BABY MOVES #10

NOTE: Most guidelines are built for “birth at 40 weeks”. If your baby came early – it is recommended to “correct” or “adjust for due date”, specifically in movement. *Learn more about corrected age HERE.

As tummy time starts to fade, here are some new activities to add to your Movement Variety program.

Baby Hands

Look for the intentional release of grasps with more frequent dropping objects or flailing the arms to fling them. They are experimenting with what happens to the object, but also what happens socially.

NOTE: Flinging food during meals can be annoying at times. One consideration is that the baby is experimenting and this process will run its course. However, they are also exploring what happens socially when things are dropped and thrown. If the mess isn’t what you are going for in your house, then 1) give them time in different contexts to explore this (redirect the behavior away from meals) and 2) change your face and tone to be very blank and unemotional as the reaction. If you recall the “Still Face” experiment, an emotionless face is not very rewarding. The thing to note is that if your face and tone are “cute” with the baby at all times, even when trying to discourage a particular behavior, then the message is being sent with mixed signals. The tone, face, and words need to match the intent.

Continue to provide opportunities for fine motor development in the hand (food is always great) – specifically the forefinger and the thumb, in a pinching motion. Try offering a credit/business card or driver’s license – something that is grasped with the fingertips. Other ideas can be pinching coins from a shallow cup, or picking up a thin ID card or guitar pick off the ground or table, or snatching up a ring. SUPERVISION REQUIRED with small objects. 

Play Challenge: find 3 new household objects a day for a week to incorporate into supervised fine motor play.

Sitting

With baby in sitting, get their attention with an object or hand/place various objects of interest, to promote balance and function in different positions. Change the position of baby’s legs occasionally to promote balance in different sitting postures (wide legs/narrow legs). Encourage rotation/twisting of the trunk by getting their attention from side to side.

Advanced: Move sitting to unstable surfaces like a pillows or a towel or box that you can slowly pull – careful not too abruptly – physics may get the best of you! The idea is to challenge the developing balance system a little bit in a safe and fun way. Don’t forget the choo choo sounds if you go with the towel train.

Sitting happens in two main ways – either the legs are straight or the legs are bent. In either form, the narrower the base of support, the more control the full body has. In bent leg/knee positions – it will look like side sitting, ring sitting (which later turns into crossed leg sitting), or sitting on the legs. All of these provide strong base foundations for transitions. Specifically the thing to watch for is the ability for the child to rise up from the position to the knee or into a lunge like position, which is how many babies rise to their feet. See progression below.

Lastly, there is one form of sitting to keep an eye on. This sitting is “w-sitting”, named for the shape the lower legs make as they rotate outward from the body.

The wide base of the “W-Sit” lowers the need for other muscles to provide support. It can often be a sign of or cause weakness in the trunk, as it doesn’t use the muscles to support the body – it uses the bones and ligaments. W-sitting is also hard to transition out of, and is considered a very static position as it also lessens the ability to rotate and lean. Crawling and playing while on the knees help to strengthen the core.

The KEY though, as w-sitting has not yet been proved to be associated with any specific disorder later in life, is that it’s likely not “bad” unless the kiddo spends a lot of time in that position. Movement is always the key and kids should be educated/stimulated to change position as often as possible (same as adults). Keep an eye on it, encourage movement. It likely only becomes a problem if kids are spending a lot of time in this less beneficial position.

All Fours

With baby on the floor, place a toy/object on a small chair/pad/step to promote climbing/pulling onto it. Once baby does it without difficulty, progressively increase size/height of the chair/pad/step to make the climbing more challenging. Make sure the chair/surface top part is wide enough to fit baby, since they’re not yet able to turn around and sit at this time. An alternate starting place could be a firm pillow or something low like a step (if steps aren’t accessible). Babies at this age may be able to crawl up stairs but are likely not able to go back down just yet.

An alternative to stairs and chairs – ECR4Kids has a line of soft blocks/mats called Softzone. These are good for 5-6 years of open ended play – great for a long list of play and movement activities. Couch cushions and pillows work just fine too.

With baby standing at furniture, hand them multiple toys at once to engage using both hands. The goal is to promote balance without support (this sometimes works best with a toy or item that typically goes together, like puzzle pieces or blocks).

Insight: As babies pull up to furniture the progression will often start with them using a WIDE stance with their feet to create a wide base for standing support. They will use both hands to support themselves initially, sometimes releasing the hands but leaning against the furniture. From there they will progress to one handed support, and then no support. They will be able to stand up for longer, and over time the feet placement will narrow as they gain better balance while standing – no longer needing a wide base to compensate. The wide stance will re-emerge with walking and narrow over time, as it’s another kind of balance learning.

The theme above in all cases -> simple tweaks to the play can add the needed variety for the brain to gain more firing it’s wiring experience. The key as your baby gets older and as you get even more attuned to these progressions is to focus on the magical four letter word – PLAY! Set up the environment and the support so that their interests and the play can lead the way.

With baby on all fours (or sitting), hand them a toy from above to encourage the transition to kneeling and half-kneeling. Try this activity both close to and away from furniture so baby can learn how to raise hands (one or both) away from the floor with and without using something to assist.

With baby on all fours, place one toy on the floor in front and others further away to promote crawling while holding objects in one or both hands (use small toys so they can easily grab them while crawling). Place toys onto and behind small obstacles to challenge the baby to crawl around or over obstacles to get to the toys. NOTE: the more variety in shape and size of the obstacles you have, the more the challenges for the baby’s development of motor planning and early stage problem solving.

Going Vertical

With baby on the floor, place a toy/object on a small chair/pad/step to promote climbing/pulling onto it. Once baby does it without difficulty, progressively increase size/height of the chair/pad/step to make the climbing more challenging. Make sure the chair/surface top part is wide enough to fit baby, since they’re not yet able to turn around and sit at this time. An alternate starting place could be a firm pillow or something low like a step (if steps aren’t accessible). Babies at this age may be able to crawl up stairs but are likely not able to go back down just yet.

An alternative to stairs and chairs – ECR4Kids has a line of soft blocks/mats called Softzone. These are good for 5-6 years of open ended play – great for a long list of play and movement activities. Couch cushions and pillows work just fine too.

With baby standing at furniture, hand them multiple toys at once to engage using both hands. The goal is to promote balance without support (this sometimes works best with a toy or item that typically goes together, like puzzle pieces or blocks).

Insight: As babies pull up to furniture the progression will often start with them using a WIDE stance with their feet to create a wide base for standing support. They will use both hands to support themselves initially, sometimes releasing the hands but leaning against the furniture. From there they will progress to one handed support, and then no support. They will be able to stand up for longer, and over time the feet placement will narrow as they gain better balance while standing – no longer needing a wide base to compensate. The wide stance will re-emerge with walking and narrow over time, as it’s another kind of balance learning.

The theme above in all cases -> simple tweaks to the play can add the needed variety for the brain to gain more firing it’s wiring experience. The key as your baby gets older and as you get even more attuned to these progressions is to focus on the magical four letter word – PLAY! Set up the environment and the support so that their interests and the play can lead the way.

The WHAT this week had some length to it, but throwing it back and adding to the WHY section of FD17 “The Gift of Movement” – it’s very well established at this point that the environment created in the home and around the home for climbing, crawling, and running, as well as playing with and handling smaller more precise objects – these kinds of environments have a significant influence on a young child’s motor skills development from birth through ages 5 years and beyond. There is no need to buy every development toy, but rather, that with the mindset of access to movement everyday, big and small – a child can be well supported in their development beyond what genetics has planned for.