Careful nurturing can see your child happy and active
Does your child cook up stories of visiting the moon with his friends? Is he scribbling and colouring your freshly-painted walls all the time? While you may laugh at some of his antics and scold him for others, make sure you don’t curb his flow of thoughts. This is the time your little one will let the reigns of his imagination loose and create magic all around him. Let him believe he can and you may see the next gen Picasso or Mozart in action!
You will see plenty of these activities especially in children between 2 and 6 years of age. During these years brain grows rapidly and forms the neural network. Since the way the brain develops is largely dependent on the kind of experiences he goes through, it is important that parents actively take part in making them enriching. Dr Monidipa Banerjee, consultant paediatrician who runs a child guidance clinic, says, “Parents should spend more time talking to children and should also be keen on listening to their ramblings. This way they will allow and develop their child’s self expression.” It is important that parents identify and encourage healthy imagination of a child because when he tries to imagine things not tangible, he also develops emotional reactions like empathy. A child who is able to imagine his chair as a car may well be sensitive when his friend has a fall. He will be able to imagine the pain the other feels. So fuelling his imagination is important through activities and nutrition.
Divya Choudhury, mother of a 3-year-old boy, shares, “Managing my baby becomes easy when he is busy playing. He also learnt to speak faster than other children as I used to read out stories to him from a very young age. This way he learns poems better in pre-school.” Developing you child’s motor, cognitive, communication and social skills depend on the kind of games you give him. Meghna Sen, mother of a 5-year-old girl, points out, “My daughter likes building blocks and picture puzzles a lot. She does remarkable well for her age in solving them. My enrolling her into activity classes which improves her brain power through mental games has worked well.” Improving a child’s agility can also be achieved through making him play a sport. Channelizing his energy positively helps growth and giving him DHA-rich milk formulas accelerates the process.
