4 Weeks Old: Newborn Early Learning Program

Baby's first month

October 19-25, 2014 Age: 4 weeks old Stage: stage I-II and possibly a little stage III Curriculum: early learning / infant stimulation program outlined in How Smart is Your Baby by Glenn Doman.


Aria at four weeks old

What can I say about this week? Well, I took a lot of pictures. Aria turned one month old on Tuesday and I had to document this occasion with quite a few variations of a monthly photo: monthly photo on blanket (to show growth), one with mom, one with dad, one with brothers.

Or more like a hundred of each one because that's how I roll.


Sunset at the beach for my Florida babies

I had two sort of big writing projects this week that I needed to get done and spent a lot of time on that. It did end up taking away from my consistency doing her program, even though it shouldn't have.

In reality her little program takes such a small amount of time that it can fit into any day, but I've realized that the problem is not an actual time issue but a focus issue. When my focus is off I simply forget to do things or put them as a low priority.


Her big brother was making her smile while I took this picture. Such a great milestone!

Aria (definitely, undoubtedly) started smiling back at people this week. It is so absolutely amazing and of all the fantastic milestones it is probably my favorite one.

I wrote last week about how we were possibly seeing the beginning signs of her probably, more than likely smiling in response to our smiles rather than just randomly. You know, the "social smile" that generally occurs somewhere around 6 or 8 weeks but possibly as late as 12 weeks old.

But I wasn't entirely sure, being the skeptic that I am, thinking that maybe it's just a coincidence.

However, I can no longer deny it. I lost all denial when I was putting her into her car seat on Saturday and she just gave me the biggest, most beautiful grin, then stopped smiling when I moved my head away, then started smiling again when she found my face again, doing this repeatedly.

Oh my heart.


Talking to Mommy

She had smiled at me, often times while I talked to her, probably a dozen times in the past week or two (age three and four weeks) but I just always played it off as coincidence.

Why I was so doubtful, I don't know, because all the evidence was there for a while! Silly me.


Four weeks old

This is what our program looked like:

• Visual stimulation: lots of high-contrast patterns to look at, well-lit rooms during waking hours, and stimulating the pupils with a dull flashlight (actually, with the screen of my cell phone)
• Motor: tummy time on parent’s or sibling’s chest or bed/couch, tummy time in crawling track
• Stimulating the grasp reflex and babinski reflex (not so much the startle reflex)
• Hanging from my fingers using the grasp reflex
• Face to face conversation
• Vestibular (balance) stimulation activities

And the new things added this week:

• Started a new song: we’re listening to Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67, "Fate": Allegro con brio (at bedtime and through the night, sometimes during naps)
• New poem (“Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you.”)

Aria scooting in her track

Motor Program

Aria continues to make progress in her crawling track. She tends to move anywhere from a few inches to a foot or more per session. Each "session" is anywhere from 2-3 minutes to sometimes 15-20 minutes.

This week she generally got about two to four sessions in her track each day. She napped a few times in there too.

I've got quite a lot of video of her in her track that I need to edit and find a way to upload. We have absolutely terrible internet right now so uploading videos can be challenging.


Aria in the wrap after she finished nursing

I used the Moby Wrap around the house quite a few times this week. Previously I had only ever used it when we were going out.

But as I continue to struggle to "get things done" (cooking, cleaning, homeschooling older boys, and so on) it has been helpful many times when she doesn't want to be in her track or lying down and just wants to be held.

On a side note, wearing her in the wrap is an excellent way to simulate her vestibular system as we move around. 

So vestibular stimulation, skin to skin contact, and an aid to help get things done. Not a bad deal!


Aria on her mat that we use for balance activities

Speaking of vestibular stimulation, Aria still really enjoys her balance activities. Particularly the activities where she gets moved around on her mat (back and forth, side to side, and around in circles). She is so calm and just intently watches everything as I move her.


Aria bearing weight on legs at the Atlantic

Aria bears weight on her legs more and more frequently now. She has done this since she was just a few days old, but it is more frequently now and for longer durations.

Such a strong girl!


Stimulating the grasp reflex

Aria hung independently from my thumbs for the first time this week! Yes, the grasp reflex of many newborns is strong enough to hold their own weight. It's incredible, isn't it?

Her grasp reflex was not strong enough to hold her own weight at birth, but it is now. I'd like to think that has something to do with stimulating her grasp reflex so often, as well as doing gentle lifting activities.

