A child's environment contributes greatly to their brain development and ability to learn. Human behavior, development and learning are widely thought to be reactions to our environment. Keep these things in mind when you start designing your baby's nursery. Create your nursery with the assumption that you may not have time to remodel the whole room year after year.
Over the first years, you want your baby to excel in certain areas. Gross motor, fine motor, sensory, language and social areas of development should be considered part of your decorating plan. Research clearly shows that a child's success in school and life is directly related to the access of an abundance of appropriate educational experiences during their first years.
Luckily, for infants, babies and toddlers, having fun is conducive to learning. Create a safe, stimulating environment for your child. They will soon recognize their room as their personal space and you want them to draw from that environment. Organized surroundings have been proven to foster critical thinking. Infants and toddlers absorb information from their environments and a cluttered space leads to disinterest and a lack of motivation to learn.
Here are some room set-up tips for each area of your child's development.
Toy Bins Organizer
Gross Motor: Provide sturdy, anchored shelves and/or dressers for your child to pull up on. Leave as much open space in the room as possible to promote free movement. Soft, safe climbing areas can challenge and develop gross motor skills as well.
Fine Motor: Provide manipulative toys in one area. Avoid choking hazards, but group toys that require pinching, turning or squeezing in one spot.
Sensory: Make sure that your nursery offers many diverse opportunities to explore different textures and tactile experiences. Look for toys and books that have different textures such as sandpaper, velvet, crinkly and bumpy materials. Children use their senses to figure out their surroundings. A simple thing like placing a small area rug or table near your fine motor toys can lead a child to figure out that this is the spot where they should play with those toys, leading to logical thinking. As they mature, you can replace baby toys with art supplies and a desk to foster their independence, creativity and organizational play.
Language: Books, tapes and CDs can help your child build their vocabulary very early in life. Talking face to face is the most effective, but you can also encourage language development by posting pictures of common objects around the room at the child's level. Also labeling drawers, cubbies and toy boxes with photographs of what goes there will encourage your baby to name things early on. As they grow older, you can change the labels to printed words to encourage reading and writing.
Social: Separate loud and quiet areas if possible. Make room in each area for adults and other children to get down on the floor and play with your child. Place low chairs or floor pillows in some areas to invite children and adults to enter the room and participate. Place pictures of family members in quiet areas where your baby can study and recognize them.
Organize your nursery with the supplies you'll need up high. Utilize bins, baskets and hanging organizers to minimize the amount of clutter in the room. Hanging clothes on baby hangers where they're easily accessible and visible can make your life easier as well. Aim to make everything in the room a potential teaching tool and keep it organized enough that you'll enjoy spending quality time with your baby.