6 secrets for giving your child a better, brighter future · 6 secrets for giving your child a...

6 Secrets For Giving Your Child A Better, Brighter Future

6 Secrets For Giving Your Child A Better, Brighter

Future

By

Dalene Joubert

http://www.babydevelopmentnews.com/

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http://www.babydevelopmentnews.com

http://www.babydevelopmentnews.com/truths


About the Author Dalene Joubert is a qualified, professional occupational therapist. For the past 22 years she has studied, encouraged and stimulated babies and toddlers to develop to their full potential. During this time she has personally helped and encouraged considerably more than 1000 children. Dalene specializes in using educational toys and games to get great results, while making it fun for the young ones. She is an accomplished speaker and the author of more than 120 baby related articles. When not at work, Dalene spends time with her husband, 2 boys and a daughter enjoying her favorite pastime… drinking coffee with friends.

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Disclaimer And Terms Of Use Agreement

The authors and publisher have made their best effort to produce an informative, useful and high quality book.

All attempts have been made to verify information in this publication. But the authors and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, completeness, applicability or interpretation of the contents of this publication.

This publication is not intended and cannot be a substitute for proper professional, pediatric, remedial or occupational therapy advice.

The reader of this publication assumes responsibility for the use and interpretation of these materials and information. The authors and publisher accept no responsibility, liability or damages caused or alleged to be caused, directly or indirectly, from using the information contained in this material.

This eBook is © 2006 copyrighted by Dalene Joubert.

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http://www.babydevelopmentnews.com/truths


Introduction

The main reason why were doing part of this ebook in interview format is to make you feel as if I we are speaking directly to you.

It’s also important that we’re able to convey the real facts about baby development to you through this interview. I have found all of these secrets, tips, tricks, suggestions and proven tactics to work very well and to give great results.

These facts are the essence of baby development and give you the tools to closely monitor your baby’s progress.

What you need to remember is that there are no magic answers. There is also no such thing as a “typical, normal baby” in every aspect of development.

I often find a baby may be ahead in certain areas of development, but behind in other areas.

The description “normal child” is merely an easy-to-use expression of the characteristics you will find at a

certain age. It’s also a useful expression to help you identify the baby who may be “slow”… or the one who may be

a faster developer.

So relax and settle in for a while, because you’re about to discover…

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#1 - The “Real” Truth About Milestones And Why They’re So Important

Dick I keep on hearing the word “milestone” when parents talk about their babies. What exactly does this mean?

Dalene A milestone is an activity or skill a baby achieves at a

specific age. These activities are definite development stages. And are typically activities like crawling or walking or sitting. These stages are often called developmental milestones… or simply milestones for short.

Dick Why are milestones so relevant to a baby’s

development? They must be important if parents talk about them so often.

Dalene Yes, they are important for any baby’s development. A

child reaches these milestones because of specific neurological developments. Milestones are very often used to measure a baby’s rate of development. Also keep in mind that all babies go through and must reach the same development stages… and in the very same order. Milestones are also great signs of your child’s future development. If your child doesn’t achieve a specific milestone or skill at a certain age, it may be the first sign of later development problems such as motor skills, learning, perceptual skills and even speech.

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In short, if your child struggles to reach the major milestones you may be getting the first signs of development problems. And these problems often lead to poor performance at school and in later life.

Dick Okay, so what you’re saying is a milestone is a certain development stage my baby reaches. And it’s usually something that’s easy to see and identify. And if my child does not reach a specific milestone at a certain age it is very likely an early sign of some future development problems. Is that right?

Dalene Yes, that’s correct. But it’s also possible that the inability

to reach a milestone can be a sign of a pathological problem. For example… a child who is slow reaching almost all milestones may have a pathological problem.

Dick What exactly do you mean with pathology? Dalene Pathology is usually a major inherent problem causing

such development delays. Such development delays may be the result of heredity

causes. Your child could have inherited certain characteristics from you.

