How to Be a Good Teacher for Your Baby: Essential Tips for Early Childhood Development
Have you wondered how, when you initially purchase new containers for spice storage, they all look and smell the same?
It is only after you start storing spices in them that you might notice that the containers start smelling differently with time.
Similar is the case with the babies. They are all born-ready containers, waiting to be filled from outside. The contents they are filled with shape their personalities for the future!
But who loads these adorable containers?
No, it’s not the school!
The loading indeed starts happening much more before that!
Why is early childhood development essential?
Children are known to be born with nearly around 100 billion brain neurons, ready to learn by forming neural connections.
Consider each neuron, like a building block, where every block needs to be attached to each other so as to form a stable structure.
This stable structure works like a foundational brain algorithm of the child, similar to AI, which keeps on updating with time, according to the given input.
Caution: It has a timer!
Yes! These neurons are highly active only during the child’s first three years. After this, their activity normalizes!
The Power of Interaction
Have you wondered what actually triggers these brain neural connections?
Well, the simplest answer is, kids’ environment!
It can be people, places, animals, or things around them!
Every time a child interacts with its environment, a neural connection is established in their brains.
With time, several stable neural connections form, with heightened environmental interactions.
Therefore, children’s activity with their environment is essential in their initial years.
This establishes their readiness for the development of further essential skills like cognitive, motor, social, language skills, etc.
So, parents, brace yourself as we delve into this guide of how to be a good teacher for your baby. Your part is the most important during their early stages of development.
Disclaimer: No certification required! Just loads of love, patience, and persistence to make your baby foundation-ready!
8 Effective ways to be a good teacher for your baby
It might sound surprising, but children do start learning a lot of things inside the womb!
There are various studies that show that the baby is able to differentiate between a male and a female voice and also identify their mom’s voice!
Also, did you know that a baby recognizes and reflects, according to its mother’s emotions?
The baby also sends repair tissues in case a mother tissue needs a repair!
So, in short, communication does get established, right from inside their little world!!!
Below is a list of many effective ways to enhance their learning further into the real world.
1. Creating a Stimulating Environment
Have you noticed that your peace of mind actually determines your work efficiency?
That is, the calmer you are, the better your mind will function.
Well, so do kids! After all! Aren’t they just little humans?
They seek out peace, comfort, and security in order to start learning. They receive this best from their caregivers.
Children establish neural connections when they see, touch, feel, and interact with their environment. Therefore, care must be taken that your home is baby safe, especially when your tiny tot starts to crawl!!
Also, ensure that all the edgy or pointy items are tossed aside or locked in a dungeon, for that matter!
This makes both you and the baby safe and stress-free for the clutter yet to begin!
Let your child crawl wild and encourage them to grasp, hold, throw, roll, or even toss the items present near them.
Sometimes, you might also have to get into their mess and teach them how to do it!
Understand! They are empty containers with loading in progress!!
Disclaimer: Well now, you would also have to toss that OCD factor out of the window for some years! After all, it is for your child’s well-being!
Importance of exposing them to age-appropriate toys
Do we learn to make sentences right in junior kindergarten?
No, Right!
Similarly, exposing the kids to the age-appropriate toys is equally beneficial for their effortless and systematic learning process!
It is important to understand, as parents, that your child first needs to understand themselves and their environment in order to move towards more complex learning.
So, initially exposing your kids to different baby-safe items is like a warm-up exercise for their senses!
Rattles and soft toys are the most effective.
It is only after they start to crawl, sit, and hold their heads straight that they are ready to enter the learning battlefield!
Exposing them to teething toys, building blocks, push and pull toys, shape sorters, ride-ons, musical toys, balls, etc. will help them understand their functioning. This will happen gradually with their consistent plays and interactions with them.
Let them self-explore, but at times, also sit with them to play.
Directing, encouraging, and motivating them will always have a positive effect on their minds to continue learning
2. Fostering Communication Skills
Do you know, children start to communicate with their mother’s right from their existence in the womb?
Popularly known as “mood swings during pregnancy.”
Children initiate with non-verbal communication and slowly progress towards verbal communication with time.
Initially, it is very important as a caretaker to pay attention to their cues.
This will help you understand what they want and also provide them with a sense of security. This, in turn, will also encourage them to interact more for a healthy parent-child bonding.
Communication can be done in many ways, like interacting with them through gestures, facial expressions, responding to the baby cues, and also, through parentese!
Your active involvement in deciphering your kid’s emotions in their initial years will make them openly express their emotions with growing time!
3. Encouraging Physical Development
Do you know it takes at least 30 to 50 muscles in a human body to lift even a tiny object?
So, you do realize the background work towards a simple action!!
Therefore, it is very important for children to exercise their muscles by consistently trying to interact with an object in any way or form.
This ensures their muscle readiness for future actions!
Also, we all know that a healthy life is a sign of a healthy mind, and a healthy mind ensures a healthy body.
Hence, the importance of good physical health cannot be underestimated!
The kids have to be taught that through discipline and persistence.
During infancy, it is important that you allot tummy time for your children and let them play with themselves. This also aids a healthy metabolism and digestion.
It is also important that you let your child self-feed by analyzing the texture of the food when they learn to sit, to let them learn more skills!
You would not believe it, but simple activities like these help in developing various cognitive, motor, visual, and sensory skills in them.
So, kids do teach us that learning is fun after all!
