ENHANCING DEvELOPMENT

Do not just watch your baby reach milestones. Take an active role! The power of social and environmental factors is strong enough that you sometimes can improve the developmental prognosis for your infant.

A warm, loving, and accepting home atmosphere can provide ample opportunities for healthy development in premature babies. Provide a variety of experiences every day to enrich developmental progress.

* Take your baby outside to stimulate her senses.

* Play music for your baby. Music promotes neurological development.

* Sing, talk, and sign to your baby to augment language and social development.

* Select a variety of age-appropriate toys for your baby.

* Develop a routine for yourself and your baby. Consistency will help you both to feel secure.

* Maintain a positive and nurturing environment enriched with love and acceptance.

follows his own schedule of development. It is impossible to say exactly when each baby will say his first words or take his first steps. Making the learning process fun will provide greater opportunities for a preterm baby to grow and learn. Relish the moments of development.

Many premature babies are eligible for diagnostic services for suspected developmental delays involving language, cognitive, motor, and social skills. Regular checkups give pediatricians and diagnostic specialists insight into your baby’s progress. Early intervention programs also are in place in each state for the purpose of enhancing development in children birth to 3 years of age. It is not uncommon for premature children to have conditions that might cause developmental delays or learning disabilities. For some of these

ParentLife RECOMMENDS

Got the Baby, Where’s the Manual? by Joanne Baum, Ph.D. ( Mountainside Press, 2007)

conditions there is no cure. But the right approach and therapy can help a preemie develop faster, grow stronger, and build increased coordination. 

¹Joseph A. Garcia-Prats, M.D., and Sharon Simmons Hornsfischer, R.N., B.S.N., What to do When Your Baby Is Premature (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2000).

Jana Post, M. S. works in education with a specialization in early childhood development and deafness. She and her husband, Corbett, a veterinarian, live in Pearland, Texas, with their daughter, Maggie, and twin sons, Chap and Whit.

EMERGING MILESTONES

Watch for these milestones to occur by the corrected age of 1 year.

• Your baby shows specific preferences for certain people and toys.

• Your baby may be fearful in some situations.

• Your baby repeats sounds or gestures for attention.

• Your baby reaches sitting position without assistance.

• Your baby moves from sitting to crawling or prone (lying on stomach) position.

• Your baby assumes the hands-and-knees position.

• Your baby pays increasing attention to speech.

• Your baby babbles with inflection.

• Your baby uses simple gestures, such as shaking her head for no.

• Your baby explores objects in many different ways (shaking, banging, throwing, dropping).

• Your baby looks at the correct picture when the image is named.

© Jupiter Images

• Your baby imitates gestures.

Source: American Academy of Pediatrics, www.aap.org.

MARCH 2008 PARENTLIFE 9