Innovative education for infants

Baby sittings which have mushroomed in nook and corners of the city have become an easily available option for the working moms so much so that the working women agree to pay extra bucks to the care takers in the baby sittings to take care of their babies for the whole day.

When such is the reality, a couple from Bejai - Rashmi M Shankar who is a housewife and an engineering graduate and Neuro Anaesthetist Dr Murali have pledged to work out things differently with their two children. Inspired from the theories of ‘Infant Education’ developed by Swaroopa Adhyayana Kendra Director Gopadkar, Rashmi has taken up the task of grooming her children through a sensible approach. Her two kids Nimay (two and half years old) and Sanvi (one year old) are the subjects of experimentation in the hands of their mother, but for the good.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Rashmi informed about the techniques which she has been using for the intellectual and emotional growth of her kids. The infant education is all about understanding the children, meeting their needs through a rational approach and creating an atmosphere which stimulates the brain growth of the children.

According to her, good parenting can bring a lot of difference in the child compared to the child who has experienced poor parenting. As a first step of infant education, the parents should change their attitude and the way of life.

Revealing her experience, she says: “The children always learn from their parents. If you gossip in front of the child or if you speak ill about others, the child will store only the negative aspects in its memory. If a parent describes the notorious actions of her/his child with others as a subject of humour, the child will become yet more notorious. I and my husband have changed our behaviour and lifestyle completely for the development of our children. And the result is spontaneous.”

Food for thought

Rashmi who has been strictly following the rules of infant education informs, feeding children with knowledge is as important as feeding them with the timely food.

Children between the age group of three months- three years are very receptive in nature.

Most of the parents are unaware of the infant’s capability to store maximum information in their memory. Making note of the same, she has made it a practice to communicate her children with at least one new thing every day.

“I study a lot for the sake of informing new aspects to my children. I have made it a point to inform my son Nimay about various aspects like different countries, vehicles, birds, people etc.

The most interesting part is he remembers them all and he can co-relate things easily. At a point of time, my son turned quite dull and he stopped consuming food. When I realised the reason, I was taken on surprise.

The reason behind his dullness and sudden stop of food consumption was the non availability of new information regularly. Due to few reasons, I had stopped catering him with the information and it had made my son a dull boy. Now my son is so addicted to learning that I can assure he would never hate education and reading books,” she says.

According to her, the children groomed this way will be ahead of other children in thought and actions at least by one year.

She has taken her children to banks, post offices, cattle sheds, super markets and has explained them what they are. She says though one might think it too much for the children, it is not.

However, she says that most of the parents do not follow infant education as they do not believe in the rule of changing the self for the children’s growth.