3 Tips for Fostering Your Child’s Development
Fun ways to learn at home
Did you know children begin learning from birth? When you talk, read, and sing with your child from birth, you are filling their brains with words and thoughts that make all the difference to their future. They learn from what they see, hear, and experience and as a parent, how actively involved you are during their first year can change the entire trajectory of your little one’s life.
Champions supports families in understanding these milestones and offers developmental check ups to ensure your child is on track. Knowing the developmental milestones for each age aids in the understanding of what to expect during a child’s development. It also helps to gauge and identify potential problems with delayed development.
Our Parents as Teachers program allows us to meet families in their home and provide hands on support with their child’s development while also offering parent guidance on creating positive environments for learning.
“Being in Parents as Teacher motivates us to create a family environment that supports communication and a good relationship with our children as a family. It helps us identify the deficiencies that our children present and how to solve them.” -PAT Family
Here are 3 activities you can do with your child to foster their development
1. Conversations
Talk back and forth with your baby. Respond to the coos smiles and babblings helps your baby learn language. Babies love being spoken to long before they understand a single word. Their brains light up when words are spoken directly to them.
2. Reading
Reading helps your baby develop vocabulary. Start reading to your child from birth. At this time, your baby’s brain is making associations with the words you read and the pictures you describe every time you read to baby. Find books they really like and read them over and over to give them a sense of continuity and connectivity between books and the meaning of words.
3. Playing
Children learn through play. When you play with your baby, you help them explore and make sense of the world around them. The toys you choose can be simple like building blocks or puzzles. Toys like these help them make connections and foster brain development.
It’s never too late to start talking, reading and singing with your baby. If you would like a developmental screening to ensure your child is meeting their developmental milestones, Champions offers complimentary developmental check ups for children as young as 1 month of age to 5.5 years of age. If you want to learn more about your child’s milestones, how to best foster their development, and community resources that may support you and your family. Contact us via the Parent Warm Line to schedule your child’s developmental checkup today (813-673-4646 ext. 7)!