Motor Development Program at 10 months

For the most part, we have been trying to follow the physical program outlined in "How Smart Is Your Baby" by Doman. Arden is currently working on Stage IV. 

Mobility Program:

I mentioned in a recent post that one part of this is gaining the ability to walk 40 feet nonstop. Arden is still working on that. She will walk about 10 feet or so before something on the ground catches her interest and she will sit down, or she will simply lose interest in the walking and sit down. Because it is so wet where we live she does not have may outdoor walking opportunities and inside of course we do not have a 40 foot open area for her to walk, so for the most part she walks across her main play area many times a day, but has not really increased the distance per a single walking episode. 

The second part of the mobility program is balance exercises. I have to say that we do not do these as a rigorous program, but we do most of them on a regular basis as just part of playing and while she is being held/carried.

Manual Program:

For cortical opposition we mainly focus on using small pieces of food. She has been picking up and eating Cheerios and yogurt melts since 6 months. We also give her things like small pieces of cubed fruit or meat. This is a great activity for her to work on while I am doing dishes or preparing food. It keeps her happy and occupied, and still in sight.

The second part of the manual program is brachiation/manual competence. Quite honestly, she is crazy about using the pull up bar. I bought a pull-up bar on Amazon that we could hang in the door, but is also easily removable so it doesn't need to always be up. It has worked great. When we have it up she will reach out and say "ah, ah, ah!!" whenever we walk past it in the hallway. I will then usually give her an opportunity to hang and that will prompt my older boys to beg for turns to try pull ups. Of course, when she sees her older brothers on it she wants another turn as well. She easily hangs for 30 seconds and then we lift her down. Here she is at 9 months, showing off her skills:

 

At this point she is ready to begin using a brachation ladder (monkey bars), but unfortunately we haven't been able to put any up yet. 

It's hard to believe, but she's about ready to graduate from the motor portion of "How Smart is Your Baby?" book into the "How to Teach Your Baby To Be Physically Superb" which goes up to age 6. 

Mason's Reading Progression from ages 1-3

With each child we have modified and streamlined our approach to reading. Although we are early in the process with our youngest. I thought it might help to give a sample of the progress we saw with my second child who is now 6.

Here he is at 22 months. At this point he was just recognizing letters and knew their sounds:

Before 2 we used a computer based program called "Little Reader", Preschool Prep Company DVDs, Leap frog's "The letter factory" and "Talking word factory", Readingbear.org and Starfall.com.

At 2 we started readingeggs.com.

Here he is at 24 months sounding out words on Starfall.com:

At 2.5 we started "The ordinary parent's guide to teaching reading". This has been my go to for scripted reading lessons with both of my older children. Although they have both been reading fluently long before I got to the end of the book.

Here he is at 2 years 9 months:

And right around 3 we discovered the Peter and Jane books, which I have found are amazing. They are a series of books using the most common English words. They introduce the words one at a time, and the books are only composed of words that have been taught. 

Here is 3 years 2 months:

Then just a few months later his reading had progressed significantly. Here he is reading book 7 in the Peter and Jane series:

At this point (age 3.75) he was an almost fluent reader. He was able to pick up his older brother's copy of the Wizard of Oz and start to read it as seen on this video. At this point I stopped recording his reading progression.

Now at age 6 he reads anything he can get his hands on, from high school biology texts to Harry Potter.

Infant Potty Training (a.k.a. Elimination communication)

Using the toilet at 6 months old

           
So, no one ever accused us of being "normal parents". In particular, I'm sure that when we told family and friends our 6 month old was using the toilet there were some raised eyebrows. When we went to a family wedding and we said she had not had a "poopy diaper" in over a week there were definitely some questioning looks. But, the truth is that with persistence and communication with our child toilet training has been almost stress free, and we have had to change almost no "poopy diapers since she was about 7 months old. We used this same method with our now six year old, and although we didn't start as early with our eldest child, even he was diaper free by 18 months old.

How did we accomplish this you might ask? First of all, we do not use "potty chairs". We use something similar to this (Infant Toilet Seat).

There are many similar seats, but this is the variety we've used and I know that a 6ish month baby can sit on it without falling through. Also the handles are nice so that when they want something to hold on to so they feel stable they are not grabbing the dirty toilet seat. The reason we do not use potty chairs is two-fold. First, your baby will not just stand up and walk/crawl away before they are done. Second, there is no clean up. Instead of having to wash the toilet out every time they go poop or pee you just flush the toilet. Not only is this much easier. It makes you more likely to put them on the toilet many times a day without worrying if you have time to deal with scrubbing poop. Since part of my motivation for early potty training is avoiding the hassle of dirty diapers, I don't want to create more work for myself.

Although many people begin Elimination Communication at birth we waited until 6 months when we began introducing solid foods. At this time she began having less frequent and more solid bowel movements.

When we first began  putting her on the toilet I would sit on the toilet and then hold her with her between my legs so she was sitting on the toilet but I was behind her supporting her. After she was comfortable with that for a week or two we moved on to the toilet. At first shen she sat alone on the toilet I would sit right next to her on a stool so she could get used to it and to make sure she was stable. Once she got used to the routine we can just sit her on it on her own.

In general, our strategy is to put her on the toilet before and after every nap and meal. We also put her on the toilet if she is acting like she needs to have a bowel movement or when she has a wet diaper we will set her on the toilet while we gather the supplies for a diaper change. Because around meals and sleep are natural times for a baby to go you are likely to be successful just with a luck right off the bat. When that happens we like to clap and cheer and of course the baby will join in. After a few weeks they figure out what the toilet is meant for and will make a concerted effort to go each time you put them on. For us it is rare for her not to pee when placed on the toilet. She usually will have a bowel movement around breakfast and dinner.

Like I said above there really is no reason not to try early toilet training, for us it has always just made sense. Baby is not getting used to soiling their diaper, and knows from early on what the point of the toilet is. You avoid the power struggles of training a toddler, and best of all you almost never have to change a poopy diaper.


I'd love to hear what you think, and if you did something similar how it worked out for you.