DIY Early Childhood Development

Baby years: A Look at “Infant Stimulation” and “Early Childhood

Intervention” By Diane Ryckman and Sherry Bushnell

Infant stimulation refers to providing a stimulating environment for your baby in order to encourage his or her development. This involves exposing your baby to appropriate activities which will help him progress from one stage to the next. Though the term may sound imposing, infant stimulation is actually something that happens naturally in every home where parents are lovingly involved in caring for their newborn baby. When we carry our child with us as we work around our home, when we talk to our little one and try to coax that first smile from her, when we encourage our baby to move towards a toy placed just beyond his grasp, when we play pat-a-cake with Baby's hands or help Baby wave "bye-bye" to Daddy, when we show our delight at Baby's first attempts to say Dada or Mama - all these are examples of infant stimulation. In each of these examples we are encouraging our child to grow beyond what he has already attained developmentally.

Early childhood intervention refers to identifying potential delays in a specific area of a child's development, and aggressively working with your child to attain that next stage of development. This involves discerning your child's emerging skills and working with him to fully develop them. Infant stimulation is obviously very important for every child. When a child is born with special needs, infant stimulation is even more important. Because a child with special needs may show little response to the stimulation around him, this could result in leaving a "content" baby on his own in his crib or playpen when what he really needs is to be in the middle of family life where all the action is!

Here is how one family provided infant stimulation for their newborn:

“When Hannah was just a newborn, our basic rule was to expose her to as much as possible. She had a constantly changing environment of sounds, smells, and sights to see. We put high contrast black and white pictures in her crib, along with a large unbreakable mirror, which we rotated around the crib to different positions and pictures. We put different toys in each room so she always had something interesting at which to look. We sing, we talk, talk, talk.

“As Hannah became more mobile, we put things just out of her reach to encourage her to find a way to get to them. A rolled up towel under her torso when she was on her tummy allowed her hands to be free to handle things, and pillows surrounding her when she could sit up helped to give her a different angle from which to view her world. When sitting on the floor with her we put her on her tummy across our legs to give her something over which to crawl and stretch. We carry her facing out, with her back to us, to strengthen and force her muscles to grow. After each diaper change, we pull her to a sitting position or have her stand each time.”

When providing "home school-style" infant stimulation and early childhood intervention for your baby with special needs, there are two simple keys to keep in mind:

1). Know what comes next in skill development, and

2). Work towards it.

Knowing what comes next

Here is Carol's advice: "It seems to me the simplest thing is to obtain a list of normal developmental skill progressions and work on what you see as your child's needs at the moment. IMPORTANT---The age ranges that go with these lists should only help you to keep the skills in order, because it seems as though no matter how hard you work, you child falls farther "behind." God has already determined what level He wants your child to be at when, and don't let anyone lay a guilt trip on you."

Amy, mother of Reagan, shares her experience with her daughter's development: "My goal when Reagan, our daughter with DS, was an infant/toddler was to facilitate development. In order to accomplish this I purchased a developmental scale and an accompanying activity guide. I had so many activities to choose from that I was soon developing a program for her...an informal homeschooling program. Most of the activities were playful and fun, providing appropriate toys and activities in the appropriate environment. With my other children I took so much for granted. Now, I have a deep appreciation for growth and development!" The developmental tools Amy used are called the HELP (Hawaii Early Learning Profile) Checklist (0-3) and HELP Activity Guide.

Working towards that next milestone

One thing I realized as we worked with Andrew in his development was that children with special needs are not slow, as some people perceive them. No, they are fighters. They have to work HARD to achieve what so many of us take for granted. As parents helping our little ones to grow and develop, we need to be aware that, though the time frames differ, still our child with special needs will continue to make progress. There are a few things to keep in mind while working towards that next milestone.

1). Persevere...sometimes there may be little evidence that your child is responding to the stimulation you are providing. For some children, input needs to be so much greater before they will begin to respond to the stimulus. Galatians 6:9 reminds us,"...let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."

2). Break things down...little steps are easier to accomplish than big ones. Think through what is involved in reaching the next goal, and see if there are sub-skills to aim for in order to accomplish the big picture. This is where a developmental scale can come in handy. Someone else has already done the work of breaking skills down for you.

3). Be creative...how can you incorporate stimulation into your daily activities? The more and varied the input, the better.

4). Enjoy!...don't feel pressured to "do everything." The LORD gave you each of your children. Ask Him for the wisdom to know how to help your child grow and develop, and trust Him with your child's developmental time frame, with your other responsibilities, and with the grace to do what needs to be done.

Preschool Years:

Though the skills your child will develop in the preschool years become more complex, learning to recognize your child's emerging skills and determining ways to help your child develop those skills will continue to guide you in planning your child's education as your child moves from infant to preschooler age. Here are some ideas and resources to help you with your child's preschool education.