It may even be due to a disease preventing or hindering

your baby to reach the various milestones. Then there are also muscle and nervous system

problems that delay development. A last small group of children are delayed or slow

developers because of complications during birth.

What you need to appreciate is that there may be many reasons why children do not reach milestones on time. The most common reason is a lack of stimulation. But regardless of the reason for the development delay, it’s most important to first recognize the delay. Once it’s

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recognized, something can be done to correct it. And generally, the remedy is easier and more effective the earlier you identify any development problem. But it’s considerably more difficult to correct development problems if your baby isn’t physically capable of doing so. In this case his development may be hampered by a developmental problem. That’s what we call “pathology”.

Example I once treated an 8-month old baby boy unable to

lift his head and chest. He also couldn’t support himself on his elbows. Once I recognized

that he had no development problems, the solution was simple.

I could accurate say that this little boy was a slow developer.

By about 7 months approximately 80% of all babies do these activities.

During the first few months, this boy never got the opportunity to lie on his stomach learning

to lift his head and using his arms.

“Treatment” was fairly simple. This little boy only needed time on his stomach for the biggest part of every day learning these activities.

Dick Give me a brief indication of how the important baby

development milestones are determined.

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Dalene Researchers and scientists have literally studied thousand of babies throughout the world. Baby development was tracked and analysed. And in simple language… a graph was compiled using the information of all the babies’ development. After statistically analyzing the results, the milestone ages were determined.

Dick Based on your experience, what are the vital milestones

every baby must achieve? Dalene The main milestones typically being asked in medical

questionnaires and reports are those relating to sitting, crawling walking and speaking. Those are also the milestones that most parents talk about. Yet, few are even aware that there are other more important milestones.

The milestones I usually advise parents to look at are head control, rolling, sitting, crawling, standing and finally walking. Head control and rolling are most often overlooked or even ignored. Many parents are totally unaware of these milestones and they don’t even think it’s important for a child’s development. By experience over many years I’ve come to realize that these milestones are very important. These 2 milestones form the basis for sitting, crawling, standing and walking. These two milestones also give you the first signs that your child is developing normally or not.

Dick You’ve described that babies normally reach the ability

to perform these activities at certain ages, does this apply to all babies?

Dalene Yes it does. Milestones apply to all healthy babies. But

an exception is made in the case of premature babies where it’s necessary to work with corrected age.

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With premature babies you don’t work with chronological

age… that’s real age. You can even say calendar age. With premature babies you’re going to work with corrected age to an accurate measurement of your child’s progress.

Corrected age is calculated by subtracting the premature period from the true age. Let’s say my baby was born 4 weeks premature and is now 34 weeks old. To determine what my baby must be capable of doing at this age I use the corrected age. In this case it is 34 weeks minus 4 weeks premature = 30 weeks. So, I’ll look at the milestone for the baby at 30 weeks rather than for 34 weeks at this age.

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#2 - 2 More Important Truths About All Milestones

Dick I know you like to use educational toys and games to

encourage babies to reach their milestones. Are there any other methods that parents can use to get the same results?

Dalene Do you mean stimulating and encouraging development

without using toys? Dick Yes, without using toys. Dalene First of all… toys are really great to encourage babies. At

certain ages babies are interested in specific toys. They’re fascinated and interested by the toys. It’s therefore easy to get their attention. Toys are also colourful and many of them make sounds and noises. They are simply very effective to keep babies’ attention. That’s the main reason why I like to use toys for stimulation. The trick is just to know which toys to choose. But there are fortunately also other ways to get your baby’s attention. If you’re not using toys, you can use day-to-day things in and around the house. Here I’m talking about things like your car keys, mobile and many other household objects that can be used in place of toys. Remember, babies get to a certain age where they do not want the play mobile. They want the real thing! When babies get a bit older they reach an age where they are going to prefer the real thing. They will no longer be satisfied to play with the plastic keys… they’ll want to play with the real thing.

