Learning Tools For Babies

For any baby, his journey into the world of learning starts at birth. Your baby's brain grows faster in his first two years than at any other time, and all the encouragement you give will help him make the most of his ever expanding potential.  The brain development during the first years of life is critical to the lifelong success of every child. During these early months, when baby's brain is developing rapidly, adult participation in even simple activities with young children makes a lasting impression. Here you can get some ideas about what learning tools you can use to help your baby learn

You can help stimulate his senses by doing the following;

• Talk to you baby in a soft, reassuring tone of voice.  When he coos, you should respond to his cue.
• Gently touch or massage your baby’s hands and feet.  You can stroke his head, arms or legs.  You can also gently blow into his hands and feet or allow him to grab your finger with his hand.
• Experiment with different positions when you carry your baby. Cradle him in your arms or lean him on your shoulders.  This helps baby to see the world in different perspective.
• Put your baby on different textured textiles, smooth satin, cool silk, warm wool or soft flannel.
• Make faces at your baby and look at his responses, smile or stick your tongue out at him to get a response.
• Play peek-a-boo with him when you are pulling his clothes over his head. This helps him build his self-confidence.

 How To Enhance Your Baby’s Development

 Talk to your baby.  The most helpful way to nurture your baby’s development is to communicate with your baby with both your voice and your eyes.  Even babies of a few days old can pick up the characteristics of your voice and use the speech patterns later on when they learn to speak.  You should also sing to him any song that is familiar to you, not only children’s songs.  He will love to hear the sound of your voice as you communicate with him

 Attend to his basic needs. All babies cry when they are uncomfortable, be it due to a wet nappy or because he is hungry.  A settled, happy baby will learn faster and will be more receptive to stimuli.  So pick him up as soon as you can, cuddle him and settle his needs before engaging him.

Pick the right toys. Toys are great learning tools for babies. Always check if the toy is suitable for the age group your child is in.  Check the packaging when you intend to buy a new toy for your baby.  It's important to choose things that are right for his developmental stage - for safety reasons and because he'll get more out of a toy that he's physically ready to play with. For example,  a 6-month old baby cannot play with a wind-up toy but will enjoy a toy with a special texture or bright color.

 Baby books. Even tiny babies enjoy the experience of sitting on your lap and looking at bright pictures of everyday things he'll recognize, such as animals or toys. Choose books that are made of cardboard or cloth because they’re designed to be chewed and touched.

Everyday classroom. Go out every day, to the shops, the park, your local parent and baby group, to visit friends or just for a walk. The change of scene is stimulating for you and your baby.

Use Flashcards.  Start your baby on the path of reading by flashing white cards with big words in red.  The use of flashcards to help children read and learn math has been well researched by Glenn Doman.  There are ready-made ones or you can make them using white hard paper or cardboard and use a red felt-tip pen.  To save time, you can also use a specially designed  children’s educational software to generate the words for you on a computer screen. 

A good learning tool for babies incorporated in a computer software should also flash math dot cards and other picture images on screen to accelerate your child’s development.  You can save your lessons plans for use later and as many times as you wish.  You will be surprised how inexpensive a good program can be and it’ll pay huge dividends later when your child enters school.

 So start your child early on the path of learning. Remember it does not have to take much time to bring out the genius in your child, a few minutes a day can make a huge difference in your child’s life-long learning quest.