It's fun that she can hold her own weight now because the hanging activities are so fun!


Aria still enjoys looking at the window

As I mentioned, Aria hit a big visual development milestone, as witnessed by her ability to respond to a smile. On the IAHP developmental profile it is called Stage III visual development: Appreciation of detail within a configuration.

This has caught me a little off guard because I was not planning on starting Stage III activities until she was six weeks old. But as I mentioned in last week's post she was a little bored from the Stage II silhouette cards, so we didn't really do any cards this week.

Her visual stimulation was mostly naturally occurring, looking at things across the room, looking at faces, also looking at her picture cards that I have on the ceiling.

We did the flash light stimulations, but not nearly 10x a day.


Aria startling to a loud noise in her sleep

She startles a lot. She startles more to sudden movement than she does to loud noises, it seems. But because of this, and because she doesn't usually react to the blocks clapping, I haven't done the block clapping activities much.

Resources used this week:

3 Weeks Old: Newborn Early Learning Program

Aria's first time at the ocean. We visited at sunset to take pictures. She loved it.

Aria was three weeks old this week.

This is a summary of our week using the early learning / infant stimulation program outlined in How Smart is Your Baby by Glenn Doman.


Big brother loves to play with her. He, albeit unknowingly, gives her lots of vestibular (movement & balance) stimulation as well as language stimulation!

This week we sort of fell off the bandwagon when it came to Aria's early learning program. I mean, we still "did stuff". But it wasn't the consistency super-week I was hoping it would be.

In fact for half of the week she didn't even use her crawling track because it was... (cringe) full of clean laundry that never got put away. Whoops. So that is somewhat the sort of week we had.


Aria's 4th week

This is what our program looked like:

• Visual stimulation: lots of high-contrast patterns to look at, well-lit rooms during waking hours, and stimulating the pupils with a dull flashlight
• Motor: tummy time on parent’s or sibling’s chest, tummy time in crawling track
• Stimulating the grasp reflex, babinski reflex, and startle reflex
• Face to face conversation
• Vestibular (balance) stimulation activities
• Poem recited a few times (“One, two, buckle my shoe. Three, four, shut the door”)

And the new things added this week:

• Started a new song: we're listening to Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46: Morning Mood (at bedtime and through the night, sometimes during naps)
• Started showing simple black and white outline flash cards (stage II cards)

Aria checking out her stage II flash cards, this one of a square.

Starting the stage II flash cards was something I was really looking forward to, but it was actually a bit of a flop. I mean, not completely: she checked them out for a second or two. But then she was more interested in going back to looking at things across the room, or looking at faces, and so on.

Then the next day I tried to show her another card and she gave it a quick glance but then wasn't interested. The cards are, I know, already too easy for her. Her vision has developed to the point where looking at super simple cards like that is way too easy, and she's on to bigger and greater things. Sigh.

So I am a bit disappointed that I missed the window of opportunity for these cards, but it's certainly not a great loss. I mean, her vision is growing! In leaps and bounds! That's the goal, right?


Looking at checkerboard patterns

She still is very interested in these picture cards that I have above the bed. She really enjoys looking at the display while being held, or while nursing. These cards are actually meant for stage III!

But I decided to put them up long before she reached stage III visual development because they were still high-contrast and easy to see, so it couldn't hurt, right? I didn't want to wait too long and miss the opportunity. It happened with Damien, he grew out of things so quickly!


Crawling track time

She also still enjoys her pictures in her crawling track.


Can you see the detail of my face, sweet girl?

Speaking of visual development, it seems like we've been getting a lot of smiles lately, and they are so often coincidentally close to being intentional smiles. That is, smiling at us.

This is a pretty big visual milestone, because it means that she can make out the details of our faces, something that very brand new newborns can't do (at birth, babies can see light and dark, then the next stage is seeing outlines, then finally, the ability to see details within an outline).


This particular morning, she was giving LOTS and lots of smiles to Daddy, first as they were sitting down, then after he laid her down too. It seemed so very intentional but the skeptic in me isn't sure if she's really developed this milestone so early.

Generally, from what I have researched, the "social smile" (smiling at someone in response to their smile, rather than just randomly), develops in most babies around six weeks old, although sometimes it can be eight to twelve weeks. So to possibly see very real evidence of the beginning of this development at only three weeks old is exciting.

Our visual stimulation program, albeit not always perfectly consistent, seems to be working!


