At Great Kids Place we know that relationships and early interactions between caregivers and infants are the most important part of early development. Through her Advanced Certification in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, our director and founder Michele Parkins, has spent extensive time gaining knowledge in the dynamics of family interaction, understanding theoretical perspectives of infant and early childhood mental health, as well as understanding risk and resiliency. The goal of Great Kid’s Infant and Toddler program is to guide babies and their caregivers through the facilitation of social emotional development, which simultaneously facilitates sensory motor development. Through connections with caregivers, children experience their first emotions accompanied by their first sensations. Sensory stimulation from caregivers allows for children to maintain appropriate levels of arousal which in turn allows children to have the opportunity to reach optimal performance. From birth, as babies are exploring and experiencing their (big, loud, and sometimes scary) new world, the actions and reactions of their caregivers can make them feel safe and secure. As babies learn to move their heads, arms, and legs – they use these movements to become closer to their caregiver. This connection is the spark that starts sensory motor development and envelops it over time.
Throughout the program, parents will engage in and develop attentive attunement. The emotionally charged connection between caregiver and child assists in their ability to remain in physical proximity. As children grow and experience security of physical closeness, they can feel trusting, playful, sociable, confident and motivated to explore away from their caregivers, and then come back to engage with them. Additionally, by having a better understanding of ourselves, how we experience the world, and the expectations we have, we can adjust our actions/reactions to assist in co-regulation. As children grow and develop, co-regulation assists in supporting sensory motor development as well as the development of self-regulation skills by way of providing warm, responsive relationships as well as structure and predictability to the environment. In addition to learning about co-regulation, therapists will work with you on creating a nurturing and developmentally supportive environment.
Another aspect of this program is understanding the similarities and differences of a child and his/her caregivers’ sensory profiles. Why is this important? Just as children grow and develop a sensory motor and social emotional profile of their own, adults create and carry profiles of their own. At times, there may be a mismatch between the child and the parent’s profiles leading to difficulties in parent-child relationships. For example, if a child is over-responsive to touch or sound, and their parent is under-responsive – the parent may be seeking input, but the parent’s touch or volume puts the child into fight or flight. When both people are not experiencing the world the same way, even though they are doing the same things, it can be very difficult to empathize, communicate, and have shared experiences. This program will not only look at child, sibling, and parent profiles but aims to create understanding around what this may look like, provide strategies to navigate these experiences, and facilitate engagement in co-occupations.
One way to enrich the child/caregiver relationship as well as sensory motor development is through massage. One of our therapists, AnnMarie Murphy, is a Certified Infant Massage Instructor through the World Institute for Nurturing Communication. This certification provides her with the skills and training necessary to teach caregivers how to provide massage to their infants and growing children. Through her training she has learned massage strokes for children from birth thru adolescents and can tailor the strokes to each individual child that she works with. Cellular biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton’s work on epigenetics (the continuum of DNA development after birth through conscious parenting so that children can thrive and not just survive) is at the center of the Infant Massage triad model. The model is grounded in compassionate communication, safe, positive and creative environments, and nurturing touch. Dr. Lipton explains, that “scientific research reveals that the somatosensory stimuli provided by nurturing touch, movement, and affection significantly improves, the development of a child’s nervous and immune system. The somatosensory experience created by infant massage is an especially effective way for parents to enhance the physiologic and mental health parameter of their children, factors that contribute to the creation of healthy and peaceful adults”. One of the benefits of infant massage via telehealth is that families are already in their natural environment; this facilitates in carry over, using what you already have at home, and provides opportunity to create peaceful nurturing environments for the massage experience.
Additionally, another way to enhance development is through utilizing toys as tools. When developmentally appropriate toys are used in a way that guides learning while allowing for engagement between play partners, children have the best opportunity of reaching their potential. At Great Kids Place, we know that neuroplasticity allows for the generation of new synaptic connections, as well as a process called pruining which enables the brain to be the best version of itself that it can be. Notably, at birth, the average newborn has about 2,500 synapses per neuron. By the time an infant is two or three years old, they have approximately 15,000 synapses per neuron – twice that of the average adult brain. This is important for our Infant and Toddlers program, because this time of a child’s life is significantly impactful on their development. In order to develop skills and fine tune skills, children (and their nervous systems) must receive certain sensory inputs and experiences. The connections that are not reinforced by sensory stimulation eventually weaken and the connections that are reinforced become stronger and more efficient. If we can use our environments that are full of sensory experience potential, and scaffold play to help children feel successful – we in turn create an environment that fosters motivation, courage, and engagement. When children are motivated and engaged, they continue to have these experiences which assists in creating efficient pathways of neural connections and fine tuning.
