, an ear bud or any stick to draw.

You can make the foam textured by adding a little salt or sugar to it. Once you have drawn a picture you can wipe it away and create a “new page” with the foam. Give your adventurer a window cleaning tool to clean the shaving foam off the mirror or window using two hands.

BASICS As you get ready for another amazing burst of speech development during this stage, be prepared for all the questions that come with it! Your adventurer will move on from “why?” to include “where?” and “what?” questions about anything and everything. As you converse with him, be aware of repeating correct sentence structure, but don’t criticise his efforts. He is just experimenting with Turn-taking is often easier stringing words together and the correct structure usually for your adventurer to learn follows easily as he develops in this area. Your clever with an adult at first. An adventurer will also start referring to “his” and “hers”, but adult can closely monitor will often get muddled up with which one to use. He will and explain whether it is his start using his own name to refer to himself and “mine!” turn or theirs. usually becomes a passionate defence of his belongings!

GROOVY ADVENTURERS

200

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Carly Tzanos and Lourdes Bruwer are devoted moms and Occupational Therapists. While working in private paediatric practice they both qualified in Sensory Integration Therapy.

Their input, guidance and commitment to helping the clients they work with have changed the lives of many children and their families.

As therapists they noticed that many of the children referred for occupational therapy had gaps in perceptual, sensory and motor skills. These could have easily been eliminated by some focused fun time as they were developing the basics of these skills in the first few years of life. They are very excited to share some of their thoughts, insights and experiences with you. Their hope is that this book will inspire you to really enjoy your time with your child and, above all, have the greatest amount of fun possible.

GROOVY ADVENTURERS