More peek-a-boo play with the mirrors this week. A balance between routine and novelty is important so that your child can experience both mastery and stimulation. Baby gains confidence from familiarity; new elements of an activity challenge him to explore and discover. The welcome song acknowledges your child’s developing self-awareness by addressing him or her individually. It also encourages social interaction by inviting the baby or toddler to respond to the greeting. The use of mirrors also helps develop self-awareness. When your baby reacts to a mirror image of himself, he is beginning to develop some form of self-awareness. His response may be smiling, babbling, waving, or patting the mirror. Using his name while he is looking into the mirror – or when you sing a song such as Look and See – contributes to this development.. Do you ever wonder how your baby learns. It’s amazing to think about all the types of learning that your child experienced with you in class this week
Senses: Engaging many of a baby’s senses at once encourages the development of neural connections, activates several areas of the brain, and increases learning potential. The song and colorful scarves in I See You, for example, provide a rich multi-sensory experience involving touch, sight, and hearing. Activities such as Dance to Your Daddy, which engage a number of senses simultaneously, make the most lasting impressions because they make a number of neural connections at once. Repetition of the experience then reinforces these neural pathways. The more sensory input you can involve in a learning experience the better chance your child has of retrieving that learned information when it is needed in the future.
Movement: Cross-lateral movements increase both body strength and brain strength. In order for the brain to reach potential, the two hemispheres of the brain must work together. Cross-lateral movements increase communication from one side of the brain to the other through the connector, known as the corpus callosum. The brain hemispheres must be able to communicate in order for your child to achieve reading success when they enter school.
Timbre As a baby experiences a variety of tones and timbres, he is developing a sensitivity to the many different sounds in music and his environment. Baby continues to develop his listening skills as he is repeatedly exposed to a variety of sounds
Emotions and Learning Emotions have tremendous impact on learning. By providing caring, responsive attention to baby, you also provide a sense of security and worth which will allow baby to grow into an assured, confident learner. You are contributing to your baby’s self-esteem in class when you interact with her as we explore balls, mirrors, bubbles, and scarves and at home when you take time out for interactive play.
Action Schemes Every baby has a set of actions that she employs while exploring objects in her environment: shaking, reaching, hitting, throwing, mouthing, kicking, and so on. The actions a baby applies to objects evolve over time, but on any given day, she has a set of familiar exploratory actions that she performs on the things she is investigating. Through this play, your child is learning about cause and effect – as well as about the physical characteristics of objects.
