The Importance Of Early Stimulation In Premature Babies – You Are Mom

Early stimulation in premature babies is very important for their proper development. To work with them, we need to know the corrected age of the child, that is, when it should have been born and not when it was born. Thanks to this date, we will determine at what stage of development the baby is.

It is important to know this point because we will find babies who spent the first months of their life in the hospital and, when we start working with them, they should not have been born yet.

Do you want to know why early stimulation is important in premature babies and what are its benefits? We will detail it for you throughout the article.

What is a premature baby?

A premature baby is a baby who is born before the 37th week of pregnancy. Some are born even before the 30th week, or their weight is less than 1.5 kg. The latter are the ones who are going to need the early stimulation the most; their evolution will be more complicated because all their organs could not develop when they should have.

What is early stimulation in premature babies?

Early stimulation consists of a set of activities, exercises and techniques that are intended for children who are – or not – behind in their development. These techniques, which include play, are intended to help, strengthen and develop your full potential.

Thanks to this,  we will help and support children in their development, without forcing anything, so that they can progress. For example, if a 6 month old child needs to be able to remain seated, we will accompany and guide him so that he does so correctly; we will offer our help.

The importance of early stimulation in premature babies

Babies born earlier than expected have to develop outside the womb, so  they are delayed in development, maturity and growth. 

We will have to talk about “chronological age”, which is the date he was born, and “corrected age”, which is the date he should have been born. The latter is the one that we must take into account for the evolution of its development.

Early stimulation offers enormous benefits in the development of the premature baby. Here are a few :

• The massages included as an activity in the early stimulation help children improve in their weight, height, irritability and sociability.

• Early stimulation will allow us to  find out, more quickly, whether there are developmental disabilities or future learning problems.
• An increase in the quality of life, because the stimulation allows a greater development of all the capacity existing in the central nervous system of the child.
• We will also prevent cognitive, psychological, social and motor alterations.
• The parent-child bond will be strengthened.
• All these activities  promote the mental, social and physical capacities of the child.

Types of exercises for early stimulation in premature babies

Early stimulation exercises in premature babies must take the child as a whole:  this means that we must work on all areas of his development. Moreover, this implies that all the professionals who intervene do so in a coordinated manner. We can group the exercises into four areas of development:

Cognitive development

Here we use techniques like telling a story, taking different tones of voice and making animal noises. Music is very important in this area because it has been shown to increase the cognitive development of the child.

Sensorimotor development

The exercises used in this area focus on  strengthening physical, communicative and mental capacity. They also aim to develop the capacities of the central nervous system. Here, play is used a lot as a form of stimulation.

Language development

In front of the child, movements are made with the mouth, nose, eyebrows, eyes… In this way,  he will gradually recognize the different facial expressions. Everything that goes through our head will be useful, such as sticking out the tongue, puffing up the cheeks, singing so that the baby can see the joint …

Affective and emotional development

Parents play an important role here. Physical contact with the baby is necessary; they will therefore take him in their arms and offer him a lot of affection. In addition, interaction with the baby is very important, looking at him, smiling at him, calling him by his first name, etc.

About early stimulation in premature babies

As the child grows, the exercises will adapt to the rhythm of the little one. It is important to take into account that each child has a different rhythm and that it must be respected; we should not force anything, and even less a premature baby because its development is slower.

You now know a little more about the importance of early stimulation in premature babies, its benefits and the exercises most used.