| Your child is a born prodigy! From the moment your child is born, he has the innate talent to be an expert at play. The best part about this parental teaching job is that we don't have to be the expert...just the facilitator. Your child will teach us how to be a play partner if we pay close attention. And as his first teachers, we become an instant success as well! We tickle his toes, enjoy his laughter and wait for a signal that he wants us to do it again. We activate the crib mobile for his enjoyment. We shake his favorite soft rattle in his ear. We set the stage for exciting learning to take place in the context of fun and our child takes off on that rocket like a pro. Play is your child's work and each day, she gets better and better at doing it without our help. As her neurological systems develop and muscles get stronger, she is able to focus her eyes, grasp objects, sit up, crawl, pull to stand, and eventually walk. Each stage brings on new horizons of play...a colorful ball that rattles becomes DELICIOUS to squeeze and mouth and eventually, to roll back and forth. If we have been carefully watching, at each developmental stage, we can thoughtfully model, observe, and react to our child's cues and grow together in our play relationship. As we continue our give and take partnership based on play, we develop a sense of mutual trust that can last a lifetime. Many of us have lost the feeling of spontaneity that our child can teach us. By being present to her interest and preferences while we play, we can share the joy of learning to have fun. BRILLIANT! Priscilla Kaczuk, M.A. SLP Shared by Miss Priscilla, who learns to play and plays to learn - with her adorable grandchildren.
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| Last Updated on Friday, 04 June 2010 01:43 |
| A Prodigy at Play |
Written by Priscilla Kaczuk
Friday, 26 March 2010 00:00