The importance of play
When I had my first baby I didn't know what to do with him as an infant. Talking to him felt, well...odd. I mean he was just a pooping, breastfeeding, crying ball of flesh when he was an infant. I did spend most of my time rocking and patting his bum. I didn't really talk to him. But it seems that even infants learn and react to parents talking to them and having conversations.
The human brain develops more rapidly between birth and age 5 than during any other period in life. That is amazing.
I recently learned about The Still Face Experiment. I found it very intriguing and insightful. Check out this video about it.
It is kind of hard to watch the baby getting upset when the mom doesn't interact with her. So you can see that babies are happier when their parents talk, play and interact with them. They are less stressed. It also gives a little insight into how babies can read people and react to a negative versus a positive situation. They are more stressed and more irritable when the parent is unresponsive. This may also translate to baby being stressed when she senses stress in the parent (just my extrapolation on the original intent of the experiment).
I also found this video that is a bit comical but also gives insight into reactions of kids to the actions of adults.
I just love the look on the kids face when the cup and beads are placed in front of him. He's like, no way am I playing with that, it's going to make that other lady mad. I'm not a professional, but I think this gives us good insight into what kids pick up on. They read adults and react to our reactions.
I also read about something called "parallel talk". This is talking about what you see a child doing. So if baby is playing with blocks you could say..."You picked up the blue block. Now you are putting the blue block on top of the red block." This isn't anything new, I mean I did this anyway. But it turns out that doing that type of talk is important for helping baby learn.
Playing with baby helps social and emotional development, language development, cognitive development, and physical and motor skill development. So much stuff learned in something as simple as play. It is also important that we be cognizant of our actions and interactions because kids pick up on this stuff and learn how to respond to our actions. It's amazing what those little brains are doing.
The human brain develops more rapidly between birth and age 5 than during any other period in life. That is amazing.
I recently learned about The Still Face Experiment. I found it very intriguing and insightful. Check out this video about it.
I also found this video that is a bit comical but also gives insight into reactions of kids to the actions of adults.
I also read about something called "parallel talk". This is talking about what you see a child doing. So if baby is playing with blocks you could say..."You picked up the blue block. Now you are putting the blue block on top of the red block." This isn't anything new, I mean I did this anyway. But it turns out that doing that type of talk is important for helping baby learn.
Playing with baby helps social and emotional development, language development, cognitive development, and physical and motor skill development. So much stuff learned in something as simple as play. It is also important that we be cognizant of our actions and interactions because kids pick up on this stuff and learn how to respond to our actions. It's amazing what those little brains are doing.
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