KambingBujang

The 1st talk was about child development milestones from Dr Rajini. The talk was very informative and interesting. Dr Rajini had mention about each child is an unique item and they have their on way to catch up new milestones. However, they are a range of time before they can categorize as delay. Knowing generic milestones helps identify children at risk of development problems.

They are factors which affect child development:

• Genetics (eg: Speech delay)
• Nutrition (eg :  Obesity can be detrimental)
• Health ( eg: Ear infection  can affect hearing and hence speech
• Environment: (eg: watching tv can affect child’s attention & learning of language)

One important key that Dr Rajini emphasis is NO tv for kids under 2 years old. Restrict them from watching tv by doing fun activities together. You can either ask them to join in your activities or you join them doing their activities. Its the parent-child interaction that  stimulate child development.

Many research studies have done about the bad effects of watching tv among under 2 years old children.  Instead of letting tv to babysit our kids, lets start doing activities together like; play hide and seek, story telling, coloring, etc.

“Pediatricians should urge parents to avoid television viewing for children under the age of 2 years. Although certain television programs may be promoted to this age group, research on early brain development shows that babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other significant caregivers (eg, child care providers) for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Therefore, exposing such young children to television programs should be discouraged.”(AAP Policy)