Why is stimulation in infancy important

Once your child has learned something, he'll enjoy the repetitive process because he can anticipate what comes next. After many readings of a familiar book, your child may even remember it well enough to add the endings to most of the sentences. This accomplishment means that she can participate more actively in story time. However, it is also important to stop the repetitive stimulation when your child begins to develop habituation.

When your child gets habituated through repetition, your child's intellect is no longer excited by your stimulation, making your efforts to teach him useless. When you notice this happening, take this as a cue to make changes in your teaching style, perhaps by changing a toy or pausing your teaching schedule for a while.

Have you eaten a piece of candy and end up wanting another one? If so, then you are not unlike your baby - once he experiences something that he finds pleasure in, he will strive to learn more and more about it!

With two locations in Orlando, there is a convenient location for you and your child. If you have any questions about our programs, including: infant care , childcare, voluntary prekindergarten VPK , or after school programs, give us a call at Open Mon. Toggle navigation MENU. Gold Seal Accredited Learning Center. Add your comments: Items in bold indicate required information. He works with young children who have special needs, in both his clinical practice and research. He believes it is important that all children are stimulated and get to explore the world, but this is especially important for children who have special challenges.

He points out that a greater proportion of children that are now coming into the world in Norway have special needs. These children would have died 50 years ago, and today they survive -- but often with a number of subsequent difficulties," says Adde. Adde says that the new understanding of brain development that has been established since the s has given these children far better treatment and care options. For example, the knowledge that some synapses in the brain are strengthened while others disappear has led to the understanding that we have to work at what we want to be good at -- like walking.

According to the old mindset, any general movement would provide good general motor function. Babies who are born very prematurely at St. Olavs Hospital receive follow-up by an interdisciplinary team at the hospital and a municipal physiotherapist in their early years.

Kindergarten staff where the child attends receive training in exactly how this child should be stimulated and challenged at the appropriate level. The follow-up enables a child with developmental delays to catch up quickly, so that measures can be implemented early -- while the child's brain is still very plastic.

A child may, for example, have a small brain injury that causes him to use his arms differently. Now we know that the brain connections that govern this arm become weaker when it is used less, which reinforces the reduced function. Then the child is stimulated and the brain is challenged to start using the other arm," says Adde. Adde stresses that it is not always advisable to speed up the development of children with special needs who initially struggle with their motor skills.

A one-year old learning to walk first has to learn to find her balance. If the child is helped to standing position, she will eventually learn to stand -- but before she has learned how to sit down again. If the child loses her balance, she'll fall like a stiff cane, which can be both scary and counterproductive.

It is this over-stimulated state and stressed state that many infants find themselves in, owing to the frenzy for stimulation. So what is needed is an enriched, but not over-stimulating environment and routine.

Every child has a natural desire to develop and master his world. Parents should harness this enthusiasm. They should provide an enriched environment and they should facilitate play, in order to enhance development. The pendulum has swung and we must now modulate the amount of stimulation we give our babies. They are more likely to excel with a moderate amount of stimulation, than with a frenzy of input that stresses both parent and baby.