physical development Archives » Nurture for the Future

Babies: Stimulating Physical Development – Part 1

Before Gavin was born, hubby and I always joked about how we were going to train him to become the world’s next golf sensation. The intention was to introduce him to golf when he turned two. Unfortunately, Gavin showed no inclination for golf, or other physical activities for that matter. Hubby says it was because all I did when he was little was take him to shopping malls. I didn’t take him out to the park enough. In my defense, the tropical climate here isn’t exactly the most conducive for outdoor activities. It’s hot and humid and the air pollution isn’t exactly the kind of environment you want a baby exposed to either.

When I became pregnant with Gareth, I decided that I would do more to encourage physical activities for Gareth. I went out to buy the book “How to Teach Your Baby to be Physically Superb” by Glenn Doman. According to the book, you can start almost immediately from birth. I have yet to read through the entire book as there are currently too many things I’m supposed to read up on, so I can’t give you an overall run down of what you should do, but I can keep you posted as I get through it stage by stage.

Although I should have started a lot earlier, I figured it’s better late than never. So at five weeks, the first thing I’ve started to encourage Gareth to do is crawl. According to Doman, we too often put babies in positions that prevent their physical development because those positions restrict baby’s movements. To encourage movement, you need to put your baby into a position that encourages movement – in other words, baby needs to be on his tummy.

If you put a baby on his tummy, you’ll notice that he starts to flail his arms and legs which helps him to move. Initially, he’ll move backwards, but eventually, he will learn to move himself forwards. By giving baby adequate tummy time, he has the opportunity to learn which movements help to move his body in specific directions. This is essentially the process of learning to crawl, however, Doman recommends encouraging this development as early as possible – from birth. Gavin didn’t really learn to crawl until he was about nine or ten months old and I recall we were only encouraging tummy time when he began to show an inclination to move towards objects of his desire.

I started Gareth with tummy time today and helped him propel himself forwards by providing a barrier against his feet with my hands. Gareth would kick out against my hands and that movement alone was sufficient to help him move forwards. It was interesting to note that Gareth seemed to do this a lot better than Gavin did months later. With just one session of tummy time, Gareth appears to have achieved more than Gavin did after several sessions of tummy time. Taken in isolation, this would support Doman’s theory that a child’s developmental capacity is greatest at birth and slowly begins to decline the older they grow.

In summary, to encourage your baby’s physical development give your baby more tummy time and start from birth. Minimise your baby’s time spent on his back, stuck in playpens and other restrictive confines. To encourage physical development, your baby needs to move, and in order to move, your baby needs freedom to move.

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How to Teach Your Baby to be Physically Superb

by Shen-Li Lee Leave a Comment

Having a second baby has made me ponder over all the things I wish I had done differently with Gavin. It seems like there are so many things I want to do with Gareth that I never did with Gavin. Going through it for the second time is good and bad, though. On the one hand, I feel more confident about handling Gareth, on the other, I’m not sure about the unpredictability of having to factor in an older child into the picture.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about is a book I am currently reading by Glenn Doman called “How to Teach Your Baby to be Physically Superb”. Although I always joked that I wanted Gavin to the future world champion golfer, it seems we aren’t making any real headway because Gavin has zero interest in golf and looks more inclined to be the bookworm than a sportsperson.

Although I’d always assumed it was a personality thing, after discovering the results from the learning style quiz I did for Gavin I’ve come to a different conclusion. If he really is a kinesthetic learner then the only reason for his present disinterest in sports is probably more related to my style of upbringing rather than a lack of interest. Instead of spending all our time in the shopping malls, I should have been visiting the parks and playgrounds.

There are also a lot of activities you can do with a baby to help develop his physical attributes. In “How to Teach Your Baby to be Physically Superb”, Doman writes about toddlers who can brachiate, climb trees and other remarkable physical acts that we often assume young children are too “fragile” for.

I’ve also heard of parents who teach their babies how to swim and there is a book under the Doman series that covers this topic. Although it was something I always wanted to do with Gavin, I never really knew how to go about it. And because I didn’t have enough information to go on, I didn’t want to risk harming him.

One of the obvious benefits of having a young child who is capable of swimming and performing these physical feats is the fact that we don’t have to worry so much about them drowning or getting hurt as they climb all manner of things. Having the confidence and the ability to do these things means they can stay out of trouble.

I often want to give Gavin a freer reign to take more “risks” to encourage his physical development but his grandparents and father would probably kill me if Gavin so much as scrapes a knee. To know how to encourage physical development in a controlled environment sounds to me like a much better way of going about it.

I haven’t finished reading the book “How to Teach Your Baby to be Physically Superb“, but I will write more about it soon. Alternatively, you can grab your own copy and read it for yourself.

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Does too Much Baby Wearing Impede an Infants Motor Skill Development?

by Shen-Li Lee 4 Comments

There is an interesting article from the 2009 July issue of Scientific American Magazine: “Crawling May Be Unnecessary for Normal Child Development“.

As a parent who is pro-baby wearing, I have to admit being somewhat conflicted about “over carrying” my baby since it is commonly accepted that babies need “tummy time” for their development. Failure to offer adequate tummy time is thought to delay a child’s motor skill development. Tummy time offers a baby the opportunity to learn to crawl.

Interestingly, it has recently been argued that crawling might actually be a fairly recent development in the history of “modern” humans. A study on babies of the Au hunter-gatherers of Papua New Guinea revealed that these infants do not go through a crawling phase. Instead, they are carried until they are able to walk on their own. Whenever the babies are placed on the ground (which is usually a rare occasion), they are placed in an upright position and propped up in sitting positions. Au babies don’t go through the normal crawling phase that most babies in developed countries do, instead they tend to sit upright and scoot along on their bottoms to move from one location to another.

Not crawling offers some other benefits as well – it reduces an infant’s exposure to ground pathogens. Historically, the main reasons for reducing an infant’s floor time is largely protective. By keeping infants close to their parents, they are kept safe from predators. Unlike our modern floors which are usually kept clean and free from potentially dangerous objects, infants had to be kept safe from such objects.

Looks like it is okay to carry your baby as much as you like after all. Your baby will learn to walk without floor time and will not be physically or developmentally handicapped for it. That’s great news for me since I recently bought myself the Ergo Carrier for Gareth and I fully intend to maximise my usage of it.