The development of a baby proceeds in a head to foot direction. At this age, as other typical five-month-old, DD was full of curiosity about her surroundings and was eager to figure it out. Her fingers were getting more and more dextrose. She also began to show a strong attachment to us by preferring being held and crying when we left her in the crib. Her baby training in month 5 focused on hand-eye coordination, tracking moving objects and figuring out cause and effect.
1. Picking up objects: This exercise helped her hand-eye coordination. I put a bowl of grapes on the table and held her close to the table. She reached for the grape and used her fingers to pick one up. Then I took the grape away from her (and put it into my mouth). She would continue to grab a second one, a third until she lost interest.
Later I placed a dozen of postcards within her reach and waited for her bring them close. She could put her hand onto those cards and moved them, but she had difficulty in picking one up.
2. Watching the laser drawing: Both of us lay on the bed, face up, side by side. I used a laser pen to draw different shapes onto the wall, like circle, triangle, square and star. Her eyes followed the red dot wherever it went. This was a good stimulation to her brain.
She was also amazed by the sparkling Christmas froggy toy Grandma bought for her, especially when I turned off the light in the room.
3. Playing with the shadow: When I first played my fingers into the shape of bird, dog, or peacock against the sunlight, DD was so fascinated. She looked at the shadow with an admiring look on her face. She must keep asking herself in her little mind: What is that? Where it comes from?
Then I clapped my hand to attract her attention and played my fingers and showed her the dancing shadow. Quickly she figured out the cause and effect between my moving fingers and the dancing shadow on the wall. Every time when I played my fingers, she kept looking back and forth between the shadow and my fingers, without admiring any more…
4. How this animal talks? I encourage DD to talk by babbling to her with a game: how this animal talks. For example, I show her a picture of a dog and said, “This is a sheep. Do you how a sheep talk? The sheep says ‘baaa’”, or “This is a cat. Can you tell me how a cat talks? Yes, the cat talks like this ‘miaow’”.
I showed her how a couple of animals talk, including dog, cat, mouse, bird, horse, cow, pig, sheep, monkey, tiger, wolf, and bear. It seemed she likes the most the squeaking sound of mouse. Every time she squealed and laughed at my silly faces.
5. Propping up: When playing with her on the bed, M propped DD up to a sitting position and surrounded her with his hands or body in case she slumped down. Sometimes he loosely supported her to let her hold her own torso. This exercise helped her build muscles and experience needed for unassisted sitting.
Related posts:
Baby training: month 1-2
Baby training: month 3
Baby training: month 4
Baby training, month 6
Baby Training, First Year, From Lina | Lina | 
December 5, 2008 2:12 pm | 
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