Stimulating activities in the first year?

[pam]

My daughter had the problem with "R." We finally went through a speech pathologist provided by the school district. She was amazing. No longer have the problem.

[Vort]

Originally Posted by applepansy

Vort, there's baby talk and talking like a baby. Children who hear words pronounced correctly learn to speak correctly.

I have met many children who could not (yet) pronounce their sounds and words correctly. I have met few adults who similarly could not pronounce their sounds correctly. So far as I know, I have never met anyone who was unable to talk like an adult because his or her parents spoke in baby talk to them when they were babies.

I flatter myself that my children are well-spoken. I never limited my baby talk to them. Heck, sometimes I still talk to them in baby talk even when they're teenagers. I consider talking to babies in baby-talk one of the simple, pure joys of parenthood -- heck, of life. I say, don't give it up. It's good for the heart, parent and child, and it doesn't hurt speech ability at all.

[Maureen]

Babies are sponges, they soak everything up. You're providing your baby with lots of stimuli which is great, but take the time to notice how she responds to it. Like all of us, babies like somethings better than others. When my daughter was a baby and the TV was on, she would respond to the music in certain commercials or theme songs on TV shows. It was just great watching her react to things she saw or heard. Sometimes the simplest things we do can be hysterical to a baby; those times when they just giggle right from their toes. Show her lots of things, but enjoy how she reacts to what she's learning.

M.

[pam]

I have to say I'm on Vort's side with this one. Mark this day down in history.

[Vort]

Originally Posted by pam

I have to say I'm on Vort's side with this one. Mark this day down in history.

What, you've never agreed with me before? Or you just have never admitted to it?

[MarginOfError]

Originally Posted by Bini

What are some stimulating activities that should be done in a child's first year?


I've been reading aloud to my daughter for months now. We also go on walks when the weather permits. Recently, she has tolerated tummy time on her playmat, so she'll entertain herself on that for awhile. On Saturdays, like today, I'll turn on cartoons for a couple hours while I get house chores done, and she'll watch that while in her bouncy frog or swing. She isn't quite at the point where she can sit-up independently and she's still a bit spastic when it comes to motorskills, so she doesn't really interact with objects in the sense to play with. What else can I do with her throughout the day that might be stimulating for her? Or is what I listed about right at this point? Dunno, I guess I feel like I should be teaching her something..

Amazon.com: Caring for Your Baby and Young Child, 5th Edition: Birth to Age 5 (Shelov, Caring for your Baby and Young Child, Birth to Age 5) (9780553386301): American Academy Of Pediatrics: Books

Amazon.com: Help Your Baby Talk: Introducing the Shared Communication Methold to Jump Start Language and Have a S (9780399529580): Robert E. Owens, Leah Feldon: Books

Check out those two books. They'll give good ideas on age appropriate activities you can use to stimulate growth.

But don't forget something very, very important. They don't just learn from what they do. They learn from what they see. The best way to get them to learn what you want them to learn is to be the things you want them to learn.


A note on the baby talk sidebar: Until very recently, my daughter used the word "tur-tul" in place of purple. She had trouble making the P sound. If I had used her form of the word in place of the word purple, she would have eventually learned to say purple correctly. It just would have taken her longer before she figured out that I was saying it incorrectly. The time difference between her transition from tur-tul to purple as a factor of which word I said to her would have been only a few months. The parents can decide how important those few months are for themselves, but Vort is right--in the course of 18 years, it doesn't really make a difference

In my case, I am very careful not to repeated too much of her incorrect words (with a few exceptions), but that's primarily because most of the kids her age are a few months ahead of her in speech. My daughter was born premature, so she lags in some of the developmental markers. I try to model words as correctly as possible so she can get caught up by the time she starts school. But I don't lose any sleep over it.