Building baby's brain with sensorimotor stimulation

By Margaret Barnes and Karen LeBlanc

It is perhaps one of the most perplexing child development issues of our time: How can a nation so obsessed with creating super intelligent children see the rate of learning disabilities on the rise? The answer, say some child development experts, is senseless–a lack of sensory stimulation.

A generation of children is growing up in environments that don't stimulate the five senses necessary for brain and body growth. This sensory input lays the foundation for higher learning and some experts argue that learning disabilities such as attention deficit disorder can be traced back to lack of sensory input in early childhood.

Today's children are missing out on so many sensory experiences—touch, vision, sound, smells and vestibular influences—with computers being the primary source of input into their brains, little time to play in the mud because of busy family schedules and the "yuppie" generation of children always dressed and looking cute.

In a culture obsessed with test scores and academic achievement, sensorimotor development is often overlooked. Infant stimulation is the buzzword of modern parenting but parents interpret this intelligent nurturing as academic rather than physical stimulation. The emphasis is on cognitive development as parents strive to create intelligent infants with academic toys and activities.

As a culture, we take for granted the concept of sensory integration and how much our brains process in one given second. We need to educate parents on how much more important sensory motor play is than using flash cards. Language is a building block that stems from the foundation laid with sensorimotor development. Everything is secondary to sensorimotor development.

The lack of understanding and awareness stems from a shift in neuroscience thinking. We now have a much better understanding about the development of the brain and vital senses in babies.

New research points to the importance of sensorimotor stimulation for higher learning. A report by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education concluded that babies need time daily to exercise and move about the environment freely for sensorial input.

Parents are behind the learning curve in this new research. As a consequence, infants are missing out on this crucial foundation of development. I find that pre-school aged children are exposed to organized sports, dance lessons and gymnastics, but infants are missing out. Babies are in the car seat as their parents' shuttle siblings to soccer practice and gymnastics, so they don't have ample time to move about their environment. Infants simply aren't home enough for unstructured free play in today's busy world.

In my work with pediatric populations, I frequently see developmental delays stemming from too little sensorimotor involvement in baby's first year of life. The sensations an infant receives are crucial to this sensory integration process. In fact, most activity in the first seven years of life is part of this process of organizing sensations in the nervous system. Integration of the senses is critical for concentration, academic learning, self esteem, abstract thought and reasoning, visual perception, hand-eye coordination and the ability to organize.

Take for example the "building blocks" that lead to a toddler walking: First he learns to hold his head upright; then he sits; then he learns to creep on all fours before walking on two legs. A baby must master each skill before he can advance to the next. Often, we find that when an infant skips a skill or developmental milestone, learning or developmental deficits result.

Research has shown that children with difficulty reading often skipped the crawling stage of development, which failed to activate the cross coordination or bilateral coordination of the right and left hemispheres of the brain necessary for reading.

Reading is the end-product of many building blocks that form from the sensorimotor activities of infancy and early childhood. I believe the same is true for all academic abilities and also for behavior and emotional growth: everything rests upon a sensorimotor foundation.

Stimulating the Senses in Infancy

Babies need plenty of experiences that call on the senses of touch, taste, sight, smell and movement. Babies must master their gross-motor skills before they can work on their fine-motor skills. Parents can help their infant get his whole system ready to work in that first year.

Encourage movement and physical stimulation: dance with baby, roll on the floor with baby, and let him play in the running water while you are washing the dishes. A newborn's response to sensations is built-in reflexes that outline movements and provide building blocks for further development. At one month, the infant has already performed a considerable number of responses to sensations, particularly sensations from his own body and from gravity. For example, every mother quickly learns that carrying or rocking a baby brings comfort and usually quiets a baby. The sensations of gentle body movement tend to organize the brain.

If your infant attends a day care, make sure the daycare providers are giving your baby ample time to move. Ask how often infants are in their cribs. When they aren't in the crib, what are they doing for physical movement versus being held in a caregiver's arms most of the day? Make sure your older children aren't sitting at a table most of the day and that activities aren't heavily weighted towards academics—so called table—top learning.

To better understand how sensory integration takes place in infancy, consider each of the five senses as an infant develops:

Touch: In the beginning touch is a source of emotional satisfaction—a bond between mother and infant. As an infant develops, he discovers that he has two hands and spontaneously tries to bring his hands together so that they can touch each other. This is the beginning of coordination of two sides of the body.

Sound: A newborn will respond to the sound of a rattle or a voice, although he cannot understand what those sounds mean. Simply responding to those sounds is the first building block of speech.

Vestibular: An infant shows a response to gravity from birth. For example, if you move an infant quickly towards the ground, he will become alarmed and move his arms and legs out in a protective response

Vision: A newborn's sense of sight is not very well organized, although he does recognize his mother's face and other significant objects. The first step in developing vision is learning to track objects. That is why a hanging crib mobile is an important developmental toy.

Proprioception: This is the input from muscles and joints that tell a baby where he is in space and how to use his muscles and joints to achieve tasks. An infant exhibits this sense early on as he adjusts his body to fit nicely into the arms of the person holding him. Later on, this ability will tell him how to use a knife and fork and how to climb a jungle gym.

One of the best examples of sensory integration is watching a child ride a bicycle. The sensory systems needed to steer the bicycle tell the child where he and the bike are in relation to the environment. A child's brain must integrate the visual sensations with body sensations and the pull of gravity and use those integrated sensations to plan a path on his bike. This is motor planning at work. Eventually all of this motor planning process becomes habit or an unconscious task.

Try the following play activities for sensorimotor stimulation in baby's first year:

4-6 months: Alternate arm stretch: This activity is fun to do after a diaper change while baby is on his back. It helps baby feel movement of arms as well as strengthening baby's shoulders, arms and chest. Have baby hold your thumbs, and gently move left arm up over baby's head and move right arm straight down by his side. Then switch, reversing the arms to right arm overhead and left arm down. Have your face close to baby while you are doing the activity for added visual stimulation.

6-8 months: Flying baby: This activity helps stimulate the vestibular system in addition to strengthening the baby's back muscles. This activity is also physical for the caregiver. Caregiver, lie on your back with your legs raised and bent so that your calves are parallel to the floor. Carefully place baby on your shins, baby's chest should be on your knees. Hold baby's hands. Raise your feet and have baby airplane, moving baby's arms out to the side.

9-12 months: Creamy fun: This activity is a messy sensory activity which is great fun! Place baby in highchair and add a few dollops of whipped cream to the tray. Introduce it gradually if baby is apprehensive to exploring this new texture and taste. If baby is really eager, add graham cracker crumbs for added texture.

Margaret Barnes, a licensed pediatric OT, is the co-creator of Wee Exercise, a video and DVD developmental series for baby's first year of life.