1
year and half…she touches EVERYTHING and I can hear myself saying: “no! Don’t
touch that, DANGER!” ALL…. DAY…. LONG! And she does it again, 5 minutes later…
Is she defiant? Does she like to hear me saying NO? I know she is interested in
everything, that it must be amazing to see the world with her eyes…but it is
exhausting!
It makes me wonder why Babies of few months
old put everything in their mouth. Until they walk, everything that is left on
the floor will be tested and tasted…. We are not just talking about toys only,
but crumbs, dust and even worse, poop! Checking on them all the time to make
sure they are not chocking on anything is not the worst of it…. because when
they start to walk it’s another challenge altogether! They touch EVERYTHING!!
All the time, again and again, dangerous or not…
The reason behind this is of course the
curiosity. Imagine being in your babies’ shoes for few minutes. How amazing the
world must be! Everything is new, tasting funny, making strange noise or
feeling wonderful under your little fingers.
Babies are sensory little humans who will
understand and discover the world by their 5 senses: touching, feeling,
hearing, seeing, tasting.
For example, their mouth has more nerve
endings per square millimetre than any other part of their body, so that could
explain why they always want to taste everything! Until they are two, they will
explore the world this way, they are more interested in what their toys can do
and because they are teething they will enjoy chewing soft objects.
Usually by the age of three, most of them
stop putting things in their mouth. Toddlers will enjoy discovering odours,
sounds, texture etc…they will touch everything and it is our job to make sure
that their environment is safe and
secure. For the 3-4 year olds, the energy level is so high in their little body
that they need to touch everything to redistribute it, this is when the
physical activities become important to their development.
What about food and drinks? Did you notice
the strange mixes your baby is experimenting with? And why are they playing
with their food so much? Same reason, curiosity! I know lunchtime can be really
messy….
Dr. Matthews,
paediatric neurologist, CMC Vellore says, “The child is driven by the inner
urge to develop. He needs to touch, feel, explore because that is the message
he is getting from his brain. The brain is directing the child to constantly
find out more about the things around him because that is how he will learn and
develop. He needs to know the taste, texture and other properties of everything
in his environment. Hence he is unable to “obey” us because the instructions we
are giving him are in conflict with his inner directives. He has a tremendous
need for sensorial exploration. Dropping an object teaches him about gravity,
touching different objects teaches him textures and gives him an understanding
of different materials, banging vessels and spoons teaches him about sounds,
even the stones and beads he wants to put in his mouth are to explore the
object more intensely!”
So when do you know when your child is
crossing the boundaries? You do not want to tell them NO when they finally just
want to discover the world…Does it mean we should let them do whatever they
want in order to encourage them to understand their environment? They can
sometimes be so dangerous in their exploration that it drives you crazy!
When I am deciding to work with a new family,
I like to talk with the parents about education. For me as a nanny, I believe I
am playing an important role in their child's development and that I should be
on the same page as the parents for the sake of the child. I often explain that
I believe that kids have to fall to understand … And few studies actually
revealed that kids who are overprotected are losing their natural instinct for
safety and do not develop their own judgment. It is important to let them play
in a safe place but they need to fall sometimes in order to understand the
concept of height pain and consequence.
So what can you do? First I
think it is important to understand and encourage the role of curiosity in your
child’s development and therefore they should not be punished because they
touch everything or are messy. It can be fun to understand what attracted your
child to this object and maybe explore it with them and talk about it. Does it
make a funny noise? Does it taste funny?
But don’t get me wrong, of course they touch
things sometimes in order to be defiant! If you want my opinion, I don’t
believe we should let them do whatever they want, they need to know boundaries
and are usually much more comfortable when they understand them. Yes, fine,
maybe be a little less stressed about what they can touch and let them explore
a bit more, encouraging their curiosity is a good thing and a good idea is to
rearrange your home to put all the fragile or dangerous items out of reach.
This way, you can relax and let your baby explore in a safe environment. It is
actually one of the best gift s you can give to your child. Safe freedom to
explore!!
-All the dangerous liquid such as cleaning
products, medicine ect…out of reach or in a cupboard that is locked.
-Little fences, barrier, to stop the crazy
crawler and toddler to fall down the stairs or in the swimming pool.
-If you have older kids, be careful with toys
that could contains little parts. You can explain your older one why it is so
important to clean the playroom in order to give a safe environment to his
little brother or sister. Maybe you could have 2 different boxes to store their
toys: the big boy-girl one and the baby one.
-The kitchen is a dangerous playground,
safety locks that stick on cupboards are pretty handy in this area. Let your
kids make noise by slapping a pot with a wooden spoon on, encouraging thier
curiosity in the kitchen the good way!
-All the tv, dvd, sound system ect… should be
on shelves that are well fix to the wall or the floor. There are so many
accidents from TV or shelves falling onto curious kids!
With a safe environment,
you child will be free to explore and understand the world around them. It is
their job after all and we all did that to be able to grow into the adults we
are today. Yes, they are noisy and yes they are messy! But do you know what?
Enjoy this curiosity! It is so natural and so healthy! Children’s are tools for
exploring!
References:
-http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/missy_willis.html
- http://disciplineandchildren.com/child-behavior-when-your-child-touches-everything.html
No comments:
Post a Comment