Infant Stimulation Cards - What age should I start?

Hi there!

Am new here in this forum. Would like to ask the advise of mommys & daddys here, at what age did you start your baby on the infant stimulation cards? How big should the card size be? And how often should we be flashing them to our baby? Thanks!

Hi Kims_mymmy!

Welcome to the forum! It is great to see you found this wonderful site during pregnancy. That is going to give you enough time to get ready with you materials based on what you want to do. Here are so links about infant stimulation cards. I think they are going to be very helpful, but please let us know if you have any additional questions. :slight_smile:

http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-other-topics/infant-stimulation-cards/
http://forum.brillkids.com/general-discussion-b5/infant-stimulation-flash-cards/
http://forum.brillkids.com/general-discussion-b5/what-to-teach-4-week-old/

Hi Joha,

Thank you for pointing me to the right direction! :slight_smile:

Hiya!

I’m back again with another question. Any kind mommy can help me answer?

When I’m flashing the infant stimulation cards, do I do so silently or should I try to explain whats in the picture? Some are easy, like stars or apple shapes or squares, but some are rather abstract, how should I name those if I’m to say something about the picture? Also, is there a recommended number of cards I should be showing my baby per day? And how many times per day?

Hi kims_mummy!

Infant stimulation cards are not supposed to be flashed. You are supposed to let them play with them. I’m not 100% sure if you should explain what they are seeing. I think they are two aspects to that part because communication is important and the more you talk to your baby the better, but on the other hand is good to let them, for their creativite, figure out what they are seeing. I think you can talk about some and other just let him play with them. Regarding the number, I used to give my baby about three cards, let her play with them and switched them. I used to do it a couple of times a day when she was doing tummy time. You can also put them in different places where the baby hangs out so even if he is not playing with them, he can look at them when he feels like it.

I hope this helps a bit! :slight_smile:

Hi,
I am also a recent member of this forum. To add to the question posed by kims_mummy, I read somewhere that in the initial months of a baby’s life, he or she is short-sighted. I am also thinking of starting my 2 month old on flash cards but I wonder if that is too early and if this will affect the development of his eye-sight. For example, will it cause him to be short-sighted as he gets older? How about exposing the baby to TV e.g. educational DVD’s like “Baby can read” when he is less than 6 months? Grateful for any advice or experience. Thanks.

Hi GJMum,

Your 2 month old will enjoy the infant stimulation cards you can get from the downloads. I printed them out and folded the A4 paper in half and put them around her in a semicircle when she was in her bassinette and when she was lying on her back on a play mat. I was fortunate enough the be loaned a basinette, so when she was kicking around in her basinette I would put the black and white pictures between the matress and the edge of the basinette. She seemed to respond to them from about 2 weeks. I’ve been a bit slack the last 4 weeks as I’ve been doing other things (eg mirror during tummy time, hanging toys from her play gym) - but brought them out again 2 days ago. She love staring at them - especially the girl with pigtails who has a laughing face (she’d smile at her when she started smiling!).

There are a couple of websites which also show you how to make your own baby mobile - one of them has black and white stimulation cards to hang. http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/mobile.html

In Australia Huggies have similar black and white stimulation cards (smaller sized squares) on the newborn 108 nappy boxes. They suggest attaching the cardboard square to a piece of string so that your baby can start tracking the image. You could do it with the stimulation cards from the sleepingbaby website

I hope your baby enjoys them!

Hi Joha,

Oh! They not meant for flashing? But giving it to the baby to play, won’t she put it in her mouth and try to lick or chew on it? Haha…

Hi GJMum,

I’ve read that if you’re using flash card, you should flash it really close to the baby face, so that he’d be able to see it. I don’t think it’d affect his eye sight though, but its recommended by some experts not to start on TV programs before 6 mths.

I’m sorry I hadn’t seen your post. Yeap, that is right. My daughter didn’t put them in her mouth becuase she was on her belly and I’ll put them in front of her. She didn’t have the strenght to pick herself up, grab it and put it in her mouth at that age. She used to just touch them and look at them