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Babies are also very much stimulated by parents’ attention. Say you want your baby boy to follow a toy with his eyes. One option is to use a toy or a bright colored ball or keys to do it.

Another option is to use your face! Look at your baby. Talk to him or her. Give him your attention. Hands-on attention is a very good way of stimulating your child, especially when still very young. If you really think about it… a parent is a very good toy. <laughter…> It has all the abilities to get your baby’s attention. It even makes sounds and noises, changes facial expressions and many other attention-grabbing activities. I’d like to think it’s the cheapest and easiest toy any child can have <more laughter…>

Dick Okay, let’s say I follow a definite plan to stimulate my

baby with toys. And let’s say my plan is not just a haphazard thing. I’ve planned it properly. What are the realistic benefits my baby can expect?

Dalene If you plan and use toys for stimulation, your baby will

definitely achieve the important milestones. And it will in all likelihood be earlier than for a baby who is not stimulated.

But although there is always excitement in a fast developing baby, the aim is not to speed up your baby’s development. I feel strongly that all babies must go through all the learning experiences for that particular age. There is nothing to be gained by skipping or neglecting any of the

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vital experiences to get your baby to do things which are typical for older babies. Most learning problems happen because parents have specifically neglected certain learning experiences in the hope of fast tracking their child’s development.

There’s one more very important thing I haven’t mentioned yet. Let me describe that a little bit before going on. Reaching a milestone isn’t just about going through the motions… doing things. Your baby also needs to do it right. There is a certain quality part necessary to reach any milestone. I’ve seen that parents often say their baby is sitting. But that does not necessarily mean the baby is sitting correctly. Your baby may in fact be sitting… but only if holding onto another object or if somehow supported. In reality it means that your baby is not able to free his hands to play with a toy or even move his hands from side to side.

So… your baby must not only get to the milestone, but must also do it right. Now, getting back to the rest of the answer. Using the right toys not only helps to achieve a milestone much quicker, but they also get the quality of the milestone well established.

Dick What I understand from your answer is that it’s not only a matter of getting my baby to reach a milestone. S/he must also do it right. And the toys help my baby to do both. Is that correct?

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Dalene Yes. Reaching the milestone and doing it properly are both important. And toy and games are very powerful ways to do both at the same time.

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#3 - How To Know If Your Baby Is Just A Slow Developer And What To Do About It

Dick Okay, let’s say I find that my baby is late in reaching

any of the milestones you’re talking about. Is there anything bad about my baby reaching the milestones later than what’s expected?

Dalene It’s not specifically bad if your baby is late in reaching

the milestones. Remember you do get slow developers who are totally normal children.

Slow developers just get to the milestone a little bit later

than other children. There’s nothing wrong with them and there’s no problem with that.

But what is important… is to recognize whether your child is getting to the milestone a little bit later because he’s a slow developer or even through a lack of stimulation… or whether it’s the result of development problems. Now, let’s say your child is a slow developer. This means that your baby has the ability to reach the milestone. But, it’s just a lack of stimulation that prevented your baby from learning to, say, crawl.

Example If a baby is put into a walker for most of the

day she gets little or no time to learn crawling. And as a result doesn’t crawl.

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But if she’s taken out of the walker and put on her tummy, she will eventually start to crawl.

Thus, she does have the ability. And she will eventually be able to crawl after getting the

right stimulation.

What’s more… there are no physical problems or illness preventing him from reaching the milestone. In this case it’s not a problem if your baby is slow to reach a milestone. But if your baby gets to all of the milestones much later than expected, then the difficulty is to decide how late is still within normal range. The difficult question to answer is… until when do I wait before taking action? What is the latest I can wait before getting worried that his development isn’t normal? Let’s take walking for example. The question is… do I wait until he’s 18 months old or is it still OK to wait until he’s 24 months old? In many cases there is a very thin line between the handicapped child and a late or slow developer. And it’s difficult to distinguish clearly at a very early age. Fortunately the answer lies in the rest of your baby’s actions and day-to-day activities. Once you start noticing your baby’s other day-to-day actions, you’ll get a clearer and more accurate answer. Let’s say the rest of his development like sleeping patterns, eating habits, and smiling are all normal, but he’s only slightly late in one of the milestones, then there’s probably nothing to worry about.

