Music, movement and rhyme. What fun!

Looking at what type of classes would be/are popular in my area (i.e. baby massage, baby yoga or Rhythm Kids), there was a distinct interest in the Rhythm Kids, music and movement classes over the other two (though, to be fair, there is a great deal of interest in them as well!). The interest in Rhythm Kids is not surprising as not only can music enhance social development, but may actually have a positive physiological impact. For example, playing music to premature babies (31 weeks gestation and beyond) has a positive effect on their heart rate and oxygen saturation levels.

From birth, a baby is capable of communicating and can actually chat with their mother, whose voice is the right pitch and melody to keep the baby’s interest in their ‘conversation’. Their interest in Mum's voice is also due to the baby's familiarity of it, as it would have been heard daily whilst they were in the womb, from about the third trimester of the pregnancy.

It doesn't help just to pop on a story-time or nursery rhyme CD and leave a baby to it, because a baby needs to see the ‘singer’/’speaker’ as well as hear them. When they can see and hear them, they become more attentive and generally find the experience calming.

The synchonicity required for this early communication between parent and baby can be likened to musicians playing together who need to be closely attuned i.e. watching, being aware of and responding to each other, in order to perform in a synchronised manner. From the parent’s point of view, this will greatly enhance their understanding of their baby’s cues; and for the baby, they begin to learn from the experience and interpret their parents’ emotions and behaviour towards them. This also occurs when a parent sings as they massage their baby, but Rhythm Kids means there are lots more songs to sing, so lots and lots of fun to be had!!

The Guild of Infant and Child Massage 2011 Conference

The organising of the GICM 2011 conference is well under way now. It looks as it will be a good one again, with the potential of some excellent speakers, who are almost 'in the bag' (as it were). One of my colleagues seems to have the magic touch when it comes to securing speakers for the annual conference and has been working hard again!

So, I can't tell you just yet, but keep an eye on the GICM website - it won't be long before the full programme will be promoted on it and, when it is, I would book your place quickly!

Actually, I do hope to have a brief slot at the conference as well - so that I can share the results of the infant massage pilot study I undertook. The classes are almost at an end, so the second round of questionnaires will soon be completed by both the intervention and the control groups. Then I have to analyse the findings to see if my hypothesis was in anyway true. I do hope so....

Before I present the findings at the conference, I will probably write a preliminary report, which will be available on the Touch-Learn website. If you are interested, keep an eye on the website and, of course, on my blogs. I can assure you that, when completed, I will be blogging about the research for as long as there is something worth blogging about!

Rolemodelling with a realistic demonstration doll

More and more recently, I come across infant massage teachers using inadequate demonstration dolls to teach parents. It is a pity, because when teaching parents how to massage their babies, the demonstration doll is necessarily the most useful and influential tool used in the class. It can help the parents’ feel that what they experience and learn during a class is positive and memorable. As the demonstration doll is the Infant Massage Teacher’s ‘baby’, it is important that the doll is handled and treated realistically at all times during each teaching session. The use of a realistic doll allows the Infant Massage Teacher to engage successfully with parents when:
• Demonstrating the strokes correctly
• Demonstrating safe massage
• Encouraging parents to consider what their baby is saying to them

To enhance teaching and to role-model effectively, it is important to:
• Use your doll to support your teaching at all times
• Give your doll a realistic name
• Handle your doll as you would a baby – during the whole of the teaching session
• Endeavour to keep your doll clean (plastic parts can normally be cleaned with baby wipes, or a little soap and water; soft bodied parts need to be protected to prevent soiling)
• Dress your doll in seasonal baby clothes
• Wash the clothes regularly, so that they do not appear soiled and unkempt
• Dress and undress you doll as you would a baby (keeping pace with the parents)
• Always use your doll to highlight important points

What is most important is that your demonstration doll is fit for purpose. The Touch-Needs dolls are brilliant and have been designed for infant massage teachers, baby yoga teachers, music and movement teachers and there is even one type for midwives and breastfeeding counsellors.

Checking standards and integrity when choosing a training

I am so often asked (via email from the GICM's web enquiries option), what prospective infant massage teachers/baby yoga teachers etc, should look for in a training programme. Well, the bottom line is - check they are accredited by the GICM!

There are so many trainings on the market now that if they are truly worth undertaking, they will have taken steps to get the GICM kite mark. It is not expensive for any training provider to gain accredition, but they do have to have a course that meets the standards set by the Guild - easy for those who are offering professional programmes with all the essentials in place.

Don't be fooled by a lovely website, good marketing talk/text, or well placed kite marks, that when you look more closely you see that the course does not hold them, but the individual does. This simply shows that the person selling the course has attained relevant qualifications at grass-roots level, but does not mean that they have the experience and ability to develop a programme, or teach it (a minimum of the PTLLS is really a necessity and without it, insurance to train is not likely to be given).

