SOMETHING TO NOTE BEFORE READING ACTIVITIES:
The first 1000 days of a baby’s life are the most important in terms of how much they learn and what they learn. It is a unique period of opportunity when the foundations of optimum health, growth, and neurodevelopment across the lifespan are established.
With this in mind, there are a few areas of learning which are absolutely crucial. Many of the activities listed below will include these areas of learning within them:
- Language! The more you can speak to your baby, with rich language and proper sentences and words, the better! (You do not need to use ‘baby speak’ such as “you are bootiful”. Speak properly: “You are beautiful”). Reading books and singing songs are really powerful for introducing rich language. -It is never too early to start reading, singing or talking with your child!
- Social interaction with the primary caregiver. Whoever is spending the most time looking after baby is the primary caregiver. This is who baby will learn social interactions and skills from predominantly. (The secondary caregiver and support carers (such as grandparents) still play an important role, but it is the primary caregiver that baby will focus on the most and tune into. It is a bit of a myth that baby’s need to interact with other babies to learn social skills. They need to learn how to interact with people in general, before they can learn to interact properly with other children/babies. Other babies and children are still learning social skills themselves, so it is best that our babies learn social and behavioural skills from an adult, rather than a beginner (another child). When the primary caregiver interacts through eye contact, smiles, language, play, cuddles and changing, baby is learning social cues, interactions and skills.
- Eye contact. This helps to build social understanding. Eye contact syncs your brainwaves with the baby and helps in developing learning and communication skills. Looking into the eyes releases oxytocin, which strengthens the bond between you and your little one. It also makes your baby feel more secure.
- Smiles and positive tones and vibes. Babies pick up on our energy, moods and states. The more relaxed and positive we can be, the more baby will respond to that rhythm and also have a happy, relaxed and positive temperament. -This will be very helpful as they grow, as they will be less likely to be anxious, tense, scared, negative or unhappy in general etc.