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:

First Week of Newborn Early Learning Program

Aria at one day old, looking at black & white patterns in hospital bassinet

I got to meet my beautiful daughter this week.

Aria had a safe and healthy delivery at 41 weeks and 1 day gestation. She was 7 lbs 6 oz and 19 inches long.


Snuggling my babies

We got home from the hospital Tuesday afternoon and spent most of this week cuddling and resting and getting to know each other.


Big smile at 5 days old

And taking lots and lots and lots of pictures.

The boys love her. We didn't get much school work done with them this week but I'm totally ok with that.

This is what went on in terms of our early learning program this week:

What we got around to in the first week early learning program:

• Lots and lots of visual stimulation (well-lighted rooms, many high-contrast patterns available during all waking hours)
• Tummy time on parent or brother's chest
• Face to face conversation
• Stimulating the grasp reflex, babinski reflex, & startle reflex
• Listening to Thaïs: Méditation by Jules Massenet

Black & white pattern board

VISUAL STIMULATION

At birth babies are practically blind, and their vision only grows by using it.

This little girl certainly used her vision a lot this week.


Looking out a window, 3 days old

With my other kids, during the first maybe 1-2 days after birth I could only get them to open their eyes if the lights were dim.

With Aria, from the moment she was born she was drawn to the light of the big hospital window. She had no problem opening her eyes in bright daylight and looking around at everything from the day she was born.


Wide eyes at black & white picture, 4 days old

We have lot of different high contrast (black & white) patterns for her to look at, and it's really incredible seeing her eyes light up and get as big as saucers when she sees them.

If I set up a pattern anywhere near her she will turn her head towards it and just stare at it and focus on it for quite a long period of time.


Checking out pattern on car seat, 3 days old

It is so amazing witnessing the drive to learn and grow and develop that even the tiniest babies have. Watching her use her eyes in such a determined way at literally every single waking moment.

She's not content to just stare happily off into space. She literally seeks out things that she is able to see (newborns can only see things that are very high-contrast), then intensely focuses on them trying to see them better.

So inspiring and profound.



AUDITORY STIMULATION

Maybe a half dozen times this week, we've listened to Thaïs: Méditation by Jules Massenet from "The 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music", usually on repeat.

Theoretically we would listen to it almost every time she's sleeping, but it's still a habit I'm getting used to.

We will be listening to a new musical piece each week from the above-mentioned album for her first year.


Stimulating the grasp reflex

REFLEXES (Auditory, tactile, & manual)

During the newborn stage of the infant stimulation program, you simply get to stimulate baby's built-in reflexes, which is basically playing with their little fingers and toes.

I love this stage because it requires so little effort and those tiny little digits are so irresistible.


Stimulating the babinski reflex

When I think about it, often while nursing or just playing with her, I will stimulate her grasp reflex (holding her little hands), her babinski reflex (running my fingers across her little feet), and her startle reflex (clapping two blocks together to make a sharp noise, which elicits the startle reflex).



Falling asleep during tummy time, 7 days old

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

Although Doman's books recommends using the infant crawling track right from birth, I learned with my last baby that it's really not a good idea to start the crawling track until the umbilical cord falls off.

Otherwise the cord will get irritated when baby moves around, bleed, and take longer to fall off. Which could theoretically also lead to infection.


Tummy time on big brother, 6 days old

So in the meantime, while waiting for the cord to fall off, we have done tummy time while laying on someone's chest. This gives her the opportunity to lift up her head and build neck and core body strength.


Big brother teaching shapes, 2 days old

All in all we had a good first week. It was not all picture perfect, particularly the day after we got home from the hospital and sweet baby decided she needed to nurse practically all day.

I might have had a moment of panic convincing myself that I was never, ever going to be able to get anything done, ever again, and oh my gosh I just want to take a shower, how am I going to live if I never shower again?

A little dramatic, I know.


They're adorable, but life is NOT always this picture-perfect

And my older kids might have driven me a little bit crazy many a times throughout the week, particularly a very ornery, limit-pushing three-year-old who is full of sweetness, snuggles, and spit.

My nine-year-old switches rapidly back and forth between the most amazing, caring, helpful big brother who is anxious to "teach" Aria everything and hold her all the time and help with his little brother and around the house, to full-blown attitude and drama over the silliest things.

But I guess being a preteen is kinda rough, so I'll cut him a little slack. Because he really is the most amazing brother and son and person, hands down.



Next week I plan to start the crawling track (her umbilical cord fell off this weekend), some of the balance activities, and the flash light stimulations. Those are the things I didn't get to this week.

Resources used this week:

Welcoming Baby Aria to the Blog

Baby Aria made her appearance into the world last Sunday.

7lbs 6oz and 19in long.

 She is healthy and alert and very, very loved and adored. Looking forward to sharing her early learning journey with the world!