Help Me Grow Developmental Information
To find milestones for children 6 months-5yrs:
http://helpmegrowmn.org/HMG/index.htm
Early Childhood Development:
Sensory Development
Sensory development is the maturing of the senses: hearing, smell, taste, touch and vision. It is a natural part of development. A well-regulated sensory system helps to develop better outcomes in social-emotional, physical, communication, self-care, cognitive and adaptive development. Sensory processing involves the nervous system and the way a child receives, organizes and understands input from the senses and responds with an appropriate movement or behavioral response. It is important to observe children and their responses to sensory stimuli during everyday activities.
Sensory rich activities (music, movement, tactile toys/materials) provide great opportunities to practice processing experiences and offer a meaningful avenue for learning. Children learn best from having "hands-on" experiences.
Cognitively, they can learn to problem solve, make decisions and form concepts like "cause and effect" through sensory activities.
Language can also benefit from these activities. It provides them with experiences to talk about.
Social-emotional development is influenced by providing children opportunities to feel good about their decisions, exploration and shared experiences with others.
Motor skills benefit from sensory activities by providing them with opportunities to practice using large motor skills to move items and small motor skills to manipulate materials. Do you have questions about your child's development, behavior or learning?
Deficits in sensory processing can create problems with performance in daily living activities, learning, play, social skills and behavior. A Sensory processing disorder cause problems with a child's sense of movement or positional sense (called proprioception). Symptoms include oversensitivity or undersensitivity to sensations or trouble with one or more of the senses. This is diagnosed by a developmental pediatrician, pediatric neurologist or occupational therapist.
Monthly Milestones: Watch Me Grow!
While children develop at different rates, it is important to monitor their progress and be aware of their milestones. A problem in one sensory system can greatly affect overall heath and development.
Newborns - While some newborns can not hear certain quiet sounds, hearing is well developed. Sense of smell is well developed enough to smell mother's milk. Taste is able to distinguished between sweet, salty, sour and bitter tastes. Visually, objects can be focused on about 8-15 inches away.
- By 1 month - can see about 3 feet away
- By 2 months - can discriminate between basic colors
- By 3 months - can turn head toward sounds; can distinguish between hot/cold temperatures as well as pain;
- Between 1-9 months - can distinguish differences in textures with hands/mouth
- Between 3-7 months - depth perception develops
- Between 4-7 months - full color vision is achieved
- Between 4-8 months - full range of sound frequencies can be heard
- Between 12-19 months - full taste sensitivity is developed
- By 2 years - full adult vision acuity is developed
- By 3-4 years - can distinguish size and shape by touch
- By 5 years - can identify foods by smell
When overstimulated by sensory information, infants will need help calming themselves. Some children may even need to be removed from all stimuli in order to calm down completely. Self-regulation, the skills needed to self soothe, develops with maturity.
If you are ever concerned about your child's development, Help Me Grow can locate a developmental screening for your child.
Activities: Let's Get Exploring!
Babies:
Fun With Food.
Make use of stimulating textures or objects around your house and in the kitchen. For example, play with ice cubes in a plastic bag or play with whipped cream.
Collect a variety of soft, textured household items. Place baby on her back on a blanket and rub her tummy with a sampling of the different textures. Brush each one gently across her skin, describing the sensation as you go. When she's older she'll try to grab the items - go ahead and let her hold them, or (if you're sure they're clean and don't pose a choking concern) even put them in her mouth.
No Object, No Problem. Partake in sensory activities that don't require any objects: Have a parade or crawl around the house, pet an animal or simply cuddle.
Give your baby a gentle massage. Warm a small amount of oil or lotion in your hands by rubbing it between your palms and gently massage it into his skin. Start by rubbing his feet. Rotate each toe, then use your thumbs to press the soles. Work your way up the legs, squeezing the calves and thighs gently as if you were molding clay. (The first few times it's probably best just to do his feet and legs until he gets used to the sensation.) Slowly work your way up the body and include arms, fingers, shoulders, ears and head. Talk to your baby and describe each body part as you stimulate each area.
