Premies Once; Healthy 2-Year-olds Today!

Anyone who’s been following this blog is aware that I often use my twin grandchildren, Nate and Olivia, to illustrate my messages about child development. Well, here I go again. This time I’m using them to celebrate the amazing progress that’s been made in helping so many premature babies not only survive but thrive.

You see, Nate and Olivia arrived in this world 2 months before they were supposed to. By today’s premie standards they were robust at 3 pounds, but as we gazed at them in the NICU (which we quickly learned to call the “nik-you”), it was hard to believe they would ever be the happy and healthy toddlers they are today. To the right you’ll see what had us so concerned. This is a photo of Nate taken on Day 1. Having myself given birth (25 years ago) to a 10.5 pounder, I was sorely shaken to see this tiny creature so encumbered with tubes and monitors.

Those of you who have had similar experiences with the NICU know that Day 1 is just the beginning. For Nate it lasted 6 weeks and for Olivia over 2 months, every day filled with concerns about breathing, heart rates, and feeding problems in the short term and lasting effects on development in the long term. During this whole time, Mom (Julie) devotedly pumped breast milk to be lovely fed (once the feeding tubes were removed) by the incredibly kind NICU nurses at night and Mom and/or Dad during the day. The trek to and from the hospital—nearly 50 miles round trip—became so routine that we all could have have been on auto-pilot!

But that was then and this is now: I’m proud to say that we will are celebrating Nate’s and Olivia’s 2nd birthday today, May 16. And “celebrating” is definitely the right term given how much we have to be grateful for! Check out the picture below the “Day 1” photo to see what those premies look like today.

Happy Signing (and don't forget to visit us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder of the Baby Signs®
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Department of Defense Gives Baby Signs® Program a Thumbs Up!

We’ve known for years that the Department of Defense (DoD) loves the Baby Signs® Program. Thanks to the cover story in this month’s issue of Exchange Magazine (the official magazine of the National Association for the Education of Young Children) describing the programs the DoD provides for families, the rest of the early childhood education community now knows it as well! The article is an interview with Barbara Thompson, a high-ranking official within the Pentagon. When asked to list the types of services provided to families by the DoD, the Baby Signs® Program was the only non-military program included. Going well beyond simply naming the program, Thompson elaborated in the following way:

“Baby Signs®. In 2007, the DoD enthusiastically embraced the Baby Signs® Program at selected pilot sites across the Department of Defense. Focusing on language and cognitive skills, the program gives infants and toddlers a way to communicate before they can express themselves verbally by providing them with the signs they can use most easily to communicate their needs, thoughts, and feelings. The training formally introduced DoD trainers to the Baby Signs® Program and allowed them to brainstorm ways to successfully implement the program and provided educational resources and support materials to staff and parents.”

This endorsement of the Baby Signs® Program by the DoD is wonderful validation of our company’s long-running efforts to support military families, efforts that continue today with a special page of our website dedicated to information and discounts for military families.

It means a great deal to us to know that the DoD holds our program in such high esteem because everyone associated with the Baby Signs® Program is keenly aware of the debt of gratitude we owe to the dedicated men and women who serve our country and the sacrifice made by the families they leave behind.

If you’d like to learn more about how the DoD is serving military families, check out the Exchange article.

Happy Signing (and don't forget to visit us on Facebook!)

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Sex Differences Prevail!

I’ve written before about how, despite the all the hype given to the advantages of rearing little boys and little girls alike, parents—and children—still seem to find themselves spontaneously drifting towards traditional, sex-sterotyped ways. This fact is making itself particularly apparent to me as I observe my twin grandbabies—Nate and Olivia—develop. I’m including two photos I recently took that help make my point.

The first illustrates how toddlers themselves make stereotyped choices. In it you’ll see Olivia holding one of her favorite toys—a baby doll—and Nate holding one of his—a police car. Those of you who have been following this blog for awhile will remember that I talked about this difference around Christmas time in terms of the “truck gene.”

The second photo illustrates a different point. In this picture you’ll see the results not of the children’s predilections, but of their parents’! This photo was taken at an Easter Egg Hunt this past weekend. As usual, it was a hectic morning with the added pressure of getting to the event by 11AM sharp. In situations like this, with twins involved, a division of labor becomes necessary. In this case, that division took the form of Mommy dressing Olivia and Daddy dressing Nate. The photo shows the result: Two toddlers holding hands and romping through the grass—Olivia all dolled up in a pretty dress with brand new matching sandals and Nate in a comfortable and highly practical flannel shirt and jeans. Need I say more?!

By the way, even though each of their verbal vocabularies is blossoming at an absolutely amazing rate, they still find themselves signing upon occasion. This time it took the form of the sign “MORE” accompanied by a very wistful look up at Papa and Grammy when, having arrived a little too late to the Easter Egg Hunt, all the eggs were already gone! Oh well, there’s always next year.

Happy Signing! (And don’t forget to follow up on Facebook!)

Linda
Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder of the Baby Signs® Program
And
Professor Emeritus of Psychology, UC Davis