Development Needs

• Give me a big hug…

What would a parent/caregiver do if they see a baby crying? Probably pick up the baby, hug her and try to pacify her. And if the baby is still crying, then feed her. This exactly what babies below one year of age, need. The period from birth to 1yr is called infancy. During infancy babies just need tender love and care (TLC) and adequate nutrition. So all the parents who are getting worked up about disciplining their children as soon as they are born can relax. The other important thing during infancy is breast milk. As far as possible infants should be exclusively breast-fed till 5-6 months of age. Babies should also be touched and cuddled frequently. Touch is one of the most advanced abilities at birth. Early touch is important for the tactile sensitivity and motor skills of children and it also helps in their emotional well-being. Research also shows that babies who are cuddled, bounced and swayed perform better on reflexes and motor skills.



• Tiny explorers

When a child takes her first step, her world changes literally. She can move around on her own and explore more things, which she couldn’t do earlier. Mobility provides rich and varied experiences to children. They become more confident and enjoy movements related to dance and music. Provide uncluttered space where they can move around easily. Keep toys and books at children’s level so they can explore it on their own and also learn to pick up and put back things where they belong. Taking children for outings to zoo and park helps them understand new concepts and they can also run and move around in the open space.



• What we do…

As Nisha enters the day care, she knows where to sit down and remove her shoes. She puts her shoes in the rack and sits on the table to have breakfast. Post breakfast when her battery is charged, she is ready for some action. She pulls her favorite yellow chair to sit and starts singing rhymes with actions. “If your name is Nisha, jump up and down, jump up and down”…Nisha waits for her turn to jump while singing and when her name is called out she is overjoyed, and jumps in excitement and sits back in her chair to sing some Kannada and Hindi rhymes as well. Upar chanda gol gol, neeche dharti gol gol….After rhymes it is the time for reading. She loves the story of ‘Roopa the Elephant’ and also enjoys looking at picture books. Leaving behind the world of books, Nisha puts on her shoes to go out for sand play. She takes a shovel and enjoys putting mud in the bucket. After a while, Nisha sits on the swing, the merry-go-round and also takes turns to come down the slide. Suddenly all the children spot a chameleon sitting on the trunk of the huge mango tree. Nisha joins them to admire the chameleon moving around the tree and finally climbing the branches and vanishing out of sight.

The time for outdoor play is over and children now wash their hands and move back inside to do some learning activities. On one table kids are learning ABC by tracing it with their fingers on the sand paper alphabets. The other table has an interesting floating-sinking experiment going on. Nisha puts a plastic block in the tub of water to see if it floats or sinks. Older children who are ready to enter preschool learn to write alphabets by joining dots. After all these activities Nisha is feeling quite hungry and is ready to have her lunch. Nisha is going to be 2yrs old now, so she is encouraged to eat chapatti and vegetables on her own and if she is not able to do so, one of the caregivers feeds her. Once the lunch is over she goes to the bedroom to catch some sleep. She gets up after 2 hrs and has milk with some snacks. One of the caregiver changes her dress, and packs her bag. Nisha is now busy making some interesting things with play dough. Meanwhile Nisha’s mother has come to pick her up, she is very happy to see her and runs and hugs her. Nisha says goodbye to all her friends and leaves for home.