Rock That Baby!

This week I have been reading A Running Start: How Play, Physical Activity and Free Time Create a Successful Child by Rae Pica.  The book details the way in which time to play and exercise helps children to grow, develop, and learn.  It is a very commonsense book,which is supported by brain research about how children learn, that advocates for letting children be children.  This is especially refreshing in light of an article that I read a few weeks ago that discussed the growth of tutors for preschool children.  These tutors drilled children on the "important academic" things that they would need to know - colors, alphabet,etc.   Parents who fear that their children will not do well in school think that this is wonderful, but I consider it to be a form of child abuse.  This book should be mandatory reading for these parents.

I was particularly interested in the section about infant growth, which discussed the growth and development of the infant's brain.  While parents are being pushed (or guilted) into buying electronic toys or computer software to encourage their baby to grow, it is actually the time that parents spend holding, rocking, and talking to a baby that has the most effect on the child's physical, mental, and emotional development.  The baby's vestibular system - the body's sense of movement and balance - calms the child as the parents rocks, cuddles, and walks with the baby.  As amazing as it is that a tiny infant should be born with a fully developed vestibular sense that responds to movement, there is even more.  The motion also helps to promote brain development.  Infant games, such as patty cake, provide a bonding experience as the child laughs with the parent or caregiver (children can't bond with computer games).  Again, as if this weren't enough reason to leave the "educational" computer and play with your child, games like patty cake involve crossing the midline of the body, which helps the two hemispheres of the brain to communicate and work together, as well as developing eye-hand coordination which is necessary for the reading and learning that the child will do as she grows older.

Much has been written about the power of touch and young and children.  A great deal of anecdotal evidence is available  which shows that children in orphanages would wither and die from lack of human contact.  All of their physical needs were met, but their emotional and sensory needs were not. Long before I studied child development and learned of the connection between lack of physical contact and the failure to thrive of children in institutions, I learned of this from my mother.  Mama was a nurse who joined the army and worked in hospital overseas during World War II.  When she returned home she worked at a TB hospital, Vassar Brothers hospital in Poughkeepsie, and the local doctor's office.  She seldom talked of her war experiences, but often spoke of her time as a student nurse at Boston Children's Hospital.  She told me of an infant who was born with a deformed chin that could not be out of an incubator for more than fifteen minutes at a time.  When Mama worked nights, she would take the baby out of the incubator and rub her back and talk to her while she was talking and singing to her.  During these times she could keep the baby out of the incubator of as long as an hour and a half. 

Parents, grandparents, and child care providers - turn off the electronics, take the baby out of the carrier or swing, and spend time together.  Your touch, your voice, and your movements will do more to help your child grow and develop more that any "educational" electronic thing that you can buy.  There is an old poem that says something along the lines of, "Cooking and cleaning and dusting will keep but I am rocking my baby and babies don't keep".