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Babies need to progress through motor skills to master them and then build on them. Strength and endurance are gained through play in preparatory positions like kneeling, squatting, cruising, or walking behind a push toy. Most parents are dying to celebrate first steps, but don’t rush it! Here are some fun and easy ways to play to strengthen baby for first steps.
Children who are read to regularly at home throughout early childhood will be exposed to exponentially more words than their peers who are not regularly read to. By the time they reach kindergarten, children will have heard 290,000 more words if read 1 book each day and 1.4 million more words if read 5 books each day (Logan, et al., 2019). Here you’ll find ideas on HOW TO read with a baby from birth through the first year.
Did you know that hand skills are developed through crawling? It's true! Crawling develops the upper body and the arches of the hands which later helps with holding a fork, writing, tying shoes and lots more! Here, you’ll find simple play ideas to help develop baby hands from birth through the first year.
Our friend, Elise Tate, just released her first book called Sign Me Up for a Happy Home. It’s filled with 15 baby signs and is full of great illustrations and written examples of how to do and remember each sign. Check it out here!
Baby gear/contraptions/containers all refer to a piece of equipment that puts a baby into a position and keeps them there. Gear like a swing, bouncer, exersaucer, jumper, or Bumbo. Most of this gear puts baby into a position they are not yet ready to maintain on their own and can not get into/out of on their own - meaning it’s not developmentally appropriate for them. Containers prevent a baby from moving in and out of positions naturally! Developmentally speaking, the devices pictured above, generally put babies into positions their little bodies are not yet ready for and they prevent baby from freely moving.
Tips for choosing the best highchair positioning for your baby. Optimal positioning for feeding can help baby feel more secure and set you both up for mealtime success. Browse our favorite highchairs or get ideas for how to modify your current highchair to best fit your baby’s needs before starting solids.
Many new parents have asked us, “What do I do with a newborn all day?” Our answer: Take that nap and when you wake up, spend time holding, snuggling, and getting to know your baby in those early days, and from day one, get baby on his/her belly regularly! All future movements your baby will learn start in tummy time.
Crawling is extremely important for hand skills later in life. As baby puts weight through the shoulders, forearms, wrists, hands and fingers, he/she is developing strength, dexterity, hand-eye coordination, and sensory integration that will be used later in life to support many skills, including a functional grip when holding a fork at mealtime, handwriting, and zipping a coat.
You probably know someone or have at least heard stories of people who skipped crawling, went straight to walking, and “turned out just fine.” We’ve met these people too! If your baby skips crawling, he/she WILL probably be just fine, BUT we are here to make a case for not “skipping” this milestone and circling back to it if your baby did not, or only briefly crawled on hands and knees before walking.
