Five Ways to Bond with Your Bub and Why
Five Ways to Bond with Your Bub and Why
AUCKLAND, NZ, October 12, 2018 — A parent’s bond with their baby means everything. It’s that feeling of unconditional love and unbreakable attachment so unique to the parent-child relationship. However, like all relationships, strengthening it requires work. Indeed, while all parents intrinsically understand the importance of this bond, many are not aware of the very bests ways to foster it.
Shedding some light is the Storytime Foundation, a New Zealand charity enhancing early attachment by gifting books to Kiwi families and encouraging parents to read, talk, and engage with their babies more. Ahead of its ‘30 Days of Bonding’ campaign this November, Storytime CEO Tony Culliney shares his top five tips to bonding with your baby below:
1. Schedule a
date with Hairy Maclary
Whether it’s Hairy Maclary,
Wonky Donkey, or Maui and the Sun, it’s never too early to
bring out the baby books. Not only is reading to your baby
critical to developing their early vocabularies, but
research shows it also stimulates the parts of the brain
responsible for connection and bonding. Studies have also
shown that children who were read to in the early years have
a larger vocabulary, as well as more advanced mathematical
skills, than other kids their age. “It is well-documented
that reading to your child has a significant, positive
effect on bonding, and is essential to their learning
development,” Tony affirms. Bonus points if you can put on
a different voice for each character.
2. Embrace the baby
talk!
Don’t be afraid to talk it out with your new BFF.
As Tony explains, “Simply speaking to your child
stimulates their brain and strengthens the bonding process
as they listen to the rhythm and intonation of your
words”.
3. Play
If there’s one thing all babies
share, it’s their insatiable curiosity. Channel this into
a wonderful learning and bonding experience by introducing
games into your day-to-day interactions. And no, we’re not
talking about Fortnite. Rather, simply playing a game of
peek-a-boo together is fun, stimulating, and bolsters the
bond that you share.
4. Get creative!
Channel your
baby’s inner Picasso and get out the arts and crafts.
Alongside making something that you’re sure to keep
forever, bonding over shared creative activities such as
painting and colouring help your baby to develop their motor
skills.
5. Twinkle, twinkle, little star
Everybody
knows the lyrics, but few realise just how conducive nursery
rhymes are to parent-child bonding. Just like story reading,
singing these helps your baby to learn your voice, thereby
reinforcing that they can trust and rely on you.
For more ways to bond with your baby, stay posted to the Storytime Foundation’s Facebook page, where it will be sharing new tips each day of November during its inaugural ‘30 Days of Bonding’ campaign. Alternatively, visit its website at http://storytime.org.nz.
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Since establishing its Books for Babies program in 1997, the Storytime Foundation has gifted over 150,000 books and worked with more than 55,000 Kiwi families to help strengthen family bonds.