Have you ever wondered why toys for babies tend to have so many
bells, whistles and lights? Or why they have so many different
textures, and materials and colors? It's almost as if we want to
provide young babies with a whole world of stimulation and we can't
quite get it to them fast enough.
Play gyms or activity gyms as they are sometimes called tend to be a
firm favorite with babies from newborn up to about 12 months.
These play gyms and activity nests mostly come in the form of
comfortable, quilted or softly padded playmats, sometimes raised at
the edges with a space in the middle for baby (like a ring doughnut).
And these play
gyms can be either brightly colored or in soft, pastel shades.
But don't be fooled by thinking they are just snug and comfy resting
places for babies to fall asleep in! These activity gyms can provide
a plethora of visual, audio and tactile stimulation
for fast developing young inquisitive minds.
Often
decorated with well known and lovable characters, Winnie-the-Pooh,
Tigger, Eyore, or farm and zoo animals as well, they can consist of
detachable, hanging parts for small babies to try to grasp. They
tend to have parts that are crinkly, soft, scrunchy textures for
baby to touch, squeeze and stroke. Some come with bright twinkling
lights and bells and others make funny sounds, or musical sounds,
and some even do both.
You will often find mirrors attached to these activity gyms, so that
your baby gets to find and see its own reflection, often
providing hours of fun for babies and carers alike. All of this is
extremely important for developing young minds.
Babies are
like a sponge, they are ready to absorb whatever information they
can - and boy - they can't grasp it fast enough!
A lot of new research points to the first three years of life as
being critical to a baby's developing brain. It is a known fact that
during this period, not only does the brain triple in weight but it
also establishes thousands of billions of nerve connections.
Astonishingly, at the age of three, a young child has twice as many
nerve connections as many adults. Therefore, in your role as a
parent, or primary care giver, it is of paramount importance that
you recognize this and understand just how much development is
taking place inside your young baby's brain from birth until the age
of three.
At birth,
children have most of the neurons (brain cells) they need for a
lifetime however, these brain cells are not yet linked (or "wired")
together to form the complex networks that are required for mature
thought processes to take place. And what happens is that in the
early years, young children's brain cells form these connections, or
synapses as they are commonly called, very very rapidly.
One of the crucial ingredients to aiding these connections to form,
is experience, and repetition. In a word, the more times you repeat
something new, like showing a baby how to scrunch up a ball, the
quicker these connections are formed. Therefore, it naturally
follows that the more positive interaction you give an infant or
toddler, the more you are helping to stimulate young brains. This
stimulation causes new connections to form neural pathways and
strengthens existing ones. Playing with activity gyms, with all the
bells and whistles that they offer or reading to a child, anything
which allows a child to have positive, interactive processes, will
aid your child's brain development.
So, as you
lovingly sit and watch your young baby laughing and gurgling on the
play mat or under the activity gym - do not underestimate the power
of the changes taking place in the brain, all enriching an
inquisitive mind and arming it with a plethora of knowledge and
understanding for years to come.
|