Communication and Speech Development

The desire to communicate is the greatest motivator behind learning to speak, and for our children with special needs, this desire is no less – it is just that for some, learning to speak is so much more difficult, and for others it will not even be possible. This does not mean that our child cannot learn to communicate at all, rather it means we need to be on the lookout for ways he does communicate and build on these to help him “say” what he wants to get across.

There are a number of resources available to help with speech development. One which comes highly recommended by many

parents is Communicating Partners. (www.jamesdmacdonald.org.)

Books by Dr. MacDonald include:

Before Speech,

Play to Talk and

First Words.

Some more books containing ideas that can be used at home are:

Language and Thinking for Young Children (Ruth Beechick)

The Language of Toys, Teaching Communication Skills to Children with Special Needs Sue Schwartz)

Early Communication Skills for Children with Down Syndrome (Libby Kumin)

Ready, Set, Go: Talk to Me (DeAnna Horstmeier)

1st Straight Talk: A Parents Guide for Correcting Childhood Mispronunciations (Marisa Lapish)

2nd Straight Talk: A Parent’s Guide to Language Development (Marisa Lapish and Tom and Sherry Bushnell)

More ideas for encouraging speech development

Children with speech delays often need to hear a word many, many times before they will attempt to say the word themselves. By consciously determining what words are most important for your child to learn, you can make a point of using these words as you talk with your child.

With Andrew, we made up picture books of important words using photographs of family members, pictures of actions, or favorite foods and toys, etc. We would look at them over and over together, saying each target word. Picture books or flash cards of important words can also be made out of magazine pictures cut out and pasted on card stock. The important thing is to review the words together often.

A few simple keys to remember in order to encourage your child’s speech development are model, repeat, and expand: model – let your child hear how a word should be pronounced; repeat – let your child know you understand what he is trying to say by repeating his word; expand – add one more word to expand what your child is saying (example: child says “ball”, mom says, “big ball”). If a child gets "lazy" and just sits and cries, or makes noise instead of words, remind him that he can talk and to use his words. Try to wait until he says what he wants to communicate instead of figuring it out and responding to his noise.

Pre-reading skills

There are a number of things we can do with our children to help prepare them for learning to read. The most important thing is to read to your child. Get into a habit of reading at nap time or bedtime. Not only is the value of reading passed on as we read to our children, but their listening skills are improved the more they are read to. As you read to your child, underline the words with your finger as you read them. This teaches a number of things: that words are read from left to right, that sentences are made up of words joined together, and that pages are read from top to bottom.

Whether you plan to teach a phonics or sight word method of reading, it will be helpful to teach your child the sounds that each of the letters make. Initially teach one sound for each letter to keep things simple. One way of doing this is to purchase or make an alphabet book with one simple uncluttered picture per letter per page, or simpler yet, with both lower and upper case of one letter on one page, and the picture, labeled, on the next. When possible, read this book to your child at least once every day, not expecting any response from your child, but just providing lots of input. Read it the same way each time. With the letter page say, "A says ah, ah, ah" (short vowel sound). With the picture page say, slowly and clearly, "a - ple, apple", the first time breaking the word into syllables, the second time speaking normally. Do this for as long as necessary until your child begins recognizing the letter sounds and "reading" them himself. For those of you who are working on developing your child's speech, this would be a good tool, too.

The video series Love and Learning is a simple, helpful tool for encouraging speech development and sight reading skills. www.loveandlearning.com

See and Learn is another speech/reading resource, and is available for free download or for purchase at http://www.seeandlearn.org/en/gb/language-reading/.

Pre-writing skills

Scribbling is the way most children begin the progression of learning to print. Initially you may need to secure paper to the table or floor with tape to provide stability for your child. For variety, use long rolls of paper on the floor, or place paper on an easel. In order to work towards a proper pencil grip, use short stubs of crayon or chalk instead of long ones so your child will have to use his thumb and fingers. Using a variety of mediums keeps the interest up and leads to experiment. Try using pens, pencils, felt pens and crayons; foam brushes, q-tips and paint brushes with water colors; chalk on chalkboard or cement sidewalk. Beginning scribbling time should be a together-done activity, for later our children need to pay attention to our paper to move forward.

Encouraging an interest in coloring pictures can also help your child develop the fine motor skills they need for learning to print. Color pictures with your child, taking turns coloring. When your child begins staying in the lines, you will know your child is getting closer to being able to control a pencil well enough to begin learning to print letters.
In time you can begin to teach your child to follow simple movement patterns using hand over hand, with your child’s dominant hand holding a pencil or marker. One way to do this is using 1” masking tape stuck on a large sheet of paper or a cookie sheet. Make tracks to follow with a pencil or match box car. These lines should be easy to follow at first, gradually becoming more complicated in squiggle patterns and zigzags.

