Curriculum Topic: Group Activity, Individual Activity, Educator Demonstration, Virtual Friendly
Activity Type: Newborn Care, Postpartum, Healthy Birth Practice 6
Purpose: Low-cost, fun, and effective way to help parents read baby cues.
Supplies: Color copies of emoticons and sleep cues
Instructions:
- Pass out an emoji to each family and inform them that they will create a timeline of wakefulness to over-tiredness.
- Discuss the wakeful/alert phase. Ask who has a face that might represent this wake/alert phasel; the heart eyed emoji is placed at the start.
- Once the wakeful/alert emoji is on the board, encourage the other families to finish the timeline, placing their own emoji someplace in line in relation to the others. While there is no hard and fast rule as to what order they go in, one recommendation is to use color progression in the cues on the back of the images to express an escalation of tiredness in the baby. (Green to red.)
- When all the images are placed on the board, facilitate a group discussion on how a baby might act based on the emoticon. "While baby may have been soul-gazing into your eyes while cooing two minutes ago, maybe now she is more interested in the space to your right, despite the funny face and sound you are making for her entertainment."
- Discuss the different cues that parents and caregivers might observe that provide valuable information about what the baby needs and how urgent it is.
- Taking the sleeping emoji from the top, ask the class when the most ideal time to put a baby down to sleep would be. Move the sleeping emoji through the line and address how much harder it is to fall asleep in the escalated states represented by the other emoji.
Set-Up:
First, print and cut out in the shape of a circle, the emoticon faces and the corresponding cues. Then, after placing appropriate face and cue back to back, laminate. (Or discard cues if you prefer not to use them.) Use sticky putty to attach to white board or wall. Adhere the sleeping face to the top of the white board, ask the class how they will know when their baby is ready to sleep.
Talking Points:
It's safe to say that real babies, doing real baby things, would be the most accurate way sleepiness plays out. As this is not possible in classrooms, this activity is a fun and quick way to get a laugh and to show new parents that their babies will have multiple signals to show tiredness. They also already know what kind of stimuli, or lack thereof, that they themselves would prefer in such a state.
Because infant communication is so important, sharing videos of ALL the infant cues can help parents feel more equipped to understand their new baby. An extensive compilation of infant cues can be found in the video "Newborn Cues: What is your baby trying to say to you" created by childbirth educator Janelle Durham. Here, families can see babies communicating with their parents. Consider linking to this video and the great Infant Sleep Information Source when offering follow-up resources to to help your families recognize and understand what their baby is telling them.
LINK: https://www.lamaze.org/Connecting-the-Dots/Post/brilliant-activities-for-birth-educators-could-emojis-help-teach-infant-sleep-cues
Download Handouts
Return to Home