How to Promote Infant Development
Kids learning games - infancy and child development
Infant development is one of the most hotly argued spheres in modern psychology, because nobody really knows what goes on inside the mind of a child who has not yet learned to speak.
Infants work differently to adults and to children a few years older, and need very specific types of stimuli to ensure proper infant development. In the early phases of infant development children have very poor eyesight, and are legally blind.
Because of this they respond far better to touch, smell and auditory stimuli than to visuals, but visual stimuli should not be neglected. Touch stimuli are an important part of motor skills in infant development. Make use of the grasp reflex by scratching the infant’s palm. The infant will grasp whatever is touching its palm reflexively – one of many infant reflexes that are lost after infant development is complete.
Sense training is also a vital part of infant development, and you should do your best to provide as much stimulation as possible. Infants respond to sounds and smells better than anything else, although their taste buds are very well developed only a few months after birth. Infant development progresses very quickly at this stage, so you need to be on the ball! Teaching social interaction can begin during infant development with the teaching of how to express emotions, interact with the mother and other infants, sharing toys and taking turns.
Learning how to act when other infants are around will stand your child in good stead when it comes time to enter a crèche or kindergarten. Some other important elements of infant development are the teaching of ordering and the way things fit together. Patterns, sequences and family models can all be used to teach and reinforce these concepts. Teaching these concepts is a vital part of infant development, and they will improve your child’s concentration and vocabulary growth once the child starts speaking.
There are many other things that your child should learn during infant development. Most of these can be learnt through play or interaction with other infants, but things like flexibility, role-playing, imagination and creativity must be carefully nurtured throughout infant development.
The use of games, educational toys and playgroups is encouraged, as these will ensure constant development of all the faculties that an infant should be developing. If you need to put your child in a crèche, make sure that they have a good structure to promote infant development.