4. Reading and Language Development
Have you noticed that a tiny baby will always recognize a mother’s voice, tone, and words, no matter how many minutes old?
This shows that the kids’ auditory skills development inside the womb helps them absorb the words being spoken from outside, especially by their mothers’.
Caution: Who knew, one also had to be mindful about our words around a pregnant woman too!
Babies understand their mother tongue the best because of their exposure to the same.
Therefore, it is very important for parents to inculcate a habit of reading to them, mimicking or having interactive storytelling sessions right from their childhood.
For example, if you are reading from a book of animal sounds, you can say, and the cow says, "Moooo." Now repeat it at least twice before moving further.
With consistency and passing time, you will notice that your kid will actually start responding and reflecting on your speech.
Once the kids are accustomed to regular episodes of reading sessions, you can have interactive story-telling sessions with them or ask them questions from the story to increase their memory.
You can also inculcate a sense of responsibility in them by asking them what they learnt from the story.
A simple reading habit, even for an hour, will enhance their language, imagination, creativity, vocabulary, auditory, and emotional skills.
Reading would also help them understand themselves and the world around them better!
5. Music and Movement for Learning
Have you witnessed how listening to good music appeases your soul?
Also, you always learn better while listening than by watching. This is because watching sometimes has the tendency to distract you from learning something important.
So, music not only soothes your senses but can also be a great method for learning. A win-win for both you and the baby! Isn’t it?
But how?
Ensure that your child’s auditory skills are at play, not only by singing simple rhymes to them but also through repetitive use of various alphabets, numbers, words, etc., even during your house chores.
For example, while cleaning the room, you can say, “I am picking up one, two, and three pillows from the floor.”
You need not be always involved. However, you can also play the rhymes during their playtime. This will also empower their multi-tasking skills, apart from imparting them with a good memory!
Also, did you know that listening to music also helps in the development of vocabulary, speech, imagination, creativity, communication, empathy, self-expression, and problem-solving abilities in children?
Wondering how?
Well, practice it yourself by repetitively listening to something and notice absorbing those words sub-consciously in your regular life!
Lullaby, again, a music also works like a panacea to make a baby fall asleep.
Speaking of lullabies, do listen to the world’s first lullaby for mothers’ as a token of gratitude for your selfless care giving!
6. Nurturing emotional intelligence
The emotional quotient in humans is a lot more complex than we understand. It is linked to overall well-being.
Therefore, having healthy emotional regulation in kids is very important for their enhanced emotional intelligence!
What is emotional intelligence?
It refers to the ability for understanding and handling ours and others’ emotions. This plays a very important role in having healthy relationships.
Sometimes, have you noticed how venting out your emotions in front of your friend gives you peace?
Similar is the case with kids!
Do not underestimate their size because they too feel intense emotions. They just require someone to validate them for their enhanced self-awareness.
Hence, as parents, ensure to listen to them attentively and respond through reflective listening. For example, if they say, “I do not want to go to school," you can reply, “You do not want to go to school, but why?”
This will not only validate their emotions, but repeating their words would also make them secure that they can always come to you.
Engaging in interactive dialogues with your kid will surprise you with how much they have to say!!
Also, by doing so, you might not only be aware of their life but also establish a secure parent-child bond.
7. Consistency and Routine in Learning
We all have heard, “Consistency is what transforms an average into excellence!”
So, consistency should be diligently followed through timely routines, but balanced with flexibility, encouragement, and lots of claps for your little ones!
This will keep them motivated to keep learning.
Forcing your children to do something would always result in a negative response, thus creating a wall between you and them for further bonding.
Therefore, it is very important that you incorporate positive reinforcement parenting!
Also Read: Your Guide to Becoming a Positive Parent - Benefits and Tips
For example, if your child does his homework by himself, you can appreciate them by saying, “Wow! I am so proud of you for doing the homework by yourself.” This will not only make them satisfied and happy but will also enhance their confidence and self-esteem.
Also, be mindful about criticisms and be clear in your communication to show disappointment in their actions and not them.
For example, if your child has not cleaned up after playing, you can say, “I do not like that you keep your play area unclean.”
Once you start inculcating consistency and positive reinforcement in your parenting, you might start to notice that your children will make extra efforts to rectify their mistakes.
Also Read: How to avoid common mistakes of first-time parenting?
8. Embracing Everyday Learning Opportunities
This can start right from their birth by interacting with them about the environment.
For example, if your child is looking at the fan, you can say that it is the fan and it keeps us cool, or this is the food; this makes our tummy full!
Use parentese to grab the kid's attention!
Also, once you begin taking your kids outside, you can talk to them about how birds are chirping, people are walking, dogs are barking, etc.
Doing this will enhance their curiosity to learn more, thus making them, “Dora, the explorer” in their own quirky ways!
Always make sure to give the “why” to anything they ask you.
For example, if they ask, “What is thunder?” you can explain it but also ask them why it occurs. This will be like a little brain exercise for them!
Conclusion
Who knew training such tiny brains’ could require such intense positive reinforcement parenting!
Face-to-face interactions are always the best ways for your children to learn, rather than exposing them to random videos.
Ensure that your children’s screen time remains limited in their initial years of development and they spend their maximum time analyzing, watching, listening, talking, acting, feeling, and feeding themselves.
Make sure to be available for them, because they need you the most. They are as clueless as you become when you are given to operate a new technology!
So, have patience and let them create a mess.
After all, the messier their study time, the clearer their development will be!