Engage your child's musical side. Play or listen to an instrument or sing songs. You can use empty containers as drums, show your baby how to tap the lids with your palms, fingers, and the heel of your hand. You can use wooden spoons or chopsticks (with caution) if you want. You can tape the drums together with duct or packing tape to make a drum set. You might even try singing some doo-wops to demonstrate different rhythms as you play.
Demonstrate how different-size drums make different sounds so your baby can hear the difference between deeper and shallower tones. She'll love the sounds and the rhythm, and as she gets older she'll want to become part of the action herself.
Toddlers:
Pour a cup or two of cornstarch into a bowl and gradually add water until you have a gloopy mixture. Let your toddler hold a spoon and help you "stir" as you go. Add a few drops of food coloring and stir again. Now let him plunge his hands into the bowl and swirl, squeeze and scoop it around. Join in on the fun! Talk to your toddler about what he can feel as the two of you squish and squash the gloop. For example, you can say, "When we squeeze it, it gets hard and firm. But when we stop squeezing, it gets soft again. Isn't that funny?" And make sure there's enough gloop for both of you - it's a little addictive.
How about making some Cloud Dough. Combine flour and baby oil in an 8:1 ratio to create dough that is lovely to feel, play with, and hold.
Experiment with Opposites. Try frozen foods versus hot foods, salty versus sweet, crunchy versus soft, etc.
Tape a large sheet of wax paper to the table or your child's highchair tray to protect the surface. Over the wax paper, tape a sheet of regular white paper. Start out with just one color of finger paint. Pour a small amount directly onto the paper and show your toddler how to dip her fingers into it and smear it around. When she gets the hang of it, add a couple of color choices by pouring small amounts of the other colors onto the paper and naming the colors for her. Then sit back and watch the magic of creation.
Explore Colors. Add food coloring to bath water, paint each other's faces, or tie-dye clothes or other fabrics.
Strip your child down to a swim diaper and put her in an empty bathtub with the drain open or outdoors on the grass. Fill a basin or bowl partway with water and put it on the floor/ground. Lay out cups, containers, funnels and let your toddler watch as you scoop up water with one cup and pour it into another. He'll quickly catch on. Show him how to stir the water with the spoon. Introduce other bowls with ice water or warm water in them to provide variety in temperatures. Describe their differences and ask how they feel.
Preschoolers:
Encourage a balance of sensory activities every day. Just like an adult, a child thrives when he can experience a variety of sensations. Some good suggestions are involve him in food preparation, gardening (handling dirt) or dealing with clothes (folding, touching wet laundry). Make sensory activities fun!
Fun Sight Test. Test sense of sight while playing catch with a balloon, completing mazes or dot-to-dot puzzles, tracing your body or hands, playing "I Spy," peek-a-boo or a variation of hide-and-seek.
Go outside and get your child to the playground or park every day. Even when the weather isn't the best, a park offers kids chances to nurture their senses, whether it's lifting buckets of sand, (proprioceptive awareness), sliding or riding swings (vestibular sense)
Play different listening games. Sit very quietly and try to guess the sounds you hear, make a chart of things you hear outside, talk about different animal sounds you've heard, play musical chairs.Let them learn with their whole body. In today's standards-driven classrooms, the pressure may be on for kids to read, write...and sit. In addition to seeking teachers who use "multisensory" methods, you can extend your child's learning with fun sensory activities at home. Is your kid learning letters? Try tracing them in shaving cream or sand. For early counting, try drawing a hopscotch board on the sidewalk and counting your way to ten.
Make use of the great outdoors. Go on a "smelly walk" (wet grass, fertilizer, bakery), plant flowers.
