In the past couple of weeks, N has been perfecting her army crawl. We first noticed her crawling when she was chasing a little red ball that kept rolling away from her. It is by far the most motivating object for N, but I’m worried that once her teeth come in (if they ever do!) she’ll start taking chunks out of it. I knew I had a bunch of ball pit balls in my work closet, so I went in last night to find some. This muffin tin caught my eye, and I knew they would be perfect together.
This morning I put N down and placed the muffin tin filled with balls right in front of her. She was immediately intrigued. This serves as an intro to a transfer work, as N can pick up the balls, mouth them, and put them back in the empty spot. The first type of transfer work uses a full hand grasp, which is right where N is developmentally. This works on fine motor control and hand-eye coordination. N is just 7 months old, so for now she is mostly focused on taking the balls out rather than putting them back in. I used a half muffin tin instead of a full one because I didn’t want the work to be overwhelming for N. The balls fit in perfectly, and they’re solid enough that she won’t be able to bite pieces off to choke on.
N is in the sensitive period for movement — her primary goal in all activities is to work on perfecting her army crawl, which will eventually become a real crawl and then walking! The balls really help satisfy that innate yearning for movement, as they roll away when she drops them. N loves chasing after the balls all over the living room. This works on her gross motor development and tracking skills.
This work has been a HUGE hit with N — it’s pretty much the only thing she was interested in all morning! When she loses interest, L loves to help find all the balls and put them back in the muffin tin. #mommywin
