Foundation Building for Infants

Foundation Building For Infants

Babies IQ develops at such a rapid rate during their first year of life, along with their physical growth in height and weight.

Babies grow, learn and reach developmental milestones through relationships and play.

One of the best parts of our job in the Little Fish (Jalumn) room, is being able to witness some of these milestones and settling into childcare without mum and dad to comfort them, is a key player of foundation building for infants.

Settling in takes a few weeks for most children, depending on how many days they attend. After they have become familiar with their educators and new surroundings in the room/centre they tend to spend more time exploring and playing instead of always looking for cuddles.
Children with separation anxiety may take a few months to be able to say good-bye without getting upset. Read our blog on Settling in to learn more. https://brightkidscentre.com.au/settling-in/

One thing I can tell you is; they will eventually settle in and be confident in their new surroundings. Transitioning families is our main focus for the first few weeks, discovering children’s:

• Likes;
• Dislikes;
• Needs;
• Families; and
• Everything else in between.

We create and mould our program around these areas, to ensure your child/ren’s time at kindy is happy and enjoyable. The ability to Learn is conducive to their environment.

In the last six months, we’ve had older children transition up and new babies join us. Every child in our care is at a different stage in their developmental milestones. We’ve had children learn to walk, stand, crawl, transistion from bottle to food, sit at the table for meal time, sleep on big beds and eat more solid food.

Developmental Milestones

What to expect;

1-3 months: your baby will learn to lift and control their head, start to smile and laugh, respond to familiar sounds and make eye contact.

4-6 months: learn to roll over and sit up, teething is likely to begin, try first solid foods and may be able to grab objects.

7-9 months: will begin to crawl, may be able to stand up, hand and finger skills develop, may babble from time to time and sees in full colour.

10-12 months: your baby may begin to talk and say their first words, may be able to understand words, recognise and point to objects and looks and listens at the same time.

13-18 months: takes their first steps, uses a cup, may be able to scribble, plays with books, and can play using simple imagination.

Communicating with babies

Babies communicate their needs by crying and have different cry’s for different needs. Infants communication develops from cries to babble to words to sentences. We encourage this by constantly talking to them about everything we are doing, singing songs, story telling and through intentional teaching in group time. We are also encouraging baby sign language, by having a sign of the week and practising all the time.

Self-help skills

Self-help skills are major factors in our children’s development. Independence is a confidence builder. We’ve had a few milestones met recently in this area, such as;

• Children feeding themselves;
• Holding their own bottles;
• Sleeping on big beds; and
• Communicating their needs.

Mat Time

Sitting together on the mat is essential for forming the concept of group experiences. It exposes babies to social situations and provides a sense of belonging. Group time in the little fish room is only for 5-10 minutes a day depending on the children’s interest. We sit together in our yarning circle and read storybooks, sing songs, tell stories and recite rhymes while incorporating props for the visual learners.

Sensory Skills And Fine Motor Skills

Sensory play for early childhood development is key to brain development nerve connections to the brain and stimulates the seven senses of a child.

1. Sight (Vision);
2. Hearing (Auditory);
3. Smell (Olfactory);
4. Taste (Gustatory);
5. Touch (Tactile);
6. Vestibular (Movement)- the movement and balance sense, which gives us information about where our head and body are in space; and
7. Proprioception (is the sense of self-movement and body position. It is sometimes described as the “sixth sense”).

The definition of sensory play can be applied to a wide variety of age-appropriate activities for babies and toddlers. Such as sand play, water play, jelly play and spaghetti play are great sensory and age-appropriate activities for babies.

Gross motor skills

The children have been exploring different gross motor activities on the veranda, the big yard and the environmental yard, such as;

• Riding bikes
• Using walkers
• Climbing stepping stones
• Throwing balls
• Walking/crawling over bridges

Allowing the children to explore these areas builds their independence, encourages them to be brave and gives them confidence.

Empowering Our Youth

The ‘Empowering our Youth’ program is embedded in our curriculum and modified to every age group.  We invest in children our cultural knowledge of our native heritage. Our vision is a journey of living, breathing and walking together to bridge the gap. Lately we’ve been exploring:

• Xray art using chalk and drawing on black paper;
• Red, black and yellow foot print painting;
• Leaf painting;
• Dancing to traditional Aboriginal music and familiar songs such as “Taba naba” a song from The Wiggles.

Nature Play

What are the benefits of nature play? Outdoor play helps foster children’s intellectual, emotional, social and physical development. While being surrounded by nature and even just being outside, children experience an environment that stimulates all the senses.

The little fish room have loved being outside for our nature play program in our purpose built environmental yard. Feeling the different textures such as; grass, leaves, sand, dirt and breathing in the fresh air.

Mindful kids

Social emotional learning (SEL)  harnesses self-awareness, self management through breath work and body clues, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision making and perseverance.

The Mindful Kids resilience program is embedded in our curriculum and modified to every age group. Our program teaches children to cope with change and adversity, and experience more positive outcomes. We use tools such as:

• Mirror Play -sitting in front of the mirror during group time this has allowed us to see what different emotions look like while developing the 6 benefits of mirror play.
• Body Awareness– Teaching children that our body is our friend, helps them understand how we are feeling physically and that our body is trying to tell us something; and
• Mindful Kids Activity Basket – filled with assorted Coloured Scarves,Pop Bubble Sensory Stimulation, Mindful Bubble Breathing, Colourful Hand Kites and a Moody Mind Release jar, used for redirecting focus and helping children change their brain waves through breath work. 

That’s all from us in the little fish room until next month from Miss Jess, Tash and Natarsha.

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