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But if his other development activities indicate more than one abnormality and he’s late in reaching any of the milestones, then there may be reason for concern. In such case it is advisable to take action rather sooner than later.

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#4 - How To Tell If Your Baby Needs Special Help

Dick Let’s now make it more practical and easy. Without

getting too technical, give me an idea of at what stage I must become uneasy or worried if my child doesn’t reach a specific milestone? When do I become uneasy? And at what stage should I take further or special action?

Dalene Remember each milestone has a specific age when your

baby should typically reach that. The best guideline I can give you is… when there’s one milestone that a child doesn’t achieve on time it may not necessarily be a problem.

The aim is to look at the child as a person. You need to look at all aspects of your baby’s development to get a clear answer.

Example You have a baby struggling to suck a bottle,

have problems gaining head control, cannot focus on your face and isn’t responding to your

stimulation.

Note that you have several problems happening at the same time.

All these signs may be telling you that your child may have a few development problems.

In this case your child may not necessarily be only a slow developer.

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The idea is therefore not to look at only one milestone alone, but also to look at the rest of your baby’s day-to-day behaviours and actions. Try to assess your child’s full functioning as a human being. That’s in my experience the very best indication and confirmation of proper development.

Example Many parents of cerebral palsy babies, will

tell you that they were never comfortable with their baby’s development. They were always

worried, but could never really determine the cause for their concerns.

If you really listen to what they’re telling you, you’ll almost always notice that they never

really looked for the other smaller problem signs.

If these parents put all the small signs together, then it’s easy to see that may be

reason for concern.

Dick So what I’m hearing is that even if my child misses one

or even two of the major milestones, that in itself is not necessarily a big problem.

Dalene Being late in reaching the milestone is not really the big

problem.

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Dick OK, so you’re saying being late or slow to reach a milestone is not a problem. We’re not talking about missing the milestone altogether. Is that right?

Dalene Yes. Dick Just to make sure I understand fully. If my normal child

misses one or more of the specific important milestones it will very likely be the cause of development problems later on.

Missing one or more of the milestones can also be the

cause for many problems at school, like reading, writing and concentration problems in later years.

Dalene Yes. From experience I found that a major cause for

concern is when your baby doesn’t crawl. This is the one milestone that babies cannot miss. If your baby never crawls it always creates problems with later development.

But before we go on, just look at the milestones like head control and sitting. Both of these milestones are simply too important for a child to miss. I call these self-correcting milestones. A self-correcting milestone means that it automatically corrects itself. It immediately gives you an indication or sign that something is not right. A self-correcting milestone therefore means that your baby won’t be able to sit if good head control isn’t achieved. Your baby will also not be able to stand if this milestone wasn’t reached. Just think about it… it’s just not possible for your baby to sit properly without being able to hold up and control his head.

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In short, it’s impossible to miss out on head control and sitting and still achieve the other major milestones without problems.

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#5 - The Single Biggest Mistake You Can Make When Encouraging Your Baby

Dick What’s the biggest mistake I can make if I do decide to

follow a plan to stimulate my baby with whatever means?

Dalene Stimulation is never bad for a baby. You cannot really do

any harm to a child. The only problem is when you use toys or objects than can cause harm or injuries.

But it’s also possible to overstimulate your baby. This can cause its own problems. Overstimulation usually occurs if you encourage your baby with toys that are too difficult to enjoy. All that you’re probably going to achieve is to frustrate your baby. The skill with stimulation is to use toys and objects that’ll prevent injuries and that’s just right for your baby’s age.

