Importance Of Early Stimulation In Premature Babies
Early stimulation in premature babies is very important for the good development of the baby. To work with them, we must know the corrected age of the child, that is, the date on which it should have been born and not on which it was born. With this date we will determine at what stage of development the baby is.
This is important to know because we will meet babies who have spent the first months of life in the hospital and, when we work with them, they should not have been born yet.
Do you want to know why early stimulation is important in premature babies and what benefits it has? We will tell you everything below.
What does it mean that a baby is premature?
A premature baby is born before the 37th week of pregnancy. But there are also those who are born before week 30, or their weight is below 1.5 kg. The latter are the ones that will most need early stimulation; their evolution will be more complicated, since they have not been able to mature all their organs at the right time.
What is early stimulation in premature babies?
Early stimulation is a set of activities, exercises and techniques that are intended for children who have, or not, a delay in their development. These techniques, which include play, try to help, strengthen and develop their full potential.
With this, we will help and accompany children in their development, without forcing anything so that they go further. For example, if a 6-month-old child is supposed to be able to remain seated, what we will do is accompany him and guide him to achieve this in a correct way; we will give you our help.
Importance of early stimulation in premature babies
Children who are born prematurely have to mature outside the mother’s womb, as a result of which they suffer a delay in their development, maturity and growth. We will have to talk about the “chronological age”, which is the date you were born, and the “corrected date”, which is the date you should have been born. The latter is the one that we have to take into account when it comes to the evolution of its development.
Early stimulation has enormous benefits in the development of the premature baby. Let’s see some of them:
- The massages that are included as an activity in the early stimulation help children to improve their weight, height, irritability and sociability.
- Early stimulation will allow us to discover, more quickly, if there are developmental disorders or future learning problems.
- Increased quality of life, since what stimulation provides is the greatest possible development of all the capacity that exists in the child’s central nervous system.
- We will also prevent cognitive, psychological, social and motor disorders.
- The parent-child bond will be improved and strengthened.
- All of these activities promote the child’s mental, social and physical abilities.
Types of exercises for early stimulation in premature babies
Early stimulation exercises in premature babies have to take the child globally, this means that we have to work with them in all areas of their development, and do it in a coordinated way by all the professionals involved. The exercises can be grouped into 4 areas of development:
Cognitive development
Here techniques such as telling a story are used, and different tones of voice are used, making animal sounds. Music is also very important in this area, as music has been shown to enhance a child’s cognitive development.
Sensorimotor development
The exercises used in this area are focused on enhancing physical, communicative and mental capacity, and on promoting the capacities of the central nervous system. Here, play is used a lot as a form of stimulation.
Language development
In front of the child, movements are made with the mouth, nose, eyebrows, eyes… In this way, he will recognize the different expressions of the face. Everything we can think of, like sticking out the tongue, puffing up the cheeks, singing…, so that the baby can see the vocalization.
Affective and emotional development
Parents play an important role here. Physical contact with the baby is necessary; These will hug and give a lot of love to the little one. It is also important the i nteracción with baby staring and smiling at him, calling him by name and look him in the eyes, etc.
About early stimulation in premature babies
As the child grows, the exercises are adapted to the rhythm of the little one. It is important to bear in mind that each child has a different rhyme and that it must be respected; We should not force anything, and less in a premature baby, because its development is slower.
So, you already know a little about the importance of early stimulation in premature babies, what benefits it has and what are the most used exercises in early care.
