Children’s emotional stimulation is important for their proper development. Learn about this practice and its benefits right here.

Socio-emotional stimulation is aimed at helping the baby to adapt to his environment with regard to how he feels about it ; With each new movement and activity, he is able to experience different emotions. You may feel anxious, happy, or fearful, which will determine how you respond in later years into adult life.

The socio-emotional development of the child begins from the first days of life and his relationship with the outside and other people will depend on this ; that is why it is advisable to exercise adequate stimulation. Once the baby is born, he begins to undergo a series of changes at the biological level that he will need to recognize and to which he will have to adapt.

In order for the child to overcome his first challenges, it is important that his parents and family help him in his adaptation process. Each new situation demands a biological and emotional response from the baby, which allows him to relate to the existence that surrounds him and the people who make it up, this is known as socio-emotional development.

This development is based on the experiences that gradually appear in the life of the infant, so it is necessary that we do our work of encouragement in all the situations of his early life. These first stimuli are focused on connecting you with your own emotions and are precursors of your personality.

How to perform socio-emotional stimulation?

Most of the activities we do with our babies are ideal to stimulate their social-emotional development, so it is easy to take advantage of different moments to achieve it. There are many exercises that help stimulate the child in his emotions and his adaptation to the environment, which is the basis of the evolution of his character.

In the first months of life, stimulation is carried out through movements and positions; the main hygiene, eating and sleeping habits are also created. In large part without knowing it, we favor his response to each sensation, so if we look carefully, we will begin to see how he expresses himself emotionally.

To stimulate the child socially emotionally, the specialists propose the following suggestions:

• In the first weeks, let’s do balance exercises, placing it for a short time in little-exercised positions. Let’s try to place it inclined, vertically, on one side or upside down.
• Let’s take advantage of the moment of breastfeeding to talk to him, caress him and have a deeper contact with the baby ; looking into his eyes and smiling is very important to both of you
• Let’s try to maintain eating, hygiene and sleep habits ; as it is the main process to interact with the outside

• Allow the baby to follow your movements, do it on purpose so that it follows you
• Let’s make movements with the face, always facing the child and wait for him to imitate us. Other gestures such as saying goodbye with your hand or nodding your head, are appropriate so that you can imitate us
• Many of the exercises that we teach the baby, he can repeat them with his toys when he is older; you can dress, comb or feed your dolls to exercise what you have learned
• Let’s explain the origin of certain sensations, if it hurts, it is cold or causes crying, it is conducive to tell you the meaning of what you feel

• Already around twelve months, the baby can cooperate when it comes to dressing or eating, he can lift his feet, insert his hands or take his bottle by himself; let it do it
• According to your age it is recommended that we allow you to collaborate with the tasks or activities that we are doing, this favors your independence and brings you closer to the context in which you live
• Let’s help you get to know the people around you, indicate who they are and what is your relationship with them. We can also ask them later to point out who is the person we name him, at first he will look for him with his eyes and then he will point with his hand
• It is important to explain everything we can, especially the sensations and the names of things; even when you don’t understand exactly, you will gradually internalize the meanings.

By the time the child reaches fifteen months, the main personality traits can be seen more clearly. By then, we will have stimulated the little one enough to anticipate his reaction to different situations.

From now on, their socio-emotional development is emphasized towards identity, which causes the main stimulus route exercised until then to be modified. By then he will be a little more independent, both in deciding whether to follow our example or to do it his own way ; You can become more self-centered and pushy in most of your actions.