Beyond flash card : how to do the infant visual stimulation in fun and creative ways. Written by Dian Dewi
Babies learn about environment surrounding them through five senses: vision, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting. Of those five senses, vision is least developed sense a baby has at birth.Therefore, it is important for parents to help their babies to ‘perfect’ their vision during first few months of their baby’s life. Babies who do not receive adequate visual stimulation may never get good vision. Or they may develop it slowly. In contrast, babies who are stimulated develop good vision faster. Having a good vision early is important since this will put baby in a competitive edge. Why ? Because vision provides baseline of other area of development. It enhances curiosity, attentiveness, concentration and most importantly, cements bonding between parents and baby. So, what can a parent do to help perfect their baby’s vision ? Parents can accelerate and optimize development of their babies’ vision by providing a variety of visual input. When a baby receives visual stimulation, vision-related nerve cells , which initially are not well connected, start to form a lot of connection with other nerve cells. This will finally make baby’s eyes to thrive, enabling baby to see better. Newborn baby. First, let’s see what research says. Research has found that newborn’s eyes register contrasting color such as white, black and red best. So best way to stimulate your baby’s eyes is by exposing your baby to as much dark and light as possible. Try these following activities: - Show your baby light and dark contrasting toys including ones attached to baby mobiles, wrist rattles and other educational baby toys. - Show books with pictures which have contrasting colors. - And if you don't mind to go a bit overboard, surround your baby with objects which have contrasting colors. These may include: bedding, play area and even yourself. Yes, you can actually wear shirts with stripes when tending your baby.
| | Are Your Kids Driving You Crazy? How Character Building Charts Keep You SaneWritten by Jean Tracy
Who lives in your house? Are they driving you “crazy?” Do you have a Winnie Whiner, a Sammy Slacker, or a Bubba Bully? Perhaps you’ve yelled, you’ve lectured, and you’ve even spanked to get your Winnie to stop whining, your Sammy to do his chores, and your Bubba to stop hurting his little brother. How can you get your Peter Cheater to play fair, your Larry Liar to tell truth or your Tilly Tattle to mind her own business? Our greatest task as parents is to raise children with strong healthy characters. Let’s find out how Character-Building Charts helped one mother and how they can help you too. I remember counseling a young boy who was a ‘Sammy Slacker.’ One day his teacher confided, “When I tell my class, ‘Children, please take out your readers,’ Sammy leans back in his chair, his arms hanging over its back, and calls out, ‘I can’t find my book!’ Sure enough, a little girl scrambles over, looks his messy desk, and finds it for him.” Sammy irritated his teacher, lost respect of his classmates, and had no friends. These are not consequences most parents want for their children. To help Sammy, I worked with his parents, especially his mother. I found out that her mother and grandmother believed it was their duty to be servants to their families. They were to pick up after everyone, do all housework, and be happy too. Sammy’s mom finally understood that she was spoiling her child, making him weak, dependent, and distasteful to others. She decided to turn off internal voices of her mother and grandmother. Sammy's mother did three things:
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