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Your
Baby is a Looker
This is a part of a series of
articles based on the book 'How to Maximize Your Child's Learning Ability'
by Dr. Lauren Bradway and Barbara Albers Hill
Tips for enhancing
an infant's existing looker skills
These tips are for babies who have
a natural learning style that makes them lookers as per Dr. Bradway's classification.
The way to go about doing this is to make sure that you provide your baby
with plenty of visual stimulation. He should always have something to observe
and feast his eyes on. If you are bottle-feeding your baby, switch the
baby from side to side like a breastfeeding mother shifts her baby from
one breast to the other. This will stimulate each of his eyes in turn.
Sit in front of the mirror with your baby and have some fun. Make faces,
point at the various reflections, and just laugh in general. Make a photo
album of all the key people in the baby's life - mother, father, grandparents,
siblings, babysitters, etc. and go through the finished product with your
baby. Hang a colourful mobile over your baby's cot. Engage in frequent
eye contact with the baby. Draw a face on your index finger and wiggle
your finger in front of your baby's face. Play with your baby in such a
way that he follows the movement of the finger puppet with his eyes. Crawling
plays an important part in the development of visual skills. Do not try
to hurry your baby through this stage in an attempt to make her stand and
walk at an earlier age. Place your baby in a vantage point from where he
can observe the entire family going about their daily routine. Keep the
light on in your baby's room at night in the first few weeks so that he
can look around if he wakes up at night. If the light begins to distract
him, and prevent him from falling asleep, may be you could try switching
on a night light.
Developing listener
skills in looker infants
The best way to accomplish this is
to combine talking and listening with action and visuals. In this way,
parents can appeal to the looker's natural learning style while teaching
him a new way of absorbing information. Parents can tie a rattle to their
babies' wrist or ankle so the baby will hear a sound every time he moves.
Parents should sing to their children when rocking them to sleep or cuddling
them. It is also a good idea to provide children with toys that show pictures
that make corresponding sounds, or play tunes at a touch of a button. To
make things more interesting, parents can use gestures while singing nursery
rhymes and telling stories to their children. Hand gestures can also help
illustrate concepts like 'big', 'small', 'hot', 'cold', 'goodbye', etc.
Babies often pick up expressive sounds like "yuck", "ouch", "uh-oh", before
they speak words. Thus, parents can use such expressive sounds while conversing
with their babies. There is no harm in indulging in a little baby talk
in order to make words easier for the baby to mimic.
Developing mover
skills in looker infants
Touch and movement play a key role
in developing mover skills. Parents should attempt to maintain as much
physical contact with their babies as possible - hug them, rock them, pat
them, caress them. Following the same principle, the best way to carry
babies when going out is in a baby sling or front carrier. A large, lightweight,
multi-coloured ball is a good toy. The baby can roll it, kick it, and bounce
it. Allow your baby to move around freely outside the confines of a playpen
or a walker. Get into a wading pool with your child and talk about the
fun you're having and the toys you are playing with.
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