When To Start Teaching Your Baby (2)
With you or without you, your baby will be learning from the
moment she is born and starts to take in her new surroundings.
Every sight and sound will be a part of her learning process;
she will observe everything you do and listen to every word you
say. And as the months pass, she will eventually start to copy.
Fully conscious teaching, with books and other articles of
learning, will come much later on; but of course, it is entirely
up to you.
With our baby daughter, Saffron, I started reading her a bed
time story at about six months old. She could not understand
fully, but it gave her exposure to books, and the comfort of a
bed time routine, with my voice and sounds, and the pictures in
the book. It did not matter that every evening it was Goldilocks
and the Three Bears, or one of the other old favourites in the
book. Here in the Philippines there are not many books of
children's stories in the stores.
Repetition does not matter, in fact it is part of the comfort
for the baby. That routine helped to ensure that she slept
contented every night, and has only woken once since. That was
recently when she seems to have had a bad dream. A quick cuddle,
and she was back to sleep again.
One thing to always bear in mind is that your baby, whatever
age, will know and understand far more than you think. All the
while, when she is not talking, she will be picking up words and
their meanings. Those words will eventually come out verbally,
even if they don't sound quite right to begin with.
Personally, I think it is important to speak to a baby in a
normal, adult like way and never limit your speech to what you
think she knows. A bright child especially will take in just
about everything you say when they are past 6 months, and
remember it longer than you would expect. One day they will
surprise you, and follow your instruction over something you had
no idea they could understand.
>From a very early age, it is best to "explain while you talk
while you do". If you are feeding her potato, tell her it is
potato; if you are preparing a bottle of milk, tell her you are
making her milk. Every time you do something in front of her, it
is an opportunity to teach her about what is happening around
her. By doing so you will speed her knowledge and understanding,
expose her more to language, and also help to build your
relationship with her. By conversing with her all the time, you
are showing her respect as an individual, and that will help her
confidence and feeling of belonging. If you treat her as dumb,
she will be dumb.
There is no need to force a baby to learn anything. To be
effective and useful, it needs to be done in a natural and
relaxed way. Saffron is now 20 months, and for many months now
she has been the one to decide what she wants to do at bedtime:
a story, nursery rhymes, her new teaching cards. Respect her
choice, and you help her mature as a child; but let it be known
it is her bed time. If her demand is to get up and play again,
then you need to be firm, or you will stack up problems for
later. You should be the boss, but she should be able to make a
reasonable choice.
Sometimes she will surprise you. Saffron got bored with the bed
time stories recently, and all she wanted for a few nights was
something to hold. For a few bed times, she wanted a book to
hold as she lay down, despite the fact there was no chance of
reading it once the light was out. Then it was one of her dolls,
and next back to stories and nursery rhymes again.
All learning should be pressure free, and fun for the baby. If
she wants to learn alone, let her. If she wants your help, help
her. Teaching your baby can be a wonderfully rewarding
experience. You will probably find she will, in a way, teach you
what she wants to learn about. If you stimulate her mind, and
she is observant, she will be pointing out things from a very
young age. It is important for you to participate with her. If
she points at the moon and gets excited, explain to her what it
is; if she points to a bird, do the same.
Babies learn an enormous amount in a short time. By conversing
with them in a normal way, they will understand simple
instructions before you know it. But they do make simple
associations and follow those instructions literally. At about
15 months, Saffron often left a bit of her food at meal times
and I would finish it for her. After this went on a few weeks, I
remarked that I was her garbage bin. A few weeks more passed,
and she had finished eating an apple one day, and offered her
mum the core. Her mum said: "Put it in the garbage." Saffron
went toddling off, not to the garbage bin, but to me. I was the
garbage bin to her, because that is what I had "taught" her a
few weeks earlier.
That brought lots of laughs, but when she was corrected the
revised knowledge stuck, and now in the same situation she
wanders off to find the real garbage bin.
Teaching your baby is a daily and ongoing activity, but one that
can just be melded in with your normal activities. It's a fun
time for both of you, so enjoy it while you can.