How Babies Learn

The Wisdom of Grandmothers

As two grandmas who have worked in the early childhood profession in many
capacities over the last 30 plus years we want to share some of what we did, what we
thought we knew, and where we have revised our thinking about caring for
children. We think our Grandmas knew best. We submit our own 2015
Grandmotherly Cautions here:

Todays parents must make their way through the myriad of articles, books,
conversations, and well meaning advice from friends, family, and even strangers,
regarding the development and education of their children. Teachers are under state
regulations and are also bombarded with an array of theories, philosophies, and
policies that dont always inform their practice clearly. Our parents and grandparents
seemed to instinctively know about what babies needed. Has commercialism and
information overload confused those instincts?

How babies learn

Through the insights of Jean Piaget we have come to view the infant as an involved
person, one who experiences a wide range of intellectual and emotional abilities.
Although they may appear to be helpless beings, babies are persons with feelings,

rights, and an individual nature. Caregiving routines such as feeding, diapering, and
playing are the heart of engaging with babies, but the challenge is to find ways to use
these daily routines to interact, develop trust and security, and provide educational
opportunities (Gordon and Browne 2007).
Piaget named the first two years as the sensory motor stage of development. He
believed that children naturally rely on their sense perception and muscle
movements to learn. They gradually learn that they can control the interactions
between themselves and objects. They accommodate and assimilate new information
gained from interacting on and with objects and people, using their senses and
developing motor skills. Theyre constantly taking in and adjusting to their
environment (Gonzalez-Mena and Eyer 2014). This means they need the freedom of
movement in the right environment to engage their whole body toward the work at
hand.

Making sense of the world

Sensory awareness refers to using the senses to give the mind information. Vision is
the dominant sense for young children. Visual awareness is the ability to mimic
movements and to discriminate faces, emotions, sizes, shapes, and colors (Gordon
and Browne 2007). It is the ability in three-month old babies to recognize their
mothers. Auditory awareness includes the ability to understand and carry out verbal
directions and to discriminate among a variety of sounds. Auditory skills help
children to process information about language. From infancy, children seem to be
able to combine visual and auditory awareness. Further sensory awareness develops
through touch.
That said, it seems of late the childs world has become bombarded with a myriad of
unnatural sensory stimulation: blinking and bright lights, and loud music and sounds
literally a sensory integration overload. Many commercial constraints for children,
including a new potty chair that has an I-pad insert for the toddler, offer a myriad of
unnatural colorful and blinking lights and high pitched sounds. While it is important
to provide sensory stimulation to children, it should be natural sensory stimulation
such as sand and water play, classical music, childrens songs, and lullabies.
Sensory engagement, not overload, is needed.

For example, Lois recently found a 100 year old silver teething ring that belonged to
her husbands father. It was a simple, chunky ring with a flattened silver bell that they
baby could chew on or manipulate. Depending on the babys ability to hold and move
it, the toy would make a clinky-clunk soundbut not constantly nor jarringly. Current
teething rings have all sorts of sounds emanating from the bob and may be more
stimulating than the child really needs. They just need something to chew on that
gives more resistance than the fist. Developmentally the need to suck and chew
remains the same.
How do we close out a noisy and visually stimulating world? How do we eliminate
strong lights and constant exposure to electric lighting? Our grandmas knew to use
natural light as much as possible. Babies were placed outside in the shade to be able
to gaze up at the leaves and speckled sun to gently drift off to sleep. Beyond a wind
up music box or mobile, there were no electronics available to be offered.

Freedom of movement
Cramped spaces for babies such as play pens or other container apparatus, give
little opportunity for gross motor development to unfold naturally. Advertisements for
commercial constraints can cause parents and caregivers to believe these are what
the children need. Children need movement opportunities on their own, not being
propped up before they develop their spine and core strength. Children must use
their bodies to learn motor skills as they acquire these skills and strength by being
on the floor reaching, creeping, crawling and exploring.
Do we allow for enough freedom of movement for babies? Are we actually improving
the childrens equipment or instead, creating an unnatural dependence on bigger,
better, baby containers thinking that is best? What is the proper balance between
placing children in convenient commercial apparatus and holding them, or setting up
safe floor space for them to naturally explore and discover their world?
Here is a little poem that highlights what we want to make you aware of:
Babies need to be held
They cannot be in something long stretches of time
They must hold up their heads and strengthen their spines.