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#6 – Get Your Baby On The Fast Track Like A Pro

Dick Based on what you’ve seen over the last couple of years,

how difficult is it to make real progress or to improve my baby’s skills and performance through stimulation? In other words, if I stimulate my baby, will I make significant progress with his or her development? And will I be able to see it?

Dalene If you’re talking about a normal child, even if s/he’s a bit

late in reaching any of the milestones, then you’ll very quickly see a definite improvement.

I’ve also seen that even if you talking about a baby with inborn problems, then you’ll see rapid results the moment you start stimulation and giving attention to the problem. It’s exceptionally rare to get no improvement after starting a stimulation program.

Dick So, stimulation exercises and guidelines apply to both

normal babies as well those with problems? Dalene Yes, they can be used for all babies. The stimulation

you’re giving to a normal baby is almost the same as for a child with, say, cerebral palsy. But a cerebral palsy child often requires special professional techniques to help them get to the milestones.

Such children normally don’t have the ability to get to the milestone by themselves… even if you stimulate them. In most cases I advise parents to seek professional advice. A lot of special techniques are needed for such children to make the stimulation really

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effective. From experience I’ve found that progress is much faster under the supervision and guidance of a professional.

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Summary

Dick To finish off, I’d like to summarize and you can then tell me if my understanding of milestones is correct. What’s your opinion of this approach?

Dalene Go ahead… let’s hear what you understand. Dick Milestones apply to all babies throughout the world.

1. A milestone is a development stage babies reach and is easy to see and recognize.

2. It’s also related to a baby’s nervous system development.

3. And even if my baby is able to reach a milestone, he also needs to do it right.

4. Head control and sitting are 2 milestones few parents ever recognize. But no baby can get to the later milestones like crawling if these 2 activities are not properly developed.

5. A baby’s inability to develop proper head control and sitting are also the first signs that there may be some development problems.

How am I doing so far?

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Dalene Actually quite well. But let’s hear the rest. Dick A baby struggling to reach any milestone can be the

result of too little stimulation or pathology… an inborn problem.

6. Most children will show rapid improvements once a stimulation plan is started.

7. But stimulation for pathology infants must rather be left to professionals.

8. If my baby misses one milestone it’s not a sign of development problems. But I can get a clearer understanding of the situation by also looking the other day-to-day things my baby does.

9. My baby can miss out on reaching any of the milestones, with the exception of crawling [and, of course, head control and sitting]. Your experience shows that babies must crawl since most of the later milestones and development is dependent on the ability to crawl.

So, how have I done? Dalene Well enough to know the 6 most important truths about

baby development milestones. All you need to do now it watch, measure, stimulate and correct your baby’s development closely.

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Here Are A Few BIG Reasons Why Even Gifted Babies Struggle At School!

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"If you want to make sure your baby is on the right track to develop all natural skills, talents and do well at school and in life one day, then I urge you to check this out immediately!"

• The very best thing you can do to improve your baby's overall development

• What your baby must master month by month - learn what exactly to expect by month 1, month 2, all the way up to 2 years

• The most important thing your baby simply must learn at all cost

• How to use the "Golden Rule" to keep your baby's learning on track

• One very important thing Baby only learns when sitting and how to help her get the most benefit from it

• Learn that crawling influences how well your baby will learn, read and do mathematics at school

• How to make sure that your baby learns most when crawling

• How to measure your baby's progress by using the different baby development milestones

• The most important reason why you must spot any development problems as soon as possible!

• 2 Things you can teach your baby to prevent learning problems when she goes to school

• 1 Proven way to give your child a higher intelligence

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• 1 Specific thing your baby must learn to make further learning easier and faster

If you really use this information to encourage, stimulate and measure your baby’s development, there should be no reason why your baby won’t develop her full potential. Please visit…

A Practical Guide To Baby Milestones

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6 secrets for giving your child a better, brighter future · 6 secrets for giving your child a...

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