Health & Safety
Allergies and Asthma: What Every Parent Needs to Know, by the American Academy of Pediatrics
As the Spring has swiftly arrived in the Orange County area, one should be mindful of the increased prevalence of allergy symptoms. Repeated or chronic cold-like symptoms and the presence of recurrent red, itchy, dry rashes can be signs that a child is suffering from an allergic reaction. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) provides some information on how to deal with your child's allergies.
When to Suspect an Allergy
Here are some common clues that could lead you to suspect your child may have an allergy:
Repeated or chronic cold-like symptoms that last more than a week or two, or develop at about the same time every year. These could include an itchy, runny nose, nasal stuffiness, sneezing, throat clearing, and itchy, watery eyes.
Recurrent coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, difficulty breathing, and other respiratory symptoms may be a sign of asthma. Coughing may be an isolated symptom; symptoms that increase at night or with exercise are suspicious for asthma.
Recurrent red, itchy, dry, sometime scaly rashes in the creases of the elbows and/or knees, or on the back of the neck, buttocks, wrists, or ankles.
Symptoms that occur repeatedly after eating a particular food that may include hives, swelling of face or extremities, gagging, coughing or wheezing, vomiting or significant abdominal pain.
Itching or tingling sensations in the mouth, throat and/or ears during certain times of year or after eating certain foods, particularly fresh (raw) fruits. Typically, however, cooked forms of the food are tolerated.
Common Allergens on the Home Front
- Dust mites (microscopic organisms found in bedding, upholstered furniture and carpet as well as other places)
- Furred animals (dogs, cats, guinea pigs, gerbils, rabbits, etc.)
- Pests (cockroaches, mice, rats)
- Pollen (trees, grasses, weeds)
- Molds and fungi (including molds too small to be seen with the naked eye)
- Foods (cow's milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish)
How to Manage Allergic Nasal Symptoms
Nasal allergy symptoms can be caused by a variety of environmental allergens including indoor allergens such as dust mites, pets, and pests as well as outdoor allergens such as pollens. Molds, which can be found indoors and outdoors, can also trigger nasal allergy symptoms.
Allergy testing should be performed to determine whether your child is allergic to any environmental allergens.
An important step in managing allergy symptoms is avoidance of the allergens that trigger the symptoms.
If your child is allergic to pets, the addition of pets to your family would not be recommended. If your child has allergy symptoms and is allergic to a pet that lives in your home, the only way to have a significant impact on your child's exposure to pet allergens is to find the pet a new home.
If your child is allergic to pests present in the home, professional extermination, sealing holes and cracks that serve as entry points for pests, storing foods in plastic containers with lids and meticulous clean up of food remains can help to eliminate pests and reduce allergen levels.
Dust mites congregate where moisture is retained, and food for them (human skin scales) is plentiful. They are especially numerous in bedding, upholstered furniture, and rugs. Padded furnishings such as mattresses, box springs, and pillows should be encased in allergen-proof, zip-up covers, which are available through catalogs and specialized retailers. Wash linens weekly and other bedding, such as blankets, every 1 to 2 weeks in hot water. (The minimum temperature to kill mites is 130 degrees Fahrenheit. If you set your water heater higher than 120 degrees, the recommended temperature to avoid accidental scald burns, take care if young children are present in the home.)
If your child is allergic to outdoor allergens, it can be helpful to use air conditioners when possible. Showering or bathing at the end of the day to remove allergens from body surfaces and hair can also be helpful. For patients with grass pollen allergy, remaining indoors when grass is mowed and avoiding playing in fields of tall grass may be helpful during grass pollen season. Children with allergies to molds should avoid playing in piles of dead leaves in the fall. Pets tracking in and out of the house can also bring pollen and mold indoors.
Help Me Grow can help lead you to answers and solutions for all of those questions you have about your child. Our toll-free number will be answered by one of our Care Coordinators who will listen to your concerns and help you get connected to the answers you need.
Call Help Me Grow today!
866.GROW.025
Sensory Activities and Materials
Information on Children's Vision
Information of Children's Hearing
Information on Child Development
US Consumer Product Safety Commission