Growing awareness

By RUTH LIEW

At the age of six months to a year, an infant – with his improved sensory, physical and mental skills – starts to show an awareness of self, as distinguished from his environment. 

In his determined plan to discover himself and his environment, he touches the things around him to gather sensory information. 

He rolls around, crawls and finally, walks, to find out more about his world. As he becomes more aware through reaching for, grasping and putting things into his mouth, he gains mastery over his environment. This helps him develop a sense of self. According to research, children need to see that they can manipulate their surroundings in order to develop self-awareness. 

It is important that children are allowed to manipulate objects, such as banging a toy on the floor or transferring a toy from one hand to another, then to the mouth. Children around nine to 10 months need to freely explore their surroundings by touching, tasting, looking, hearing and smelling. This way they can develop skills which they can later use to solve problems. 

If you are worried that your infant will hurt himself during explorations, safe-proofing the house can prevent many unnecessary accidents. You must anticipate the dangers that a curious infant or an active toddler will encounter. When there is a young child in the house, daily spot-checks on safety in the environment must be executed. 

To keep your child’s exploration safe and interesting, you must always supervise your curious mobile infant and toddler. The child needs supervision but not your overly-protective behaviour. If you are constantly telling him “No” every time he picks something up, he will soon lose confidence in exploring. By creating an atmosphere of confidence, you can contribute to your child’s discovery of himself. 

The older infant who is discovering how things work in his environment will want to learn to use them. Apart from his baby toys such as rattles, nesting cups and teething rings, he will be fascinated with the household objects that he sees people around him using. When you feed your baby at mealtimes, you can give him a spoon to hold. He can watch how you use the spoon and try to use it too. 

You can show him how to roll up socks into balls or stack cans of food in the cupboard. You can even show him how to sew a button onto a shirt. Every activity in the house is a new learning experience for your child. There are many learning opportunities in the home as long as parents remember to involve their infants and toddlers in their daily activities.  

An interesting game parents can play with their infant is by showing him his reflection in front of the mirror, then pointing to the different parts of his body and naming them. 

Parents can also point to their own reflections and say, “Mummy” or “Daddy”. Then the parents can point to the child’s reflection and say “Andy”, for example. 

To enhance learning through using mirrors, parents can employ some finger-play with their infants and toddlers. It is wonderful to watch how Mummy moves her fingers up baby’s arm, pretending it is a “spider” crawling up the spout.  

Here are the words to the nursery rhyme Incy Wincy Spider for those who do not know it: 

Incy Wincy Spider went up the waterspout 

Down came the rain and washed the spider out 

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain 

So, Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the spout again. 

To increase the child’s skills in observing the things around him, parents can give him a familiar object like a rattle or a squeaky rubber duck to hold. Place the child in front of a mirror. He can look at the reflection of his own movements as he holds the toy. This can help the infant foster an awareness of self and gain mastery of his movements. 

Another game that daddy or mummy can play is: “Where is ... (a toy or a spoon)?” This is a peek-a-boo game which infants around six months to one year love to play. 

Wave an object slowly in front of your child. When you have his attention, use a cloth/handkerchief to cover the object, and then ask, “Where is the (object)?”  

Use a kitchen towel cardboard roll tube and a scarf creatively, and your child can have endless fun with these objects. Stuff the scarf into the tube and slowly pull it out from one end. Watch your child’s face light up when he sees the scarf reappear. Later you can stuff the scarf into the tube for him to pull out. 

This is a great lesson on object permanence. Children will learn that the object still exists even when they do not see it. They learn to search for the object. They will seek out the cause and effect. As they grow, they will use such observational skills to help them locate a missing object. 

As you spend time playing with your baby, don’t forget to talk about what he is doing and observe his behaviour as you respond to him. He is learning in leaps and bounds as he picks up more problem-solving skills, such as cause and effect, sensory discrimination and grouping things together. Tell him what he is seeing or hearing. For instance, you can say, “Hey, look at the ball rolling towards you.” Or “You can pull the scarf out from both ends of the tube. What fun!” 

Your child learns a great deal about himself during his first year. Playing with him and spending time with him will help him gain greater understanding about his environment and how things work. He gains a positive attitude from the fun and games you play with him. More importantly, his interaction with his parents helps him learn to trust them and build a strong and lasting relationship with them. This kind of learning lasts a lifetime.