What one must realize about children’s librarians, is that they are the only public librarians that deal with people of all ages. Although the services are centered around children, programs are often run with family service in mind, by trying to build family ties and provide guidance for caretakers. One perfect example of this is Baby Time. What may be viewed as a fun fluff entertainment activity for babies, this program is in reality designed with the intention of helping parents learn how they may help with their baby’s development.
Baby Time is set up with parents in a circle on the floor while holding their babies. The librarian is joined with the parents in the circle, holding a baby-sized stuffed animal as their “baby” for demonstrative purposes. The librarian then instructs the parents through different interactive motions with their baby while often singing to traditional appropriately-aged songs.
It is important to explain to the parents the importance of what they are doing. This is a great time to incorporate some child-development jargon such as “by helping clapping your baby’s hands together, you are helping them develop their motor skills” or “now let’s all let our baby’s crawl towards the center of the circle and let them socialize with their peers”.
According to the article “4 Ways to Encourage Motor Development in Baby’s First Year” expert Lindsay Pietruszewski, PT, DPT, who is a physical therapist at Nationwide Children Hospital’s Main Campus writes that a baby will develop critical motor skills that will enable their ability to make small movements including holding up their head, sitting up-right, and crawling eventually leading to walking. With these activities, caregivers can help accelerate the development of bones and muscles that help them achieve these milestones.
What’s so great about these activities is that they are often activities parents are already doing on their own. This program helps reaffirm to the parents that what they are doing at home with their babies is actually good parenting. However, you may want to directly say this to the parents and encourage them to keep up these activities whenever possible.
One of the additional benefits of Baby Time for parents is meeting other parents with babies their same age. It can be hard for new time parents to find friends while taking care of a baby at the same time. This provides them with an opportunity to find friends with people who will understand the importance of the developmental milestones that their baby will achieve.
Lastly, be sure to allow time at the end of the session to have any of the parents or caregivers ask you questions one-to-one. Since you are not a professional child developmental psychologist, you may not know the answer to their questions, but you may be able to help them find the answers or find a professional who might be able to help them.
Bibliography
Pietruszewski, L. (2020, July 9). 4 Ways to Encourage Motor Development in Baby’s First Year. Nationwide Childrens. https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/family-resources-education/700childrens/2020/07/4-ways-to-encourage-motor-development-in-babys-first-year
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