Tips For Parents
- Be warm, loving and responsive.
When children receive warm, responsive care, they are more likely
to feel safe and secure with the adults who take care of them.
- Respond to the child's cues and clues.
Recognize and respond to the sounds, movements and expressions that
your child makes. This will help you build secure attachments.
- Talk, sing, and read to your child.
All of these interactions help your child's brain make the connections
it needs for growth and later learning.
- Establish rituals and routine. Teach
your child to know when its time for bed by developing routines such as
singing a song and pulling the curtians-daily routines and rituals associated
with pleasurable feelings are reassuring for children.
- Encourage safe exploration and play.
As infants grow, they begin to explore the world beyond their caregivers.
Parents should encourage this exploration. While many of us think of learning
as simply acquiring facts, children actually learn through playing.
- Make television watching selective.
Watch television with your child, and talk about what you are viewing.
Don't use TV as a baby-sitter.
- Use discipline as an opportunity to teach.
In addition to consistent and loving adult supervision, teach your
child limits. Never hit or shake a child.
- Recognize that each child is unique.
Children grow at different rates. Their ideas and feelings about
themselves reflect, in large measure, parents' and caregivers' attitude
toward them.
- Choose quality child care and stay involved.
Frequently visit your child care provider and seek someone who responds
wormly and responsively to your baby's needs.