Maggie's Development

Maggie doing tummy time on her tummy time spot (a piece of linoleum on a blanket and with some simple toys to look at).

Maggie batting at her animals after her diaper change.

Maggie mouthing some simple toys after reaching and attaining them.

So as I have mentioned before I am a child development specialist. My degree is a B.S. in Early Childhood Development Education--this makes parenting kind of interesting! Of course its very difficult to take everything I know about how children learn and develop and transfer that to my own child, but there are some very important things I do with Maggie that I thought I would share...

• Horizontal Time: We rarely ever put Maggie into a container. When I say a container she has absolutely no swing, excersaucer, bumbo chair, walker, etc. She does have a very simple bouncer chair that we only use after she has just eaten or when we have something to do and she's fussy at the moment and needs to be near us. Maggie is always put on her tummy or back, or is held by us the majority of the time. We do this because her muscles do not support her yet when she's upright. This can be difficult for parents to understand, but basically it's the process of getting into sitting and standing that's important not actually being sat or stood up.
• Reinforcing Current and Past Development: Maggie can already do lots of things. When we give her many opportunities to do the things she can already do she then builds a strong foundation to do the next thing in her development which happens naturally.
  
• Some of the things she was used to were things that occurred before she was even born. I'm sure most of you have seen Maggie in her sling? This tight, warm, dark space where she can hear my heartbeat and my voice is a lot like her home for the nine months before she was born. I reinforce this previous environment to again help her to continue to build her strong foundation for future development.
• Simple, simple simple: As many of you know, I am not very fond of battery operated toys. Maggie has none. In an age of technological advancement we are seeing toys like we have never seen before. Has anyone seen the video games for babies? Yes, they exist! So what is happening to children lately? We never see children playing outside anymore, and we have a gigantic increase in the diagnosis of such disabilities as ADHD and other learning disorders. Basically it takes much more cognitive process to play with something simple where you have to use more imagination then pushing a button over and over again and having something light up and make noise at you.
• Books, books, books: Many parents want their child to read, but for some reason they don't make literacy a part of the child's life from the very beginning. I used to read to Maggie almost every night before she was born. Yes, ask Zac---I made him do it too. We currently read to Maggie almost every day for 20 minutes. She already has favorite books where you see her calm down and melt right into you as she hears those familiar words. When you surround a child with literacy and language it becomes what they know--and what they love.