Pupils dilating & constricting in light

Speaking of our visual "program", we've been doing some more flashlight stimulations to strengthen her pupils, but I've been using my phone as a flashlight instead (using the light of the screen, not the "flashlight" aka camera flash because it is too bright).

It's much more convenient than carrying an actual flashlight around.


At the Northeast Florida Fair

And more along the lines of visual development, this week we went to the fair, and boy was she alert! Now, the alertness was not so unusual, but what was funny was the way she was looking at me and for such a long period.

She was in her Moby wrap and lifted her head up to stare at my face for twenty minutes. She fell asleep and did this again later on into the evening. Perhaps it was the way the bright lights were illuminating my face, I'm not sure, but she sure was working hard on something to stare at me (and hold her head up!) for so long.


Napping a bit in her crawling track

Motor Program

For a little honesty, Aria did not spend a lot of time in her track this week. For the silly reason that I had a bunch of clean laundry in there that needed to be put away and procrastinated about it for days.


Laundry in her track

The good news is, on the days she did use it, she was actually getting quite a bit of movement. Several inches to sometimes over a foot, and she sometimes surprised me by doing so very quickly.

This was a problem because I would put something in one half of the track thinking that she wouldn't scoot that far, then she would end up scooting right up to it and start angrily crying because her head was stuck and she couldn't go any farther.


Holding up her head so high

This week she also started lifting her head quite high and turning it from side to side in her crawling track to look at both walls of pictures.

Her neck strength seems to get stronger and stronger every day, and it is so amazing to watch how motivated she is to grow and develop.


Sleeping

In other news on our program, the grasp reflex stimulations are still happening, and the babinski reflex stimulations. Not so much the startle reflex stimulations, except incidentally.


Doing a massage with lotion, in lieu of the hot/cold/pressure stimulations that are supposed to be part of stage II

I did not start any of the other Stage II activities besides the flashcards, and I'm not entirely sure that I will. I will write a separate post about this but Stage II is the "vital" stage that has the not-very-fun activities that will test your baby's response to life-threatening stimuli. 

Now it is really fascinating to see these responses develop, especially since it is something not present at birth. But unless your baby is brain-injured and really needs those pathways strengthened, I don't see the point in doing the stimulations daily.

If you have already witnessed that your baby has an appropriate response to hot and cold, pain, and loud (threatening-sounding) noises, which I have, I don't think that there is a need to further stimulate them.


Listening to music while sleeping

We started our first new song this week (we had been listening to the same song for her previous three weeks), and it was Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46: Morning Mood.

I have gotten better about playing it all night long, and sometimes during naps.

Resources used this week:

2 Weeks Old: Newborn Early Learning Program

Sweet newborn everything

Aria was two weeks old this week. This is a summary of our week using the early learning / infant stimulation program outlined in How Smart is Your Baby by Glenn Doman.

We had a bit of a "boring" week this week. Nothing really too new or exciting, just soaking up all of these precious newborn cuddles and scents and expressions.



This is what our program looked like, pretty much identical to last week:

• Visual stimulation: lots of high-contrast patterns to look at, well-lit rooms during waking hours, and stimulating the pupils with a dull flashlight.
• Motor: tummy time on parent's or sibling's chest, tummy time in crawling track.
• Stimulating the grasp reflex, babinski reflex, and startle reflex.
• Face to face conversation
• Listening to Thaïs: Méditation by Jules Massenet still (going to start a new piece next week)
• Vestibular (balance) stimulation activities
• Poem recited a few times (“One, two, buckle my shoe. Three, four, shut the door”)

Now, we haven't been nearly as consistent as the program says you're "supposed to" be. Ten times a day of each activity pretty much does not happen. Usually it is just a few times a day, and some days I forget certain activities.



I will also sheepishly admit that I have been absolutely terrible at using the logs I worked so hard to create. On one hand I tell myself that this stage of the program is so simple that I can just do it all from memory and I don't need the logs.

But on the other hand, the logs really help keep me on task and motivated, trying to improve from one day to the next. And they are also a wonderful keepsake, for me at least, a place to take little notes, and to remember our program and what we actually did.

So I am going to definitely start using the logs next week, especially since we will be starting Stage II sensory!

Aria scooting in her crawling track & looking at pictures while I play war with Hunter (age 9) to review math facts that have gotten a little rusty

Motor Program:

Aria had a great week in her crawling track. She did not spend hours and hours each day in it, but the time she did have in her track was peaceful and productive. There were a few times where she crawled quite a distance in a very short time.


