Teaching baby massage has been able to highlight my passion not only about bonding between parent and baby but also how knowledge of normal development can be conveyed to the parents. One of the mums from my baby massage group suggested a follow up developmental session which I led a few weeks ago. The mums were made aware of the milestones from birth to 3 months through the massage sessions and I am glad to see that all the babies had been doing really well with ‘tummy time’.
The developmental session focused on the next stage of development from 6-9 months. Within the group of 6 babies, all were progressing at different speeds, which is what normal development is all about. The babies were let loose whilst their parents observed how they were doing from a movement perspective as well interacting with each other. I was able to use my clinical knowledge and trusty massage doll to highlight how babies learn to transition from posture into another in order to be able to explore their environment. This session allowed parents to ask important questions and with the variety of stages of development amongst the group, parents were able to visually understand how milestones are achieved.
I normally teach about normal development on 1:1 basis through my physiotherapy appointments, this method of demonstration was slightly daunting at first but all the parents had the opportunity to ask questions and I was able to explain normal development to a larger group. It was interesting to get the parents to move through the developmental milestones themselves to really aide their understanding of what their child was going through!
Here are just a few snippets of feedback from the session – it was enjoyed by all and so I plan to continue to run these sessions, as a follow on to baby massage!
“Swati made the sessions both fun and informative. She is very knowledgeable about child development and I felt reassured to be in the hands of a professional. I would highly recommend her course to anyone with a small baby.”
Natasha (Aug 2013)
“It was great having a professional give advice on how our baby is physically progressing and techniques to eliminate bad movement patterns.
I could not recommend you enough to all parents with babies, a really good experience.”
Oliver and Juliette (October 2013)
To find out more about these sessions and baby massage please click here