Holding onto you, exercises posture and core,

And they learn on their own, when left on the floor.
While you move about, babies adjust,
Gain control of their bodies, no doubt its a must.
Car Seats are wonderful inventions to use,
While youre out and about and shopping for shoes.
Buttake babies out when you go into the house!
Development begins head first - spine down - trunk out.
Babies need un-constricted time to move about.
Baby seats, swings, commercial constraints
Risk limp muscled children with; Im tired complaints.
Dr. Carla Hannaford, in her book Smart Moves: Its Not all in Your Head explains the
movement-thought link. As babys neck muscles strengthen, the child is able to lift
their head to hear the world with two ears and start to see with two eyes. Being held
upright with its body against the caregivers back or front, as well as lying on its belly
on the ground, allows the baby to actively work and strengthen neck muscles. This
leads me to question the wisdom of excessive use of the popular baby carrying seats
that double as car seats. These seats keep the baby at a forty-five degree angle that
inhibits active muscular movements either of the neck or core muscles. The same is
true for jumpers and carriers where the baby is facing out, away from the parent.
Even though the babys eyes are forward, because movement is inhibited, the baby is
not as actively developing vision (Hannaford 2005,111).
Magda Gerber, a pioneer in infant care, coined the term educaring to describe the
relationship between an infant and an adult. Gerbers philosophy is based on respect
for babies. In that vein, she believed that babies are born knowing how to move and
should not be placed in positions that they are unable to get into on their own
(Solomon 2013, 120). We believe once the child can roll over on its belly the
development proceeds and this need not be rushed. Hannaford wisely states that
babies explore feet and hands with their mouth bringing the appendage muscles into
play. The ears assist babys first attempts to rollover as it follows a sound with its
ears and uses the core muscles to move the whole body. The core muscles then
come into play as the baby strengthens the shoulder girdle area, by lifting the
shoulders as well as the head, in response to sensory stimuli. With practice, first with

one end of the body and then the other, the baby goes from scooching to finally
being able to crawl. We have known for years that children who miss the vitally
important crawling state may exhibit learning difficulties later on (112).
It is essential to the learning process to allow children to explore every aspect of
movement and balance in their environment and keep them free from commercial
constraints when they are simply not necessary. Research shows that muscular
activities, particularly coordinated, balanced movements, appear to stimulate the
production of neurotrophins that stimulate the growth of existing nerve cells and
increase the number of new nerve cells and neural connections in the brain. As we
learn and master movements and skills, our brains require less energy and function
more efficiently (Hannaford 2005, 113). We have discovered that boys need more
movement time than girls for optimal brain growth and development. The stress that
comes from lack of movement in boys early on and during the learning process has
inhibited important pattern development necessary for inner speech, formal
reasoning and the ability to succeed in our current school curriculum (Hannaford
2005, 114).
Take it from two grandmas, place babies on a blanket on the floor as often as
possible and encourage movement and activity in your child. They will naturally lead
you in this dance.

Bibliography
Birckmayer, J., Stonehouse, A. & Kennedy, A. 2008. From Lullabies, to Literature:
Stories in the Lives of Infants and Toddlers. NAEYC. Washington D.C. USA and
Pademelon Press, Castle Hill, NSW, Australia.
Christ, T, and Wang, C. 2010. Research in Review. Bridging the Vocabulary Gap:
What the Research Tells Us about Vocabulary Instruction in Early
Childhood. Young Children. Vol. 65 No.4
Gordon, A. M. and Browne, K. W. 2007. Beginning essentials in early childhood
education. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Publishing.

Gonzalez-Mena, J. and D.W Eyer. 2015. Infants, Toddlers, and Caregivers, a

Curriculum of Respectful, Responsive, Relationship-Based Care and
Education. New York, N.Y: McGraw-Hill.
Hannaford, C. 2005. Smart moves: why learning is not all in your head. Salt Lake
City, Utah: Great River Books.
Hart, B., and T.R. Reisley. 1995 Meaningful differences in the everyday
experiences of young children. Baltimore M.D: Paul H. Brooks Publishing.
Solomon, D. C. 2013. Baby Knows Best Raising a Confident and Resourceful
Child, the RIE Way. New York, N.Y: Little, Brown and Co.