Infant Social Emotional Development
After completing an activity please fill out the Activity Completion Log.
“Ball Play: Social Turn-Taking and Rolling”
What you’ll need:
1) Scrap paper or old magazines/newspapers
2) Tape
What you’ll do:
1) Crumple up a piece of paper into a ball
2) Wrap the ball with tape until it is covered into a hard shaped ball
3) Sit on the floor across your baby and roll the ball to your baby
4) Encourage your baby to roll the ball back to you
5) Talk to your baby, ask questions such as, “Can I roll the ball to you?” Or “Can you roll the ball to Daddy?”
Building Trust
Go quickly to your baby when she expresses discomfort. This shows her that you care.
Hold her close to you. Because she cannot yet understand your words, it is important to convey love with body language, facial expressions, and soothing sounds.
Give her your full attention when taking care of her needs such as diapering, feeding, and bathing.
Smile, cuddle, rock, and talk to her.
Notice how your baby responds to you with sounds or movement. Let her know you understand she is communicating with you by talking back to her such as, “Oh, sweet baby. I feel you snuggling. You are very sleepy.”
Hello and Goodbye
Give your baby a chance to be part of the hello-good-bye routine by letting her/him push the doorbell or the elevator button when you enter child care or are visiting a friend or neighbor.
Feelings Faces Plates
What you’ll need:
1) Paper plates
2) Markers
3) Pictures of your baby
What you’ll do:
1) Use pictures or take pictures of your baby showing different emotions (Sad, happy, tired, excited, hungry).
2) Glue a picture to a plate and write the emotion that is displayed on the picture.
3) Talk to your baby about the different emotions of each plate. Imitate the facial expressions and see if your baby can copy you.
Teaching Strategies
Individual Patterns
1c. Takes care of own needs appropriately
Why It’s Important
Very young children begin to develop routine patterns for sleeping, eating, and needing their diapers changed. By respecting your child’s individual schedule, you support her ability to regulateher own behavior.
Materials
None
What You Do
1. Pay attention to when your child needs to have her personal needs met.
2. Keep a daily record of when she needs attending to (time of day for each diaper change, when and how long she napped, and when and how much she ate).
3. As you begin to notice patterns, record them on a sheet of paper.
4. You may want to record what cues your child gives you that she has a need that must be met. A sample note might say, (Carmen) has a bottle around 10:30 after she wakes up from her morning nap. She moves her lips and tongue when she is hungry.
5. Share the information you have gathered about your child’s individual schedule for having her needs met with other family members who share in her care.
6. Continue to observe for any further changes in your child’s routines.