by markcha » February 19th, 2010, 2:52 am
I am in no way an expert, but considering that I have a 15month old sleeping upstairs (and a 2 month old sleeping on the keyboard) I may be able to come up with some ideas/notes.
- Soft toys are generally for a little younger age. Most of the toys we have are plastic. One thing to consider is blocks to stack, move and push over.
- For kids TV, you might want to consider looking at Disney's Baby Einstein collection or Baby Moves from Fisher Price. They may be expensive, and are labeled for real young ages, but I know that my youngster will stare at the TV while they are playing. Also, they are done well enough that they can be watched by adults without causing brain mush, at least the first few thousand times.
- Repetition. Kids love to do the same things over and over. This is a key way that they learn. The most amazing thing for me was watching him try to walk: he would do things hundreds of times before it would work and he would keep trying no mater how hard it was.
- Walking in a hesitant manor, falling down a lot. Mixing walking with crawling.
- Intense fascination with everything. We spent some time outdoors today and he just sat in the grass staring at everything. Remember, for a baby, everything is new. The feel of grass is new. The texture of a leaf is new. The dew on the grass is new. Getting clothes damp is new. The worm is new.
- Kids don't like to be dressed or undressed: both of our babies will be very fussy as you change them. I don't think any kids like shoes. They will always be removing them (which makes taking a stroller ride an interesting example in watching what falls to the ground).
- It is my guess that babys don't feel "small". It is just the way things are. Yes a lot of things are bigger than they are. A lot of interesting shiny things are out of reach.
- Reaching is still interesting. You can pick up things, and you can use a pincher grasp to get small things, but hands/feet are still a little new and don't always do what you want them to. You end up not being able to grab everything you can touch.
- Babies are always in the here and now. No thinking about the future, very little thinking about the past.
- Food. At this point a baby will be eating generally what his parents eat, though it frequently has to be cooked a little more to be a bit softer and has to be cut up smaller. My 15 month old ate leftover P.F. Chang ginger chicken today and really liked it. Only about 1/3 of the food will get eaten. The rest is dropped, smeared on the table, dropped in the bib, squished, smashed, played with, thrown, rubbed in the hair, etc. If he gets too big of a bite of food, or too much at once, it will be chewed on and then just dribble back out of the mouth.
- Restrictions. Babys have a lot of physical restrictions placed on them for safety. We have gates across some doorways to keep them in/out. Some cabinents have child resistant hooks on them. I am sure that the baby does no understand why they can not access the neat stuff on the other side.
- Stairways. You crawl up a stairway. You crawl down as well.
- Teething. If you need a reason to cry or be cranky, babies are getting their first set of teeth in. It is irritating when the tooth breaks through the gum and this causes a lot of drooling as well as general fussyness. Note that babies can not say why they are unhappy, it is up to the parents to guess properly and fix it.
Hmm, reading back through this, it is not the list you asked for; hope it is somewhat helpful.