If you are interested in learning more about in person or telehealth services for your child, please contact Michele Parkins at Great Kids Place (973)-586-8396.
Your child may benefit from this program if they have difficulty in these areas:
- Has difficulty with grooming (cutting nails, bathing, hair brushing)
- Is a picky eater
- Can’t be messy
- Dislikes having their diaper changed
- Refuses tummy time
- Does not like being held
- Cannot self soothe
- Has difficulty transitioning
- Doesn’t smile at people
Your child may benefit from this program if they have not met these milestones:
2 – 3 Months:
- Infant uses facial expressions to express emotions in an appropriate context
- Infant learns to regulate physiologically and needs smooth routines
- Can hold head up and begins to push up when lying on tummy
- Makes smoother movements with arms and legs
- Turns head toward sounds
- Coos, making gurgling sounds
4 – 5 Months:
- Turn-taking conversation (vocalizations) begins; learns to manipulate environment
- Recognizes primary caregiver by sight
- Begins to babble
- Cries in different ways to show hunger, pain or being tired
- Copies sounds heard
- Smiles spontaneously
- Likes to engage in play; may cry when play stops
- Reaches for toy with one hand
- Responds to affection
- Pushes up on elbows when on belly
- Brings hands to mouth
- Swings at dangling toys
- Can hold toy and shake it
6 – 9 Months:
- Infant becomes mutually engaged in interactions with the caregiver
- Joint attention skills develop (will look in same direction as caregiver and follow gaze; eventually looks back at caregiver to show that they share the experience)
- Pointing emerges, infant requests through pointing
- Likes to play with others, especially parents
- Responds to sounds by making sounds
- Responds to own name
- Brings things to mouth
- Shows curiosity about things and tries to get things that are out of reach
- Begins to pass things from one hand to the other
- Rolls over in both directions
- Begins to sit without support
- Rocks bath and forth, sometimes crawling backwards before forward
- When standing, supports weight on legs and might bounce
- Picks up things like cereal o’s between thumb and index finger
- Pulls to stand
- Crawls
12 Months:
- Cries when parent leaves
- Hands you book when he/she wants a story
- Repeats sounds or actions to get attention
- Puts arm or leg out to help with dressing
- Responds to simple spoke requests
- Shakes head no or waves “bye-bye”
- Tries to say words you say
- Explores things in different ways (shaking, banging, throwing)
- Copies gestures
- Bangs two things together
- Put in/take out
- Points with index finger
- Sits without help
- Pulls to stand, ‘cruises’ along furniture
- Few steps without holding on
12 – 18 Months:
- Begins to take part in interactive play like peek-a-boo; uses gestures to wave bye-bye
- Infant learns to explore his environment by support from caregiver
- Empathy and self-conscious emotions emerge (child will react by looking upset when he sees someone cry or feel pride when applauded for doing a task)
- Child imitates environment, helps in simple household tasks
- Child explores the environment more independently
- Child brings object to show or give it to the caregiver
18 – 30 Months:
- Autonomy emerges; confidence in relationship helps child face challenges
- Learns to pretend-play such as talking on the toy phone; shows evidence of symbolic play
- Understands object permanence (objects continue to exist even when they are not seen)
18 Months:
- Develops mental images (having a tantrum after seeing one at a daycare)
- Points to own body part
- Scribbles independently
- 18 Months Continued:
- May have temper tantrums
- May be afraid of strangers
- Shows affection to familiar people
- Walks alone
- May walk up steps and run
- Pulls toys while walking
- Can help undress
- Drinks from a cup
- Eats with spoon
24 Months:
- Stands on tiptoes
- Kicks a ball
- Begins to run
- Climbs onto and down from furniture without help
- Walks up and down stairs holding on
- Throws ball overhead
- Makes or copies straight lines and circles
- Follows 2 step directions
- Builds tower of 4 or more blocks
- Completes rhyme or sentence in a familiar book
- Sorts shapes and colors
- Gets excited with other children
- Copies others
- Shows defiant behavior
30 – 36 Months
- Impulse control, gender roles and peer relationship issues emerge
- Testing limits on what is acceptable and how much autonomy they can exert
- Engages in interactive play
- Masters aggression and learns cooperation and sharing skills
- Can play with turn-taking play and joint goals
- Imaginative and fantasy play begin like pretending to be a cat and role-play skills develop
- May get upset with major changes in routine
- Dresses/undresses self
- Shows affection
- Says first name
- Understands prepositions (in, on, under)
- Works toys with buttons, levers, and moving parts
- Does puzzle with 3 or 4 pieces
- Runs easily
- Climbs easily
- Pedals bike
- Walks up/downstairs, one foot on each step
- Screws and unscrews jar lids or turns door handle