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: