"Nurture your children’s ‘lifelong learning’ in the baby room" by Dr Kathryn Peckham
The features of ‘lifelong learning’ are present in every child, but they need validating, encouraging and nurturing during these early days. And this begins in the baby room. As you engage with your youngest children, take care not to lose their eager attempts at learning by not recognising or valuing these early efforts.
When a child is given opportunities to explore, their instinctive urges to know and understand intensify. But unfortunately, if their endeavours are devalued or continuously interrupted, they will learn that these attempts are not worth their efforts. Equally, if they become over stimulated and overwhelmed, they will be quick to retreat, no longer able to function well. Luckily, they are very good at demonstrating when the experiences you are offering are not quite matched to their needs. With a little knowledge and understanding, you can support and guide them as their features of lifelong learning flourish.
In today’s fast-paced, modern living, babies can often be separated from the ebb and flow of daily life, either laid in a cot or playpen or alarmingly, placed in front of a screen. For many reasons, screens with young babies should always be avoided, but most significantly because of all the opportunities this effective pull on their attention is denying them.
Consider for a moment what a child can see and hear when they are being left in a sedentary position. Their position and balance receptors are not being activated. Their verbal and non-verbal exchanges are not being witnessed or practiced. And as they miss out on experiencing the complete range of sounds, sights and movements required for healthy growth and development, consider the finite number of waking hours they have before this transformative period of growth is complete.
We think of children developing through milestones. While the timing may vary, we imagine that they hit these developmental stages in basically the same ways and in the same order. However, it is truer to say that necessity is more often the mother of invention; a child will learn what they have an interest in and a need for.
If there was never a need to communicate, if no one spoke to them, would they bother putting in the effort? Alternatively, when a child is immersed in a world rich in communication and the complexities of language, their facial expressions alone soon become insufficient and frustrating. As they experience their meaning being misunderstood, they soon realise they need to invest in some more mature techniques. Within stimulating environments, a child will then begin imitating the sounds, patterns and rhythms all around.
But effective communication is about more than saying the words. When we engage with another person, we use a sequence of interactions. This alternate listening and responding is imitated by babies with their earliest babbles, in what has been termed a “serve and return” process.
In time and with practice, babies learn to embed words and phrases into their babbles as they learn to understand their meaning and contexts, beginning with familiar objects and routines. But it needs modelling and practice, so be aware of the sounds and opportunities that they have.
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Did you know babies have some memory function from birth? You will see this in their piqued interest over a new toy or how they respond when they see their bib at lunch time. As they grow, their increasing “learning power” sees them become increasingly interested in the world around them. If you focus your efforts on helping children to explore and gain new experiences, rather than mastering a given skill, you can help them experience this deep-felt learning, as well as what it means to try to learn.
So, allow your babies to explore their curiosities as they actively engage with the people and environments around them. Mindful of frustration, offer them achievable challenges to stretch their abilities and avoid doing things for them that they are on the verge of doing for themselves. As they become more mobile, encourage independence and investigation by offering an environment they can touch, manipulate and adapt, growing in confidence as they ponder and revisit. And don’t forget to include the outdoors as they gain mastery of their body and a sense of belonging within the environment.
Their ideas will become strengthened and enforced or challenged and dismissed through every sensory experience you give them as their neurological development is stimulated. This is most effective when multiple senses are combined, so consider this in the resources you offer them. Avoid plastic in favour of authentic, multi-sensory, unexpected and interesting resources presented in different ways. After all, how interesting is another plastic toy when they could be holding a feather or crunching some cornflakes underfoot? What are they looking at right now – how about laying under a tree to watch the movement of the leaves in the wind?
Consider the sensory stimulation and exploration you could offer with a real orange, some leeks and a pineapple. And don’t forget the authentic opportunities for developing fine motor skills, and first-hand encounters with size, pattern and quantity these offer as number sense starts taking root.
Allow your babies to set the pace as they wallow in whole body experiences, unrestricted by limiting routines, distractions or premature clearing away. And allow quiet together times where they can absorb their thoughts with plenty of time to simply rest before choosing a nap time story and snuggling up on your lap for a truly rewarding experience.
I hope you enjoyed this focus on nurturing children’s learning from the baby room. Next month we will continue our focus on learning with our toddlers. And in the meantime, bring the focus back to nurturing all of children’s growth and development with a Nurturing Childhoods Accreditation.
Whether you are looking for a setting wide approach to reflective practice and active CPD or a more personalised approach with the Nurturing Childhoods Practitioner Accreditation, gain recognition for the nurturing practice you deliver. Through 12 online sessions throughout the year, join me and hundreds of nurturing practitioners as together we really begin developing the potential of all children in their early years.