Outline
Activity 1: “Taking Your Child’s Point of View”
The facilitator/ instructor will begin by stating that this activity gives the participants a chance to see the world from a child’s point of view. The following activities will give participants a chance to experience being young children.
1. First, parents are asked to lie on their backs on the floor and see exactly what a baby would see lying in a crib.
2. Next, parents sit on floor and look at things from a young child’s height.
3. Then, parents are asked to try crawling around or walking on their knees.
4. Finally, parents are asked to try and move around the room like a child, but using a blindfold or earplugs so they can experience what it is like for a child with a visual impairment or a hearing loss.
Between each activity, parents will be asked the following questions:
1. What can you see from this level?
2. What can’t you see?
3. What would a child see that you usually don’t notice?
4. Where are some things a child might be interested in exploring or playing with?
5. How would it feel to be a child in this adult-sized room?
6. For those with blindfolds and earplugs, what was this experience like for you?
Activity 2: Together Time
By engaging in various activities, the mother and infant will be able to form and strengthen their relationship. In addition, this group activity will help mothers meet others from their children’s class, building and expanding their social networks and support in the future. These activities do not have to be carried out in any particular order nor do all of them have to be covered. This piece is only a suggestion since these activities are short. Participants gather in a group with children sitting in front of them. Age appropriate toys with various textures and various sounds are scattered throughout the circle formed by the mothers.
1. Touch for Texture- What’s in the Box?
Ask parents to gather objects with different textures from the available toys in the group (make sure that there are multiple numbers of the same toy or so and that objects chosen are safe for the baby to explore and to place in mouth). Put three or four items in a shoebox. Give the box to the baby and show her how to take the lid off the box. As she takes each item out of the box, name the toy and describe what it looks like (smooth, soft, bumpy, etc).
2. Making Choices Through Connections~
Ask mothers to offer their child a toy to hold in their hand. Then, ask mother to offer another toy to hold in the other hand. Finally, offer a third toy. See what happens. Does the child put one down and take the third toy? Does he/she try to hold the three toys at the same time? Whatever the outcome, the child has done her own version of problem solving.
3. Sounds of Music~
If not done so already, put out different types of instruments such as drums, shakers and bells so infants can explore them and compare the different sounds they make. As the children explore the instruments and the different noises they make, mothers can begin to sing songs with the children. See how the infant responds to the sounds and music by turning his/her head, smiling and laughing. Music and movement promote the development of listening and speaking skills, motor skills and creativity!
Conclusion
The overall goal of these activities was to have the teenage mothers take the perspective of their infants, creating a better mother and child relationship. Personally, I feel that as the teenage mother becomes more sensitive to the view point of her infant, she can begin to successfully meet his/ her needs. Activity one gives the mothers a chance to "see" through the eyes of an infant and activity two then transitions them from the learned first-hand experience into becoming active learners with their infants. The aim is to give teenage mothers the resources and social support that they need in order to feel confident and secure when raising their extraordinary infants.
