section 4
Early stimulation
6-9 months
meeting
24
Let’s review:
Once the meeting starts, welcome everyone and ask the participants: • Who can help us remember what we talked about in our last meeting? • Who was able to do the activity at home that we asked you to do at the end of the meeting? How did it go? • Does anyone have questions or concerns after doing the activity?
What are we going to learn? The importance of physical, emotional and mental stimulation for the development of a baby
Let’s talk about it! We are going to look at some pictures so we can talk about what we know about the topic.
What do you think a six to nine month old baby should be able to do? What can we do to stimulate a 6-9 month-old? Why is early stimulation so important?
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Activity:
“Filling out the shirt” We are going to practice some games that will stimulate the development of a six to nine month old.
What we’ll need: • A rope and clothespins • A basket
WHAT WE’LL DO: • Cardstock Before the meeting starts, hang a baby’s shirt and a • A basket full of six month-old child’s shirt up the cloth line. • Ask the participants to look at the two shirts and baby clothes then ask them: • A six month-old baby’s shirt • What can we do to make sure our baby grows? • A ten year-old’s shirt • What should we do to make sure that our baby • Note cards with activities for grows and one day will stop using this little shirt and start using this big one? early stimulation • Ask the participants how we can make sure that • A young baby at the meeting our baby develops completely, both physically, mentally, socially and emotionally. • Next pull out the basket that has the baby clothes with note cards attached. Tell each participant to pick a piece of clothing, hang it up on the clothes line and follow the instructions on the card with a baby at the meeting. • When everyone is done, ask one of the parents to thank the mother who brought the baby.
ACTIVITIES TO WRITE ON THE NOTE CARDS: • Put a towel under her stomach and show her a toy just out of reach to encourage her to crawl. • Lay him face up and take his hands. Lift him up little by little, until he is sitting up. To teach him to sit up, put a pillow behind him to stop him from falling over. • Stack different sizes of containers, one on top of the other and let the baby knock them over. • Make animal noises: the cow says… moo moo, The cat says…meow meow, the dog says…woof woof, etc. • Tell the baby a story making funny faces and exaggerated sounds to get her attention. • Give the baby a gentle massage while you sing to him.
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Summing Up:
What did we learn today? Now, we’ll review what we discussed today. • How do you feel after this meeting? Why? • What are the two most important things you’ve learned today? • What will you do differently based on what you learned during the meeting? • What did you like the most? Are there things you didn’t like? • Do you have any remaining concerns or questions about what we talked about? To finish, what would you recommend to improve today’s meeting when we do it again with another group. (Explain that answering this question will help the meeting be even better in the future for parents with small children.)
To do at home:
• Practice all the activities for stimulating your baby and share them with other mothers you know.
Basic information for the facilitator: Learning more about early stimulation: Babies’ physical development: • During the second half of the first year, babies learn to sit up, get across the room, and stand up. Each accomplishment requires an enormous amount of energy and practice. • During play an eight month-old is curious about everything, but he also has a very short attention span and will move rapidly from one activity to the next. Two to three minutes is the most he will spend with any one object before moving onto the next activity. • At six months, babies behave as if their arms and hands are single units. By eight or nine months sweeping arm movements are transformed into a range of gestures. He is able to wave goodbye from the wrist only. • At six months objects are grasped with the whole hand and picked up by a cupped hand much like a scoop. Large objects are tackled by using both hands together as if they were a pair of tongs. • During the seventh and eighth months, he begins to use his fingers and thumbs for grasping and holding objects. • By nine months, fine motor control is achieved so that an index finger can be used to point or poke.
section 4 / 6-9 months• meeting 24
96 How to stimulate baby’s development: • Caregivers need to provide opportunities for babies at this stage to move around in safe environments offering safe appropriate objects to play with. • All babies have a tremendous innate drive to succeed. All these new physical achievements bring with them a tremendous amount of independence. Babies no longer have to rely on adults to bring the world to them. • Along with this new physical independence is an increased emotional dependence. The baby wants and needs constant emotional support and encouragement as he learns the difficult and exciting lessons of growing up. Many of these lessons are best learnt through play. • Babies should be encouraged to use their hands by exploring a wide range of objects. New experiences are fun and full of learning opportunities. Babies will pick up more complicated objects as they begin to use their fingers and thumbs separately. • Provide a large cardboard box with a collection of household and natural objects from pebbles, shells, and seeds to toys, spoons, matchboxes, worn out household things, small toys and dolls. Objects should not be too small or the child may put it into her mouth, nose or ears. Things for stacking should be two objects of the same type, such as blocks, cups or small baskets to put on top of another. • Babies should be taken outside to observe and the caregiver should talk about the surroundings such as trees, flowers and pets to the baby. Other stimulating activities include meeting new people, including other babies, introducing new foods and tastes and new sounds and music.
Facilitator’s Manual