A Concept that Parents often hear now: Sensory Integration
A definition that you can hear a lot from pedagogues or child psychiatrists lately is “sensory integration”. To understand sensory integration, you first need to know some important concepts. First of all, we should know that the central nervous system must organize the senses so that humans can move and learn. You might think that the brain regulates the senses the way a traffic cop regulates traffic. When the senses are organized and aligned, the brain can use these senses for perception, behavior, and learning. However, when the input of the senses is irregular, there are also irregularities in our ability to manage our perceptions or our mind and body; so traffic jams! Sensory integration is of great importance so that all functions of our baby can develop harmoniously in the future. However, if all the senses work well and the information transmitted by the senses can be perceived and organized by the central nervous system, then we do not have a problem. Consider peeling an orange and eating it. The visual sense allows us to see the orange; sense of smell helps us perceive the smell of orange; the coordination of fingers, hands and arms allows us to feel and peel an orange; We chew the orange with the muscles in our mouth and we taste the orange thanks to our sense of taste. All these different senses are organized and integrated by the central nervous system. Sensory integration makes all these things meaningful to us.
Adaptive response is required for controlled and conscious movements for a healthy sensory integration. What does this mean? For example, it is an adaptive response that your baby sees a ball and reaches for it, or your baby sees the toy car going and tries to crawl to reach it. In other words, when it sees a stimulus, it takes action against it in a controlled and conscious way. However, meaninglessly waving or constantly moving the car in his hand back and forth is not adaptive response. There are important benefits of playing adaptive response based games to develop sensory integration in our babies or children. Encountering children with the right stimuli and including adaptive-response based games help organize the senses and integrate the senses.
Our babies gain new information, discover new things, and their perception and organization skills increase in adaptive-response based games. These skills will be of great help to our children later on, both at school age and when the day comes and goes into the world of work. During these periods, when your baby is introduced to the right stimuli, especially when the games and toys that he plays until the age of six appeal to different senses and developmental areas, and when he plays adaptive-response-based games (ie games that have a goal, that give your baby or your child the ability to explore, organize and problem-solve), you will stimulate your baby. You are already preparing for a better tomorrow. Moreover, by playing games and having a pleasant and quality time. Many things learned naturally and effortlessly during this period can provide the beginning of a pleasant life that will not need to be compensated later with therapies or persistent and compelling studies.
Additional Foods…
Some mothers prefer to switch to complementary foods after the fourth month or they are forced to do so because their milk decreases. If this is not a necessity for you, almost all the sources you will consult will say that breast milk is the most suitable food for your baby’s normal growth and development. Especially during the first six months. If possible, only breast milk can be given for the first six months. (Even water is not needed) but in cases where breast milk is not enough, supplements can be started.