Digging her toes into the side of the crawling track to push off

I switched out the visual stimulation this week with some different cards, and also taped down the cards so they would quit falling off. It was pretty silly for me to have them in there so loosely in the first place - I'm not sure what I was thinking!

But now they stay put, and she can use the sides of the crawling track to dig her toes into and push off just fine.

Napping in her crawling track, with new visual stimulation cards (secured to the sides with electric tape)

She has also been napping in her crawling track quite a bit this week. She has generally taken at least one nap per day in there.

Doman says babies move a lot in their sleep so it's good to have the sleep in the crawling track, but I really don't notice her moving all that much. She mostly just moves around when she is waking up, but often in that waking up period she stretches and moves like crazy.



I'm sad to say I can't really call her my little "bobble head" anymore. Her head doesn't "bobble" much at all when she is lifting it up.

She holds her head quite steady when she is lying down in the prone position, with only a little bit of wiggling and instability. She can also hold her head at a 45-degree angle - an "average" milestone to hit by two to three months old!



Sensory, Tactile, & Manual (light reflex, startle reflex, babinski reflex, grasp reflex)

We haven't done much in the way of the startle reflex, and this mostly gets stimulated naturally. She will startle to the sound of a door slamming or something heavy being dropped and so on, but not really to the sound of the blocks clapping. I'm not sure why!


Aria has been so much more interested in faces this week. She will stare at my face for such a long time!

For vision, I added another row of checkerboard pictures to the ceiling above the bed / crawling track. To be honest I think we only did the flash light stimulations a couple of times.



Lifting up with the grasp reflex

With her being able to hold her head more steadily now, we do slight lifting while she grasps my fingers.



I'm really looking forward to next week, where we will start the Stage II sensory stimulation activities. The new activities include outline flash cards, spotting a light game, and vital sensation (hot/cold/pressure) stimulations.

Resources used this week:

1 Week Old: Newborn Early Learning Program

Aria looking at high-contrast outline pictures in her crawling track

Aria was 1 week old this week. We are using the early learning / infant stimulation program outlined in How Smart is Your Baby by Glenn Doman.

We had a good, laid-back week. I managed to get a little bit of school work done with my older boys, and Aria had a good week with her early learning program.


Another (mostly) peaceful week

I love how simple the early learning program is at this stage. It takes so little time, so little effort, and is quite enjoyable. It really just involves decorating the environment with baby-appropriate patterns, doing tummy time, talking to her, and a couple playful activities (balance & reflex stimulation) that take a few seconds during her awake time.

I love being able to provide her with an environment that is intentionally growing her brain, rather than an environment where her brain is being stimulated on accident, by chance, and as a product of happenstance rather than planning.


Sleeping is so important for brain development (and sanity!), so I'm thankful she has been sleeping well

She slept a lot this week, as I suppose most 1-week-olds do. She has been sleeping particularly well at night time and late into the morning, giving us a late start to the day, but I have been well-rested! I do hope that she continues to be a great sleeper.


One week old this week

This is what our early learning program looked like this week:

New things:

• We introduced the crawling track (homemade version of this)
• Started flashlight stimulations (to cause pupils to dilate & constrict, growing vision)
• Started doing vestibular (balance) stimulation activities
• Added new visual stimulation (these patterns hung up around the bed)
• Started reciting poetry verse (currently the poem, "One, two, buckle my shoe. Three, four, shut the door")

Continued from previous week:

• Lots of visual stimulation (high contrast patterns, well-lit rooms available every waking moment to grow vision)
• Tummy time on parents' and siblings' chests
• Stimulating the grasp reflex, babinski reflex, & startle reflex
• Face to face conversation
• Listening to Thaïs: Méditation by Jules Massenet

Aria in her crawling track

Motor Opportunity Program

Since Aria's umbilical cord fell off last weekend, I introduced the crawling track this week.

The purpose of the crawling track is to provide baby with an ideal environment for movement. The advantages of the crawling track (verses a floor) is that it provides a smooth, pliable surface that allows baby to push off with her feet and slide easily, and narrow sides that keep baby moving in a forward motion (rather than in circles) while also providing protection from cold drafts and being bumped or stepped on.


