Penguin

Now infants are waddling like penguins, as they strive to get their balance and body awareness. This is an exciting time – at last our little ones are upright, but eyes and ears also need to adjust for seeing and understanding from upright position. Things look different now.

These aspects take precedence over speech, as little ones learn about themselves and their world. This is a bilateral stage, where both sides of the body work as one and all lessons are geared to strengthening as well as advancing skills at this level.

The focus for this age aims to improve balance and muscle tone development through walking and running – and for the older penguins, hanging by their hands.

Dances are age-related and involve walking around and forwards slowly, with the main aim at this age balance and adjustment to the upright position. Concentration spans at this age are short, so mat time is interspersed with short periods of massage and vestibular activities, along with nursery rhymes and action songs. Now is also the age at which we start auditory memory patterns through the repetition of specific verses and nursery rhymes.

The use of the flash word and the Treasure Bag object familiarises children with those strange things called words. Visual tracking is now also a part of every lesson. Children of this age are also developmentally ready to follow some simple directionality commands – arms up, down, out, and in, sit down and stand up.