Step 7: Basic Child Development

The early months of a newborn’s life are crucial for establishing a nurturing, warm, and safe relationship with his parents.

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Basic Child Development

Application & Understanding

1. Pick three of the attitudinal reflex postures you might see in a normal baby in the first weeks of life outside the womb. Describe each of them and describe how they are advantageous to the baby’s overall development from birth and into the early weeks of life.
2. What are the most rapid years of a baby’s brain development?
3. What are two of the most important developments in a baby’s brain during the first year of life?
4. What are some dangers on brain development when allowing a baby to “cry it out” during the first year of life?
5. According to research, how many weeks after birth is a baby usually able to regulate his/her sleep patterns? How might this be useful information for a new mother and father?
6. What is Taurine? Where is it found?  How is it important to the baby?
7. Describe Parantese language and its affect on the baby’s brain?
8. Name five things you can do as a postpartum doula to keep the mother from feeling stressed?
9. Name three ways in which skin-to-skin contact helps a baby to develop a healthy mind, body, and spirit.
10. Although genes provide the blueprint for brain development, it is the child’s environment and experiences that carry out the construction.  Knowing this, describe five ways in which you can provide such an environment in your postpartum doula care.

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