Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Sensory for Toddlers

My local children's centre is a fantastic place and Dylan and I are familiar faces as we have been attending various groups there since he was only a few weeks old.  I have recently signed up for a free course there which explores sensory learning in children.  I won't lie - the initial draw was the free creche for 2.5 hours twice a week and a chance to sit down with some adults, have a chat and a cup of tea in peace.  Dylan is a sociable child and loves the creche room which is full of toys, messy play and snacks and he is more than happy to be left with the other children to do his own thing.

Meanwhile, I am really enjoying learning about his sensory journey, and how best to encourage him to learn. Humans are a unique species in that our young are born utterly helpless but with so much potential.  Some animal babies can walk within hours of being born and have to learn to defend themselves from the start.  Human babies however have millions of neurons and although not all the connections are there, with a little help they can grow into amazing young people.

Before a child is three, they develop most of these connections and it is up to us as parents to stimulate all their senses to ensure their brains develop as healthily as possible and to their maximum capabilities. We help them develop through touch, taste, smell, sound and sight and the course is designed to teach you more about why this is important and ways to do it.

I like to think that I encourage Dylan already.  We read books together do a lot of puzzles,  attempt messy play and go for walks to explore.  We expose him to all sorts of music and try to let him develop as much as we can.  Having some guidance though has been great and being able to drink a hot cup of tea as I learn has been even better!

For the first session we discussed some of the neuroscience behind their development and then set about with our own arts and crafts session.  I cannot wait for Dylan to be that bit older that we can do these things together and for some of the other parents, the idea is that they go home and try the ideas with their own children.  For those of us with small toddlers however, the finger puppets we made are a tool for stories, songs and exploring textures.  My monkey and lion (It is probably safer to tell you than let you guess- I may need a bit of practice still) have glitter, pipe cleaners, pom poms and felt on and Dylan loved turning them over and touching all the bits.  He also liked rawwr-ing at the lion and saying ooh ooh aah aah to the monkey.  I feel creative making up my highly out of tune and un-rhyming songs and he sways, dances and giggles as I sing them.


Today's session focused on auditory learning and how early a baby learns the art of conversation.  We made drums out of carpet rolls and balloons and got to decorate them with paper and stickers - It felt like a toddler group for adults but as Dylan is not really old enough to get involved with the making he just gets to enjoy playing with it! He has been busy bashing it and shaking it (I popped a few sewing machine bobbins in there which give it a great noise when you shake it)  and trying to pull off the fish and boat stickers.  I learnt a lot as we crafted and have always been fascinated by the fact babies prefer their native tongue from only 6 weeks old and wish I spoke another language as children seem to adjust to being bi-lingual so easily if they are brought up that way.


I am loving learning more about Dylan and Squish's sensory journey and feel more equipped to nurture Squish to grow up into the genius he could be.  I still have two more weeks left of the course and can't wait to build up my craft collection whilst also learning (and drinking tea in peace!)

9 comments:

  1. I did baby sensory with my lil girl when she was 6months on a 12 week course and it was brilliant! Was so sad when it finished! Was prob the best thing I've done with her :))) x

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    1. We did a sensory course together which we loved but was only up until 13 months so it is great being shown the next steps! x

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  2. That sounds like such an amazing course. Brilliant that it's free too!

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    1. It is amazing what is out there for free. I am a huge fan of our children's centres! x

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  3. This sounds like a fantastic course. I wish I could find something similar here. They can soak up so much as toddlers.

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    1. There are some great free courses that I want to do here - next month's is about playing with boys but I think I will be too busy giving birth to one so haven't signed up x

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  4. Sounds like a really interesting course to take!!

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    1. I am finding it really fascinating. I did a bit of Psychology at uni so the science side really fascinates me as well x

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  5. sounds like a fab course I haven' heard of anything like that up here at our Children's Centres but I do attend a private paid for Baby Sensory group and love it. I think it's so important to stimulate them in a variety of ways. Great post thanks for sharing x

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