We believe that from the very beginning of life, people should experience an introduction to reading. The earlier, the better! That’s why we stand by our idea that babies do read. OK, they don’t decode, they don’t do it alphabetically, but they experience, discover, and read the world through their sensations. And thanks to this approach, we created a reading initiative for the babies of the Machalilla parish.
The goal is to create encounters between babies, their moms, and that world of possibilities that books and early stimulation give us. This is how ‘Baby Búhos’ was born.
In the midst of this adventure, two angels who seemed to have fallen from the sky arrived at our ‘Baby Búhos’ program: Daniela and Valentina. They are Colombian, psychologists, and passionate about social work, and of course, about reading. They collaborated with us for a full month, contributing enormously to this initiative for babies.
Full of ideas and very well trained in their field, they not only shared their knowledge and previous experiences in the same area, but they also agreed to open a space for dialogue where moms and professionals held rounds of questions and answers. The time they dedicated to us was extremely valuable because in Machalilla it is difficult to count on expert assistance to support child development in the parish.
That’s why, making the most of every minute of guidance from our psychologists, we designed a work program as follows:
Sensory mat session
To allow exploration of the world through sensations, in our first session we took advantage of the presence and knowledge of the art of reflexology of Paula, one of our ‘owl moms,’ so she could teach the other moms present how to give their babies a foot massage, in order to stimulate the nerve endings found in that area (which connect to the brain), and thus, when walking on our ‘sensory mats,’ they could better distinguish the different textures. At the same time, as our volunteer psychologists Dani and Valen emphasized, this exercise also reinforces the mother-baby bond through physical contact.
After that wonderful massage, each owl mom and her baby walked across the mats of cotton, dry leaves, crepe paper balls, sand, and finally water on their feet. A world of sensations while walking… Baby owls Renata and Malena thoroughly enjoyed the sensory mats.
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Foot art session
In this Baby Búhos session, we continued with sensations through the feet and encouraged each mother to create paintings with their babies’ little feet. This, Daniela assures, “stimulates children’s creativity and sensory perception with the help of their mothers.”
On the floor, we spread out sheets of cardboard on which the babies walked, leaving footprints of different colors and shapes. It was so lovely to see the mothers creating designs with their sons and daughters. Thanks to the support of each owl mom, the tiniest ones, who are still learning to walk, took firm steps and brought big smiles to their proud moms. Babies “have the opportunity to see their steps and discover their ability to create.” Additionally, experts say this type of exercise stimulates various areas of the brain.
Blowing and tasting session
On this occasion, we decided to work on exercises aimed at language stimulation. This was at the request of owl mom Maribel, who shared with us her concern about her son Carlitos, since at two years old he still has some minor difficulties speaking. The idea of this activity was for the babies, accompanied by their mothers, to blow small amounts of paint in different colors onto paper. Our volunteer psychologists explained that the purpose of this exercise is to train the facial muscles and nerves, which later enables speech development.
Then we went on the adventure of flavors. It was so much fun! A space for food exploration opened up: from salty, through sour, and arriving at the very delicious sweet taste. This, according to our psychologists, helps with flavor identification by stimulating the different nerves of the tongue, and in turn, gives each baby the opportunity to select and decide for themselves which ones they like and which ones they don’t.
Babies’ sense of touch
In our last week of working with Daniela and Valentina, we decided to hold a session to stimulate our baby owls’ sense of touch through their hands. Each mother and baby was given some flour, water, and a pinch of salt to begin the sensory adventure. We encouraged the moms to play with their babies and knead the dough. The idea was for both of them to create shapes and also to see and discover how the dough changed consistency — this, our professionals affirm, awakens curiosity about different textures. Then came playtime, helping to stimulate their creativity.