Aria scooting down her crawling track while looking at pictures

It is really quite incredible to watch her scooting down her track, propelling herself forward with her tiny little toes. To watch her drive to move, to develop, to grow. It just never gets old, never ceases to amaze me what an incredible thing the will to learn is in babies, even the youngest of them.

So far she has done really well in her crawling track. So far she almost always enjoys it and spends her time examining the brightly-colored silhouettes I've lined the walls with.

Sometimes she just lays quietly looking at the pictures, sometimes she gives off the occasional push of her foot, sometimes she pushes off with her feet like crazy staying active for long periods and, in turn, moving quite a distance down the track.

She has, a few times, become frustrated and began to protest. If this happens I will try and comfort her, and if she won't be comforted I will pick her up. It usually means she just wants to be held, or sometimes she just wants to be in a different position - looking at the patterns on the ceiling, for instance.


Our newborn early learning setup where we spend a lot of our day

This is where we are keeping the crawling track at the moment. Living in an RV fulltime doesn't leave many options for places to keep a crawling track, so putting it at the top of the master bed works well for now. It's right next to a bright window and in a safe, warm place, and even though it makes our feet hang off the bed a little bit at nighttime, we don't really mind!


Aria sliding forward, backward, side to side, and in circles on a mat, as well as tilting up and down and side to side

Vestibular (Balance) Stimulation

I started doing the balance activities with Aria this week. There are several balance activities that are done on a small mat and several that are done while holding her.


Self-inititated "balance activity" - learning to hold her head up. This requires strength as well as balance, as witnessed by the early days as baby looks a lot like a bobble head trying to keep her head straight

The purpose of these activities is to stimulate the vestibular (balance) system of the brain, with the sensation of moving through space in different positions. Balance is an important aspect of mobility, because even if a baby has the muscle strength to do certain actions (i.e. sitting up, crawling, walking) it is useless if they don't have the balance to go along with it.

The balance activities, therefore, not only grow the baby's brain (vestibular area), but they also aid in helping baby develop motor skills sooner.


Rocking back & forth, mimicking the motion of a rocking chair

I didn't get many pictures of the balance activities this week, but I will post specifically about how to do the balance activities soon.


Allowing pupils to dilate in dark room, then constrict in the presence of a (dull) flashlight

Sensory Stimulation (Visual, Tactile, & Auditory)

We started flashlight stimulations this week (using a dull flashlight to cause the pupils to constrict). This is part of the visual stimulation program to help baby's eyes grow, in addition to providing lots of high-contrast pictures and patterns to look at and keeping baby's environment well-lit (except while they're sleeping, of course).

It is actually a little tricky to do this activity right now as we don't have any window-free rooms. With my last baby we would go into the bathroom to do the flashlight activities, but our current bathroom has a skylight. So often these activities get left until night time.


Aria looking at a pattern of circles while big brother (age 3 years, 3 months old) reads a story from a phonics reader

She still gets lots of time around high-contrast patterns and pictures. However, she is also starting to try to focus more on things across the room, and on faces as people talk to her.


Just another picture of baby's cute toes I get to play with while stimulating the babinski reflex (tactile stimulation)

The rest of the sensory stimulation program has been going well. Stimulating the babinski reflex (for tactile stimulation), stimulating the startle reflex (clapping two blocks together, to strengthen the auditory pathway of the brain), and also listening to classical music for auditory stimulation.

Her babinski reflex is already getting stronger and more consistent. Her startle reflex is hit or miss - sometimes the blocks elicit the startle reflex and sometimes they don't. But she gets lots of "impromptu" startle reflex stimulations with all of the loud noises her two older brothers make!


Grasp reflex

Manual (Hand) Stimulation

Her grasp reflex is also getting stronger and more consistent. This week we started doing gentle lifting - she grasps onto both of my fingers while I gently lift her from her back to a sitting position. It's amazing how strong the grasp reflex in newborns is!


Enjoying her first bath

Swimming?

We haven't started the baby swimming program, and I'm not exactly sure when I plan to (we don't have a tub, just a shower, and I'm not quite comfortable taking her to a public pool yet).

But she did get her first bath this week, and I was encouraged. She LOVED the water and was super comfortable in it. So I hope to keep encouraging this comfort in water to prepare her for swimming a few weeks or months down the road.

Next week...

Next week our early learning program will look more or less the same. We might start doing Stage II visual stimulation activities in addition to Stage I activities, but I'm undecided. I also hope to be a little bit more "consistent" in doing more of each stimulation each day.

Resources used this week: