The Importance of Baby’s First Year
28 Feb 2015
We all know that activities like Tummy Time and ‘crawl before you walk’ are extremely important in baby’s first year (and beyond), but did you know that babies who have the right early movement experiences in their first year have better coordination, concentration, memory, behaviour and perception as they get older? It’s pretty important information!
Fortunately there are some fantastic programs that help us as parents to ensure our babies are getting the right stimulation at the right time. One of those programs that I attended with my baby, Alexander, was GymbaROO … I’m not sure who loves it more, Alex or me! I’m SO happy that GymbaROO have now developed a fantastic free online series for parents of babies called Active Babies Smart Kids The BabyROO Series.
This series comes highly recommended by paediatricians, doctors, early childhood experts and the Maternal Child and Family Health Nurses Association of Australia (and me). There are already over 25,000 Aussie and NZ parents and babies loving the series.
This free online resource really is the essential guide for parents of babies. The series has been adapted by Dr Jane Williams and Bindy Cummings from GymbaROO’s highly acclaimed neuro-developmental programs.
You can find it here: http://activebabiessmartkids.com.au/
I had the pleasure of asking Bindy Cummings and Dr Jane Williams to tell us a little bit more about the new program. Here’s what they had to say:
The 12 part online video series explains to parents exactly what to do with their babies, (newborn to 9 months), to give them the best start and the correct stimulation to lay down the foundations for later learning.
Dr Jane Williams, one of Australia’s leading child development experts and Director of GymbaROO says that the correct stimulation for babies influences how well they behave, read and learn when they reach school. “It is well researched that during these earliest years of life much of the essential wiring linked to learning is laid down,” she says.
What is not well known is just how much of a dramatic influence parents can have over the number of neural connections made by their babies and the resulting strength of their foundations for learning,” she says.
“There is an exciting and enormous amount of brain growth that can go on in this earliest year if babies are given the learning opportunities and the opportunity to use their brain.”
The videos are full important information, specialist advice and hundreds of ideas for fun and loving activities that help build key brain pathways for later learning.
The series is designed so that mums and dads can join in and do the activities with their baby from birth, in the comfort of their own homes. It is based on fun and learning together with joy and happiness.
These activities include: tummy time activities, baby exercises, dances to music, baby massage, activities to help with visual development, hearing and speech, baby balance, rhythm and music and much more.
“Babies who have the right early movement experiences in their first year have better coordination, concentration, memory, behaviour and perception as they get older,” says Dr Williams. “In addition, they have improved confidence, communication and socialisation skills,” she says.
“We believe that every parent has right and the need to have access to this important information.”
“We also strongly believe that ever child deserves the right to be able learn easily and successfully.”
“We know that parents are a child’s first, most important and best teachers and that they play a crucial role in the early years. Well-informed parents make more confident parents. This is why we made the series.”
“During the first year, the brain grows dramatically, producing billions of cells and hundreds of trillions of connections between these cells.”
“A baby’s brain actually grows to 64% reaching over half of its adult size in the first 3 months.”
“The biggest difference to the number of resulting connections is made in the first year of a child’s life.”
“Babies’ brains grow through movement. Introducing the correct movement experiences into your baby’s daily life from the earliest months will have a profound influence on their brain growth and neurological organization.”
“What is of great concern is that babies of today have greatly reduced opportunities to move play and develop and this can severely impact their developing brain and healthy development.”
Dr Williams said correct early movement experiences are easy, natural and fun and any parent can do them with their babies.
We have had fantastic feedback from parents, including many comments from Aussie dads, who have been loving this series, so grateful to know what they can be doing with their babies when it’s “their turn.”
OK, I think we can all agree that this is a fantastic, essential Free Resource!
Why not go over and have a look … it’s free after all! The Active Babies Smart Kids complete free series is available here: http://activebabiessmartkids.com.au/
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