Hand-eye coordination: In hand-eye coordination the eyes and the hands work together in order to perform an activity or reach a goal. A child cannot learn to eat properly, if he or she has poor hand-eye coordination skills. To eat, the child must see the food, reach out and then bring the food up to his/her mouth. In other words, hand-eye coordination is one of the first functions to give children a sense of mastery – doing something for themselves and thereby developing a sense of [...]

How do I play with my child if he has no interest in playing? Learn about DIR-Floortime® Play with your child. This is the idea behind Dr. Stanley Greenspan’s approach: DIR-Floortime®. He developed this model in the 1980’s to help children on the autism spectrum develop to their full potential. In Greenspan’s model, the “D” in DIR stands for development. Having a clear understanding of where the child is developmentally is crucial to being able to build on their capacities. The ‘I” stands for individual differences. [...]

Time spent by children in front of a television, tablet or cellphone screen has been a serious subject in recent years. Margo summarizes the new recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): 0 to 18 months: only one exception applies The AAP recommends that screens be avoided for children under the age of 18 months, on the pretext that they will not benefit from them in terms of education. On the other hand, one exception is video exchange with software such as Skype or Facetime. [...]

Feeding a baby can be a real puzzle for some parents. As a matter of fact, information varies, introducing a wide variety of food is important… and a baby could simply refuse to eat! There are basically two approaches to introduce food in a baby’s diet; introducing food by gradually changing texture (ex.: pureed, then strained or mashed, then small pieces) or by baby-lead weaning (BLW). This approach promotes the baby’s autonomy (the baby grasps chunks of soft food as early as the first meal, while [...]