Tummy Time March 27, 2010

Infants and toddlers will discover their world in this area using their muscles and all of their senses. The area is designed to encourage infants to spend time on their tummies. Previous guidelines have encouraged parents to keep their babies on their backs. Research is now showing that these very young children do not properly develop their arm and hand muscles, which affects their large and small muscle control. It also shows that they don't crawl as much (and later than they should be), with some children even skipping this important developmental step. Skipping this step means that their spatial sense is not well developed. Infants and toddlers have opportunities to go over, under, around, behind, in front of and through and to develop spatial pre-math skills. Caregivers comfortably watch and guide their infants and toddlers through important developmental experiences.