Teaching Infants – How to Get Started
The learning ability of a baby is influenced by its environment, food, simulation and human interaction. The quality of feedback a baby receives through these factors shape the babies’ understanding of the world around them. We as parents will naturally ensure that the first 2 factors, food and environment are taken care of. We however leave the other 2 factors, simulation and human interaction to professionals such as teachers and child experts or to the television and computer games. We take a back seat when it comes to educating our babies. We convince ourselves that babies are not ready to learn in a structured manner and we as parents lack the confidence and believe that we are the right person to teach our babies structured knowledge.
These believes will have to be broken before you can take the next step. You will need the leap of faith before you can create a fun and joyous environment for your baby to effortlessly absorb information. You will enjoy interacting with your baby because they will definitely surprise you if you give them a chance.
Little Reader Learning System
Babies naturally need full-time adult attention. They would prefer that their Parents are constantly around to interact with them, however if their parents are too busy, anyone would have to do. This attention needing condition makes for the best student and we should take full advantage of it. So how do we begin?
The Venue
Prepare an area which is free of distraction such as clutter, toys, noise, food smells. An area where the baby can freely move around if he wishes to.
The Method
All learning session with your baby needs to be joyous, loving and fun. You should use an exited voice when you present the materials to your baby. Always begin a session with relaxation techniques to get into the Alpha state for you and your baby. Babies need positive reinforcement no matter the outcome. So during your sessions always give your baby hugs, kisses and compliments and reaffirm him that this is fun, he is smart and he is doing a good job.
The Time
It is never too early to start. This would depend solely on the parents’ ability to organize a structured plan and prepare the materials required to last a few sessions. The duration of each session can be from 30 seconds to as long as the baby is still interested. It is vital that you stop before your baby wants to stop. This will leave your baby wanting for more. The sessions can be repeated several times throughout the day. So it is not important to “get it done with” what is more important is that you and your baby enjoy the learning sessions together. If you’re not having fun or your baby is not having fun, then it is not worth the effort to continue the session. It is better to stop and just play with you baby, rather than force the session through.
The Material
You need to keep in mind that your baby’s sensory input such as the eyes, ears, etc will develop gradually and become better as your baby grows. So the material format needs to cater for this. The younger your baby start the sessions the larger the fonts need to be, the clearer and louder (while not compromising the excited tone) your voice should be. As your baby’s sight and hearing develops, the font size and voice volume can be decrease gradually.
Materials should be prepared two weeks before hand, so that you will have enough new material to teach him and not be tempted to show the same material again. You’ll be amazed at how fast your baby learns the new material and get bored if it is repeated more times than necessary. Repeating the same material would undermine his intelligence.
Begin reading sessions with single words to increase their vocabulary, followed by two words such as “green ball”, proceed with three word phrases and sentences. Before long your baby will be able to read multiple sentences and go on to reading books. This process can be repeated with several languages.
At the same time, you may also start a math program that begins with identifying the quantity of objects such as 9 balls or 5 fire trucks. The objects you choose to represent the number is important to capture your baby’s interest. Proceed with understanding equations and do a little problem solving, for example show a picture of 5 fire trucks, a picture of the plus sign (+), a picture of 3 fire trucks, a picture of the equal to sign (=) and lastly a picture of 8 fire trucks. Once he is comfortable with quantity, only then should you move on to recognizing integers and finally solve problems and equations with integers.
As you get more comfortable and confident in teaching your baby, you may also begin a memory program. This can be done via mental imaging, memory linking and photographic memory exercises. The memory techniques enable your baby to remember almost anything effortlessly.
To make things more interesting you may want to develop their musical skills. Start with something simple like singing to the baby and progress to more complex musical arrangements by playing classical music CDs. To develop their perfect pitch would however require special equipment.
Once your baby is comfortable with the reading program, you may begin the knowledge program by presenting simple, clear and factual material about a certain topic. You may source your information from the encyclopedia, books and even the internet when you create your mini books. Your baby will want to read your mini books over and over again on their own so it should be sturdy enough to withstand rough handling.
Preparation of the material can be overwhelming. It requires quite a bit of organization especially to track and record materials that have been completed, what topics to cover next and so on. You should be prepared to do a lot one day, and little the next. This will all depend on your ability to gauge what interest your baby, how well your baby respond to the images etc. If you can’t keep up with your baby’s hunger for information, it is ok to take a few days or weeks off and just play with your baby. This should give you enough time to prepare more material. Once ready you may just continue where you left off. There are many programs to assist you to prepare the materials. BrillKids offers a large collection of material which can be customized to suit your baby’s preference. Try out their free downloads to see if it is suitable for your baby.
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