Helping With Housework
Do your children clean their rooms? Children need to own their space, and that includes cleaning it. You are not helping their development by doing it for them. In fact, you will help build self-esteem by teaching independence. Motivate your children to clean their rooms, as well as shared spaces in the house. Be creative […]
Some Final Easter Egg Fun
Crystal Easter Egg Science Experiment (These crystal eggs are beautiful when the crystals shimmer in the sunlight, easy to do and fascinating to observe the chemical reaction) Supplies Needed: – Borax {found with laundry detergent} – Water – Jars or vases – Egg shells {cleaned with warm water} – Food coloring Instructions: – Remove the top […]
Speech and Language Easter Egg Activities
Easter is always a good time to work on developmental skills, due to all the great Easter toys. Easter eggs present many opportunities for learning. I have included a sensory craft and ways to use them to enhance skill development. Sensory Speech and Language Easter Egg Activities: You need: – Plastic eggs – Hot glue […]
Cognitive Development and Exploring
Cognitive development is greatly impacted by your child’s exploration of his/her environment. As gross motor skills develop, the baby starts to “think” about movements. If the movement is rewarded, it will be repeated. This initiates development of cause and effect, a skill necessary for further cognitive development. Basically, cause and effect means the child’s observation […]
Making Sounds and Producing Words
Communication/language is one of the six domains (gross motor, fine motor, cognitive, language, self-help/adaptive, and social/emotional) in early childhood development. We communicate through body language or movements, written language and spoken language. Body language begins in infancy and continues throughout our lifetime. Written language begins with marks on paper, coloring, and scribbling. Spoken language begins […]
Language Growth
With the development of basic gross and fine motor skills, the infant has the ability to explore the world around him/her. In infancy, the world is confined to members of the family and caregivers. The infant focuses on faces gathering input necessary to develop language skills. This input comes in many forms. Exaggerated faces, singing, […]
Task Analysis
As teachers, we are taught a skill called “task analysis.” This is the ability to break a task down into its smaller parts. It is imperative to know if the child has all prerequisite skills to perform a task, whether it is a math problem, language problem, science problem or a self-help issue. If any […]
Fine Motor Skills Development
With gross motor skills developing, the child will begin to concentrate on developing fine motor skills. Fine motor development involves the smaller muscles of the body (hands, eyes, etc.). “Eye/hand coordination” is important in further development. At birth, the infant’s eyes cross as he/she struggles to make out our image. By placing a rattle in […]
Floor Time
The gross motor developmental domain includes the large muscles of the body. The infant begins development by kicking his/her feet and thrashing hands. With much effort and practice, the infant’s trunk muscles begin to develop, and soon we watch as the infant “rolls over”. We celebrate that first glorious “roll over”, as well we should. […]
Infant Development
It has been a while since we talked about how children develop. Understanding the process of development is important to your helping with skill development. Because of this, I feel a need for a refresher course. Infants develop cephalocaudally (from head to tail) and proximodistally (from the inside, closest to the center, to out) from conception […]
Managing Groups of Children
Managing a group of children can sometimes be a challenge. There are a few things that can enhance group behaviors. This is appropriate for use with one child or thirty, in a classroom or at home. – Be prepared for anything, and be organized. Make sure materials are interesting, eye catching and at your fingertips. […]
New Resolutions with Your Children
With the New Year, comes new resolutions. This year it is my hope that you will resolve to spend quality time with your child or grandchild. With our busy lives, it is not always easy to spend as much time as we would want with our children and grandchildren. Because of this, we need to […]
A Final Christmas Reminder
With Christmas so close, I must make a little plea to parents, grandparents and Santa. I know that most gifts have long since been purchased, wrapped and are waiting for the moment you child can open them. But, do they include books? Books are important gifts for any occasion, but especially at Christmas. The primary […]
Simply Christmas Fun for Fine Motor Training
It’s hard to believe Christmas is so close. This week is a great time to create Christmas fun, and boost fine motor skills. Waffle Cone Christmas Trees: Materials – Waffle Cones – Green Frosting – Red Twizzlers – Colored Candy for the lights (Sunburst {chocolate covered sunflower seeds} work well) Directions – Spread […]
Christmas Songs
A timely encore: Christmas is the perfect time to use music to enhance child development skills. Many songs are used, daily, in the preschool setting, to build language, articulation, motor and educational skills. I have selected a few of my favorites to share with you. To get your child moving and practice/develop language skills, enjoy […]
Teaching the Joy of Giving
With Thanksgiving over and Christmas on the rise, it is a perfect time to teach giving to your child. I have always considered these special days to be bound with thankfulness for blessings and opening of hearts and wallets for giving back for our blessings. Teaching your child the joy of giving is important in […]