Great Stuff Happens Before Walking and Talking

Part I

Thoughts for Expectant Parents and Newborn Caregivers

Part II

Older Babies and Toddlers Moving Out into Their World

Part I

Thoughts for Expectant Parents and Newborn Caregivers

Newborn cues are subtle…

But newborn babies do communicate. Sure, they cry. In fact, most will spend a good part of each 24-hour period crying. They’re letting you know what they need! And by doing so, even tiny babies are actively participating in their own survival. But there’s more to a tiny baby’s communication skills than that four-alarm cry that says, “I’m wet!” or “I’m tired!” or “I’m really, really hungry!” Babies make a connection with their caregivers, right from the start, through physical and emotional bonding. This playful engagement, the daily (and nightly!) interaction between child and caregiver, provides what Developmental Psychologist and Learning Theorist John Bowlby refers to as “a secure base.” A secure base to move forward from, a place to grow out of: the caregivers provide the nurturing ground that from which the little person will develop. How? All the soothing and cuddling and care of the first eight weeks, all that walking and rocking and late-night song sessions are actually helping your baby’s brain to develop and her body to grow.

The Universal Dance

Bonding and attachment between baby and caregiver is a duet that develops over time, but the choreography seems universal: Babies, from the beginning, want to know, and know a lot already. Incredibly, the world-over, babies of different cultures and backgrounds will tend to proceed through the same movement patterns in the first eight weeks of life. Why is this surprising? Although we may be as a species separated by racial, economic or cultural chasms, we are all mammalian, we all have the same need for survival and not only to eat enough food or to find shelter, but as a species, we have a need to engage with one another, to create meaningful, caring connections among the people we love, and we have a need to learn. The process of that early learning is predictable; miraculous even, and easily recognized if you know what to look for. As a movement educator and mother, it is astounding to me to note that we seem to know more implicitly how we tend to lose our neurological faculties at the other end of our lives, as an elderly person first loses her balance, then her coordination, then speech, continence, control over regulatory systems, etc. But how do we learn? How are our brains and bodies designed to work in harmony to create a being that is integrated and ready to take on the trials and tribulations of the growth and development that lies ahead? How is this process demonstrated? What can we look for to guide us towards a greater awareness of our baby’s amazing growth?

Re-thinking “Tummy Time”: The Prone Progression

Lately we’ve been hearing the term “Tummy Time” bandied about. You can even go the toy store and buy a toy meant just for “tummy time”. But what is tummy time supposed to be doing, anyway? Why is it important? Did babies have tummy time before there were batteries and plastic? For answers, let’s take a look at how babies the across the globe tend to move as newborns. What does this process mean for their maturing cognitive, emotional and physical selves? Let’s “crawl” through the prone progression, the solo that babies have been born knowing for millions of years to find out!

Here are some universal physical milestones that newborns move through that correlate to emotional, neurological and regulatory development:

The Prone Progression:

The Prone Position
Reaching Out
Head side to side and up and down
Upper and Lower Body up and down

The Prone Position

Babies, even the littlest ones, can spend some time each day on their tummies. On their stomachs, babies will be better able to regulate their involuntary systems such as breathing, temperature, digestion and blood pressure regulation and the myriad physical reflexes that herald future mobility. On their tummies, babies will have access to an important early learning tool: the tactile sense, which allows their whole body to act as a sensory sponge, absorbing information like texture, temperature and the gentle rhythms of their caregivers’ touch. In this prone position, babies encourage the stimulation of their autonomic nervous systems, the precisely balanced system that controls the hardwiring of body and brain. As they move on their stomachs, curling and unfurling for the very first time outside the womb, stretching and grasping with tiny hands and feet, grimacing and yawning, babies develop their visceral brains, the area responsible for the deepest instinct and response. Through this effort, their posture and balance are tested, strengthening the core muscles along the spine, which will lay the groundwork for creeping and crawling. Supporting all this development is a seemingly innate desire the newborn has to bond with his or her caregivers, and as s/he plays on his/her tummy, s/he has the opportunity to show off some amazing accomplishments!

Reaching out

As babies stretch out and curl back in, they will begin to explore their new world. Can we imagine what it must feel like to have spent the last two months in a weightless environment, upside-down, only to enter a new world where we can move our bodies through space with such ease? Sure, the littlest arms and legs may not work in a perfectly coordinated fashion yet, but the way they explore the space stretches and strengthens the shoulders and the hips, the proximal joints, allowing for greater freedom of movement down the road.

Head side to side and up and down

A tiny baby may rub his face from side to side, and this enhances visual tracking. There’s a common misconception that babies can’t see. This is not the case! A newborn can see clearly to a depth of about 14”, the distance, generally, between the baby-in-arms and his mother’s face. When babies practice turning their faces from side to side, they are not only stretching and strengthening the postural muscles needed to stabilize the neck and shoulders, but they are also beginning to develop their horizontal eye tracking. This development has greater implications even than the reading and writing that your baby will be doing later on. As your baby practices moving his head from side to side, the eyes will actually stimulate the nervous system to send messages to the brain, creating new neural connections. As your baby begins to lift his or her head off the ground, looking up and down, s/he uses the same process to focus her attention on the vertical plane. Even a newborn knows how to begin to orient in space, becoming more aware of up and down and side to side, and as s/he maneuvers through this new modality, her body sends messages to the brain through the autonomic nervous system to begin to develop more of the limbic brain, the locus of feeling and expression. Looking side to side and up and down correlates, too, to emotional and social centers, as your baby begins to form deeper attachments to caregivers, looking for and seeking familiar, loving faces.

Lifting the upper body and the lower body

As babies play with lifting their heads and shoulders off the ground, or carrying the weight of their little hips and legs into space, they are exploring not only the way their body feels through the kinesthetic sense, but how they might one day soon begin to locomote. The process of differentiation between the upper-lower, and later the two sides of the body, allow for the small person to tackle coordinated movement such as crawling and walking. As some babies play with how their different body parts work, they may flop over in a roll or start spinning in a circle on their stomachs. Lifting their upper and lower bodies, flexing and curling their postural muscles stimulate the babies’ reflexive movements to solidify into voluntary actions. They’re beginning to differentiate their arms and legs, to coordinate their movement and seek out new experience as their sense of “self” begins to emerge.

She’s Here. Now What?

Some ideas for expecting or new parents to help them to enhance and applaud their beautiful little baby’s growth and development:

When your baby spends some time playing on her tummy each day, you are helping to promote her healthy physio-emotional integration while supporting my baby’s full potential in the first weeks and months of life. Time on her tummy actively engage a newborn’s five senses, is important for brain growth and can be started from birth. Active play with baby through tummy time and other movement activities can even be incorporated into daily self-care for the caregiver, as we balance taking care of baby and taking care of ourselves. As we shower baby with love and affection, s/he will also work towards creating a bond between us, even in early infancy. There is a universal process of physical, emotional and social development in early infancy and the way we play with and nurture our children can help to facilitate and enhance this.

Perhaps we can utilize the ways that babies move, as a strategy for understanding the language of the newborn. When we take the moment to observe them, noticing the strength and will they seem to possess, we see more than a beginning, more than a blank slate. We see our history, or commonality. We see ourselves.

Click here to go on to Part II

Older Babies and Toddlers Moving Out into Their World

Click here to go on to Part III :

Early Child Development Overview