Checking with the GICM will always give peace of mind. You know you have paid for a good course that stands you in good stead when you start working with parents and babies, if it has been accredited by the Guild.

supporting all during classes - conflicts in a multicultural/involving fathers society

As an infant massage trainer, I have to guide students to consider various potential and often common scenerios that occur during infant massage classes. But, after more than 13 years of teaching, I heard of a scenerio that it never would have occurred to me needed consideration. Even though I am aware that the UK is a multi-cultural society and that the role of fathers is supported, particularly though children's centres, so that they feel they have an important place in their child's life, I never gave brain space to the potential clash that would occur if an Islamic woman attending the same class as a father of twins.

The exact scenerio, I hear you asking is, what do you do if on the first week of a course a mum arrives wearing an all enveloping burqa, but feels safe to remove the face-veil, once ascertaining that only women are present. However, in week two, a mum with twins turns up, not only late (which meant the face-veil was already removed) but, unexpectedly, the latecomer's husband is in tow! What happens is the mum, now without face-veil, hastely removes herself from the class, even though only half-way through the massage sequence, never to return again....

So, how do you handle this type of situation? The particular infant massage teacher offered one-to-one sessions for the mum, so that the new information will not be lost and the learning experience continued. But, how do you get that particular parent to feel secure about joining your classes again? If we prevent dads from attending, just in case they are not welcome, we are undermining their position as caregiver to their baby. Is it necessary to only have either mum or dad sessions? But does that leave out the ones that work and can only make one or maybe two sessions. Witht the twin situation it seemed feasible, in fact beneficial for the dad to attend - but to the determent of another participant. This is without doubt a difficult scenerio to deal with.

Massage Oil - so much choice

I have just had quite a chat with a parent whose baby son suffers with dry skin. She has been using the fractionated coconut oil that her infant massage teacher supplied her with, which she likes, but wanted to know more about oils that might help 'feed' the skin. In my experience, the sunflower oil, with added vit E is a really good, easy to find one (in some health shops and supermarkets, if not Touch-Needs, but even better, if you can stretch a little more, regarding the price, sunflower with added calendula is simply the best (definitely available from Touch-Needs)! Calendula is such a wonderful, healing oil, it soothes and moisturisers the skin so well. I always have a bottle handy for my classes with parents, just in case a little more than the sunflower would be useful and the parents really appreciate the thought. (Whatever oil you supply, always advise parents to do a patch test before applying to a large area of the body.)

Exciting times for the GICM!

Well, I am no longer the chair of the Guild of Infant and Child Massage. Having held the post for over five years, I am happy to have had the opportunity to hand it over to Elizabeth, who has been a brilliant vice-chair; which now allows me the chance to take up the research co-ordinator's post, which I am quite excited about.

I have always felt strongly about the role the GICM plays in the world of infant massage and believe that we can make a difference to the standards of trainings and practice, but now, with a strong, committed committee (excuse the pun!), I think we will really move forward this coming year.

Well, I had better get on with trying to get to grips with the SPSS programme that I need to use to analyse the results of my infant massage pilot study (the one about the use of songs and rhymes with baby massage). I will have the opportunity to really get a feel for it, as I have an assignment for the MSc that needs to be done before the end of July. I am not good at techie bits, but needs must where the devil drives, I need to learn this if I am to progress!!

Oh well, on with the work.

My passion is baby massage, because it is such a wonderfully simple activity that has so many benefits. But, when coming to decide on what to study for the Psychological Reseach Methods MSc, I knew I wanted to do something different. The physiological benefits have been evaluated, as have the benefits for babies with postnatally depressed mothers, so where could I go? What about language development? Most baby massage classes include some nursery rhymes to enliven the massage and draw a baby's attention back to mum (or dad) when the baby (and parent) are too busy listening and looking at the baby massage teacher, because she is the one talking! But I know for a fact that Touch-Learn teachers use a lot of rhymes and songs, so a parent's opportunity to really get 'chatty' with their baby is supported and encouraged.

So, why not look at whether this encouragement actually has a positive influence on parents who generally lack confidence to talk to their baby, so that it becomes more natural to chat away, or at least sing the nursery rhymes they have learnt.

Of course there is the 'should it be qualitative or quantitative research methods'??? Well, not much option to begin with - the introduction to reseach methods wants me to do a proposal for a quantative research topic. So that is were I am at the moment. Piloting the study in an area that is deemed to have a number of children starting school with limited language development (so we can surmise - at least we are surmising - that there is a distinct possibility that the language input in infancy and early childhood is limited.)

Nope, I am not evaluating children's language development after they have been on a Touch-Learn baby massage course. (A bit difficult to assess with quantative methods to hand.) Instead I am evaluating whether parents do communicate more verbally after they have attended the classes. After all, it has to go in first, before it can come out.

Well, the study commenced a couple of weeks ago, so watch this space!!!! : )