We can influence the progress of our child’s psychomotor development by offering them activities and changing environmental stimuli.
According to studies carried out by Piaget, the processes behind child development during the first years of life are: the repetition of activities that the child knows and the modification of such behaviors due to changes in the surrounding environment. We can influence and improve the course of our child’s psychomotor development, providing activities and continuously changing environmental stimuli.
We therefore recommend activities to perform with your child every month, to promote the correct psychomotor development of your little one:
3 months – Smile smile smile
At 12 weeks, your child will start to develop the ability to smile, which in the beginning will not be intentional, but later on it will become a true distinctive sign capable of conveying fondness or discomfort. So, make room for huge smiles, funny faces reacting to the amusing sounds that you make. Yes, they might make you feel stupid but that are definitely useful for giving shape to your child’s first sign of communication.
4 months – Chair, Little Chair
Do you know this game? I used to play it when I was little and now I play it with my son. You place your son on your lap and you make him sway. Why? A child between 3 to 4 months old starts to keep his head straight as well as his chest, so we can take advantage of this game by teaching the child to keep his balance. Then, once he finds his balance, to make the movement that will help him stand up in order to walk. It’s not important that you sing a song while you do this, but it could definitely make the moment more fun. From a psychomotor point of view it is a very stimulating game for your child.
6 months – Treasure basket
At 6 months, your little one will start to sit up straight without losing balance, thanks to the neuromuscular development phase that he is undergoing. Slowly, at around 10 months, these will give him perfect balance, but further to this, he will also start to improve his manual grasping of objects.
It’s time to build a Montessori-style treasure basket. It’s easy, don’t worry; all you need is a wicker basket (if possible) filled with everyday objects of all sizes and made out of materials that are safe (preferably eco-friendly). Then the child is given all the space in the world to play, with no limits whatsoever. The child can therefore decide to switch the objects from one hand to another, insert them in his mouth or toss them out of the basket…
7 months – Nursery rhymes and lullabies
We have reached a lallation era, that is, the repetition of a consonant and vowel together (i.e. Ma–ma–ma; pa–pa–pa), a time that reveals true language through which the child will experiment with the sound of words. And this will start him gaining a series of useful skills for his psychomotor development.
So, we can recite nursery rhymes and sing lullabies to our toddler, maybe even the same ones that our mothers or grandmothers used to recite and sing for us, and start to “lalla-ate” with him.
Diventa utile chiacchierare con il nostro bambino imitando i suoni da lui utilizzati. Questo consentirà al piccolo di constatare che in qualche modo sta riuscendo a parlare con noi.
9 months – Little butterfly and clap your hands
Reaching this stage, your child will be able to do so many things; we can even start to aim for manual motility so that you can play together. Now we can play the clap your hands game and the little butterfly game with him/her. These simple games will help your child’s motor coordination.
10 months – Peekaboo
A questa età il bambino inizia a manifestare ansia di fronte ad alcune situazioni inattese o a persone sconosciute ma potete aiutarlo a superarla con un semplice gioco, il “bubu settete”. Questo gioco non è altro che l’antesignano del nascondino e la sua funzione è quella di abituare il bimbo al distacco e a rimanere soli; ovviamente non dovete sparire per un’ora quando il vostro bimbo chiude gli occhi… Il vostro bambino non vi vedrà per alcuni secondi – che per lui sembreranno lunghi minuti – e così piano piano imparerà a non vedervi e a stare lontano da voi per più tempo.
12 months – Puppets, fairy tales and games
The time has come for you to let your imagination run wild! After 12 months, your child will make giant steps during his psychomotor development that will lead to the development of reasoning and language. In this phase, it is very important to stimulate children’s imagination. It could be fun to use puppets and invent fairy tales, which become an excellent method for communicating your desire to your child, like what one should or shouldn’t do.
18 months – Computer games and a ball
Dopo i 18 mesi il vostro bimbo sarà in grado, mese dopo mese, di utilizzare il linguaggio come mezzo di comunicazione ed inizierà ad apprezzare i discorsi. Potrete scegliere giochi adeguati all’età del bambino: giochi elettronici per imparare a contare, giochi di memoria o musicali per sviluppare il senso del ritmo. Altro strumento importante è la palla, uno dei giochi più completi da fare con i bambini: sembra semplice ma aiuta a migliorare motricità e coordinazione.
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Continuate a proporre attività stimolanti per tutto il periodo dello sviluppo psicomotorio del vostro bambino. La tecnologia può esservi di aiuto: con i giochi e i racconti di Smart Tales sarà più divertente sviluppare logica e memoria e imparare le scienze e la matematica.
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