I recently heard about a great new campaign being run by Meg Faure, the founder and author of BabySense and the various other “Sense” books that became many a new mom’s bible. It’s called #TenMinutesToday.
As an Occupational Therapist, Meg understands, and is passionate about, the impact that play and interaction have on the development of little ones.
There are two main ways to help babies learn and develop:
1. Provide a stimulated, enriched environment
2. Ensure face-to-face and one-on-one engaged interaction with a significant caregiver.
In our busy world, the former – stimulation is commonly available wherever you look. In fact just being alive in our busy world may be enough stimulation for your newborn baby. As your child gets older, however, you will need to focus on structured stimulation, such as blowing bubbles, music time, sensory play and baby massage.
It’s in the focused time with our babies that we may find a gap in our care and possibly room for improvement. The difficulty is that with cellphones and connectivity, we tend to ‘multitask’ while we stimulate and play with our little ones – don’t you find yourself checking your messages or email in the midst of a puzzle or answering a call when reading a story.
With a view to making parents conscious of precious engaged time, I encourage you to spend #TenMinutesToday with your little one – that’s 10 minutes with absolutely no calls, no devices in the room and complete focus on your little one.
Sound easy? Take up the challenge and spend time in a focused one on one activity today.
Here are Meg’s Top 10 suggestions for ways to spend Ten Minutes Today with your child or baby…
So how will you be spending Ten Minutes Today with your child??