VISUAL DEVELOPMENT AND HAND-EYE COORDINATION:
The newborns take some time to adjust to the sights and sounds of the world outside the womb. In the first few weeks it is better to inspire and invite the child to visually explore the environment by soft colors and limited objects around him/her.
They are not born with all the visual abilities they need in life. The ability to focus their eyes, move them accurately and use them together as a team must be learned.
0-4 MONTHS:
During this period the eyes start working together and vision rapidly improves. Eye-hand coordination begins to develop as the infant starts tracking moving objects with his or her eyes and reaching for them.
0-8 MONTHS:
During this period control of eye movements and eye-body coordination skills continue to improve. It is believed that babies have good color vision by five months of age. Babies mostly start crawling after 8 months so crawling improves further eye hand and foot coordination.
9-12 MONTHS:
After 9 months the baby should be able to grasp objects with thumb and forefinger. Parents should encourage crawling rather than early walking to help the child develop better eye-hand coordination. Babies at this stage can see the objects well and can throw things to some distance.
By the end of two years a child's eye-hand coordination and depth perception should be well developed.
TOYS RECOMMENDED:
The first visual materials recommended are black and white, high-contrast mobiles and soon colored mobiles that move easily in the air currents of the room. Hang them in places where the child can be with the family. For grasping you can give teethers and rattles to the child. For hand-eye coordination you can give rattles for babies and for infants and toddlers you can give stacking toys, nesting toys, slider toys.
SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT:
In the first few months and years of life the child is mostly interested in the sound of human voice. The Best communication experience is provided while nursing. Good language development depends on the language that the child hears around him or her during the early days, months and years.
The Parents or the sibling who talks and sings to the infants is also a form of teaching him language. For the first year the activities like changing, nursing, bathing, picking up, holding and dressing are the most important times.
A Child will be curious and in need of sensorial exploration from the very first days. So the child wants to be with the family and not tucked away in a quiet room. When the child is with the family he or she can listen to conversations, laughter and music’s leading to language development.
TOYS RECOMMENDED:
Toys related to pretend play will help in speech and language development. For Example wooden blocks, tea set, kitchen set, doll house, basic puzzles, shapes, soft color toys and so on.
FINE MOTOR DEVELOPMENT AND GROSS MOTOR DEVELOPMENT:
The newborns can only be able to control the muscles of the mouth and the throat. By the end of first year the child can control the movements of the whole body. The more we allow our child to move the more will be the optimum development.
Fine motor skills are necessary to engage in smaller, more precise movements, normally using the hands and fingers. Fine motor skills are different than gross motor skills which require less precision to perform.
The term gross motor development refers to physical skills that use large body movements, normally involving the entire body.
TOYS RECOMMENDED:
Select toys carefully at this stage as it leads to movement possibilities for the child. Each toy has been designed for specific purpose. Hanging toy where the babies can reach for it, grasp and release it also grasping and releasing the same toy with other hand. Child can use Rattles for creating sounds and teethers for grasping. Also Puzzles, nesting toys, slider toys and some rolling toys are recommended.
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
Playing with other helps them learn how to collaborate and compromise with others, recognize and respond to others’ feelings, share, show affection, resolve conflicts, and adhere to the rules. This early lessons will help the children to understand their roles and rules in the society, Leading to social development in a child.
During Play kids learn to deal with emotions like fear, frustration and anger. Playing together help them to express and regulate their feelings. Play can help the kids to build their confidence and self-perception, leading to emotional development.
TOYS RECOMMENDED:
Pretend play toys like kitchen set, tea set and doll house. You can give toys they the your child can play with other kids for example puzzle toys, tool kit, doctor kit and so on.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT:
Cognitive development in early childhood refer to your baby or toddler’s mental capacity for problem solving, language acquisition, learning about objects and relations between cause and effect. Cognitive development is important and forms the foundation for many of the other skills your child will learn later in life.
Parents are in a unique position to help shape how their children learn, think, and develop. Parents can help the child touch and explore the item as well as saying what the object is. To promote your child's cognitive development, it is important that you actively engage in quality interactions on a daily basis
TOYS RECOMMENDED:
Puzzles for problem solving, Shape toys for shape recognition, nesting toys and stacking toys improves concentration, wooden blocks and music toys.
Although these toys can engage and help your child only for certain period of time, Parents interaction with the child plays a major role. As you change or bathe your infant rather than distracting them with a toy, look into their eyes tell them about what you’re doing, ask questions. The conversation with full of love and respect is what makes a baby wants to talk to you and the desire to communicate and develop skills. As they grow engage them in the everyday activities and chores.
