Putting the Affirmations for Your Baby Into Practice

BY ARLENE F. HARDER, MA, MFT

"A truly appreciative child will break, lose, spoil, or fondle to death any really successful gift within a matter of minutes."

— Russell Lynes

The first step in helping your child learn about doing things is recognizing that the developmental skills of this stage involve her need to move out into the world and explore as much as she possibly can. The second step is finding a way to support her efforts so that her natural inquisitiveness is encouraged. You have to do this while maintaining her safety, which can be a challenge, for you have many things to do besides watching a busy child assert her independence.

While these are great videos for parents, I have strong reservations about videos for young children. You may want to check out Will Baby Einstein Videos Turn Your Child Into a Genius? if you are considering using "educational" videos for your baby.

The following articles have lots of information to help you teach your child the importance of exploring the world and doing things.

The Magic of Everyday Moments® Campaign

This is a program developed in partnership by ZERO TO THREE and the Johnson & Johnson Pediatric Institute. It is designed to help you and other busy caregivers can understand how to use simple, everyday moments to promote your child's social, emotional, and intellectual development. The material they provide shows you how to use very simple, ordinary interactions to encourage his development.

Nurturing Your Child’s Development

This is an excellent resource to help you understand exactly how you can best support their child’s healthy development and growing brain. These handouts, developed to coincide with well-baby check-ups, are based on "Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development," a report by the National Academy of Sciences. They were created by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the ZERO TO THREE organization and are in the form of easy-to-use PDF files.

Brain Quiz

Test yourself to see what facts and misinformation you have heard concerning infants and brain development research.

Real Moms

Real Mothers don’t eat quiche; they don’t have time to make it.

Real Mother know that their kitchen utensils are probably in the sandbox.

Real Mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens, and happy kids.

Real Mothers know that dried Play-Doh doesn’t come out of shag carpets.

Real Mothers don’t want to know what the vacuum just sucked up.

Real Mothers sometimes ask “Why me?” and get their answer when a little voice says, “Because I love you best.”

Real Mothers know that a child’s growth is not measured by height or years or grade – it is marked by the progression of Mama to Mommy to Mom.

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