 |
|
| |
PLAY AND YOUR CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT
|
 |
|
| |
Your baby's brain
doubles in weight in the first year due not to the growth
in the number of brain cells but to the connections between
them.
These connections
only begin to form when your baby has to think about something.
Contact with new sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches
make your baby think, and that's why stimulation is essential
from birth.
Approximately
one-third of a childs intellectual skills will have been mastered
by the time the child is six. Nearly fifty per cent of the
childs mental capacity will have developed between birth and
the age of four, a further thirty percent between four and
eight, and the remaining twenty per cent between eight and
seventeen.
Development of
your child is continuous, although at times your child's progress
may seem very slow. The speed and ease of acquiring skills,
however, is entirely individual so don't worry if your child
is slower to develop in some areas than other children of
the same age.
Although you can
influence the pace of your child's development by giving them
the right stimulation at the right time, the stages of development
occur in a strictly unchangeable sequence.
Babies and children
learn through play, and play is a very serious business! Everything
is a learning experience for your child, playing is learning,
and playing is fun.
Teaching your
child is not a formal process where specific rules and targets
must be met. All teaching should be playful and be done with
games. Feed your child's curiosity and need for new experiences.
Your child's development
will centre around play and this is the most natural way for
them to learn.
Choose toys for
their educational value. Reading, writing and counting proficiency
requires certain basic skills that your child will acquire
through building and construction toys, playing with puzzles
and jigsaws, and matching colours, shapes and textures.
The best toys
are ones which children return to again and again because
they are limitless in their appeal - usually ones that encourage
inventiveness.
Your child will
first learn to form relationships and to share with children
of their own age through play, and toys will have a significant
educational role in all your child's development milestones.
|
|
|
|
|