Encouraging your child to copy what you do on paper will help to develop the observation skills necessary for learning to form letters. Begin with simple things – dots on the page, then short lines, just a couple to a page. Progress to one line starting at the top and going down the page, then one line going horizontally across the page. Next, “V” shapes, zigzags, circles, wave patterns, connected loops, etc.

For our little ones, the first meaningful letters to learn are those in their name. Tracing patterns can be used to begin teaching letters. These can be made of card stock with each letter printed darkly in felt pens, then laminated or covered with plastic wrap. Erasable markers or pens should be used to trace the letters over and over until reasonable accuracy is accomplished. Another idea is to print letters with a highlighter and have your child trace these. Here is an idea from Annette: “Once Jessica started learning her letters, I discovered having her follow a tracing of letters out of sand paper was an excellent idea because then she could feel it at the same time and be very interested in it.”

Beginner Math Concepts

Counting can be learned even if the concept of how many is not understood. Once a child is able to count by memorizing the number names in order they have a framework for future learning of number concepts. Andrew learned to count going up and down the stairs. First we would count with him over and over to 3. After a few weeks of this, Andrew began counting along with us, then we began counting up to five, then 8, 10, etc.

In order to help Andrew learn number recognition, we purchased a large-button calculator for a couple of dollars. As Andrew played with the calculator, we would name the numbers as he pushed them, and he quickly learned the number symbols to go with the names he already knew.

The concept of quantity – that the number 4, for example, represents 4 things – is a more difficult concept to grasp and a bit more challenging to teach. Though Andrew could count to 12 or so, if I held out 3 fingers and asked him how many there were, he would be stumped. In order to help him understand that the numerals he could read represented a specific number of things, we would play matching games with home-made number cards and dot pattern cards. We would match numerals with dot patterns, place bingo chips on the dot patterns counting them as we did, match numerals with bingo chips, clip the appropriate number of clothes pegs on the edge of the number card or the dot pattern card, pick a card and build a block tower with that number of blocks, etc.

The concepts of addition and subtraction can be introduced using an interesting collection of odds and ends. Ask your child to find you three round things from your collection. Have him take one away. How many are left? Ask your child to pick out two blue things and two yellow things. How many all together? If your child is unsure, give him the answer before he shows any frustration. Keep learning fun, and ensure success by not giving him an opportunity to guess incorrectly.

Learning Beyond the 3 R’s

In order to develop your child’s understanding of the world around him, use books. Interact with books, broaden his understanding, put thoughts there, stimulate his mind, next time ask to see if he remembers (if not, tell him again).

When a child is not able to form questions because of developmental delays, but is able to understand what he hears, anticipate the questions he would ask if he could, and talk with him about the world around him. Typical pre-school questions to keep in mind are, “What’s that?” and “Why?” Asking questions and supplying answers for your child can encourage attentiveness and problem solving skills. As a child becomes more able to communicate, read favorite books with him over and over again, asking him questions about the pictures or what was read and giving him the answers to those questions, or first giving him the answers, then asking the questions. Each time the book is read, ask the same questions, until he begins supplying the answers. Then begin asking the question in a different way, giving him the answer again, if he needs it.

For children who find it challenging to control a pencil it is still possible to use typical preschool materials. Instead of working through a workbook with pencil or crayons, sit together and go through the activities using your fingers (modeling how as necessary) to trace practice lines, match similar objects, identify which one is different – whatever the activity on the page might be. Because the pages are not being written on, you can do this many times, providing lots of input with each concept.

Naptime or bedtime can be a good time to review bits of learning together, whether Bible verses, or counting to 20, or reciting the alphabet. Working review into your daily routine is a simple painless way of learning together. To begin with, you will likely be the only one doing the counting. Despite limited speech, your child is listening and remembering as he hears the same review over and over. As we start early with input even if understanding is not there, we are laying a foundation so that by the time he does understand, he'll have the knowledge to build on.

Passing on our faith to our children with extra challenges

Begin early to pass on your faith to your child. Memorize Bible verses. In our family, in order to help us remember passages of scripture, we make up actions to go with the words. Even a child who is limited in his speech can take part by doing the actions with the rest of the family. He can demonstrate that he knows the verses without speaking a word!

Teach your child about the Bible – that it is about God, that it is written by God, that it is written for each one of us, that it is true. Pass on to your child a knowledge of creation and a love for the Creator. Point out the beauty around us and that God made it all, that creation teaches us about Him – His goodness, His greatness, His bigness – that we serve the wonderful, loving God who gives us all things richly to enjoy. Most important of all, teach your child about sin, and our need for the Savior – that we all do bad things, that our badness keeps us from God, but that Jesus died to take the punishment for our badness and to make us clean and ready to go to live with Him in Heaven forever.

This article was taken in part from the book, Christian Homes and Special Kids

By Sherry Bushnell and Diane Ryckman