Learning with dad - a smart start to life, part 3

The third part of our little series on simple exercises you can do with your baby/child to stimulate development is suitable for toddlers aged 12-18 months. Even if your little champ has already mastered walking it's still a good idea to encourage him to crawl every now and then (this is because crawling encourages a cross-pattern movement where the left arm / right leg and right arm / left leg are moved simultaneously. This movement stimulates the creation of pathways in the brain to help develop co-ordination skills and body balance).

This exercise is extra simple - go to your shed / garage / neighbour and pick up a ladder, put it on the floor and let your little genius crawl over the rungs. As he gets used to it, you can raise the ladder off the floor by putting a few books under each end. The higher the ladder, the more difficult ... so you can play around with this set-up and keep practising with your toddler until one day he can easily step across a raised ladder.

Enjoy,

Stef

For more exercises like these check out Margaret Sasse's book "Smart Start". It's definitely a good investment of 30 bucks and you can buy the book in most bookstores or online at Exisle Publishing.