Schools

One Thing Leads to Another

Study Guide

One Thing Leads to Another is the culmination of two years of research by Maja Ardal. She has swallowed text books full of infant developmental research and we have played more games of peek-a-boo with each other than you can imagine. Along the way we have tried to distill an enormous amount of academia into play-based scenarios that will provoke, stimulate and entertain our young audience.

Here is some of the research used in the show:

Did you know?

If you stick your tongue out at a newborn, they will automatically stick out their tongue back at you. This is because their mirror neurons are firing and it helps them to imitate what they are seeing. Humans learn through watching and observing other humans. Mirror neurons are important for understanding the actions and intentions of other people, and for learning new skills by imitation. They are involved in planning and controlling actions, abstract thinking, and memory. As infants observe an action, their mirror neurons fire and form new neuro-pathways as if they were performing the action themselves. Efficient mirror neuron activity leads to good overall development in all areas and leads to higher emotional intelligence and the ability to empathize with others.

Paula Tarver, President of Advance My Baby.
A Reflection on Mirror Neurons And Why They Are So Important to Development

Did you know?

There are two qualities of memory: ‘Explicit’ and ‘Implicit’. The capacity for ‘explicit’ memory reaches full maturity at around three years of age. This is the kind of memory that is conscious and enables us to tell a story that makes sense of what happened. ‘Implicit’ memory is available from birth or earlier, it is unconscious, and is encoded in emotional, sensory and visceral recall. In other words, what we don’t remember with our minds, we r

Robin Grille, Psychologist.
What Your Child Remembers – New Discoveries About Early Memory And How It Affects Us. Sydney’s Child, Volume 14, No 4.

Here are some of the exercises we used in the show that you can try at home:

  • Goal related actions and sharing activities: rolling a ball, blowing bubbles, playing peek-a-boo.
  • Recognition and spatial awareness: using an item in a new and unexpected way – try using a spoon to drum on the bottom of a pot, making a puppet with a dishcloth, lifting a face cloth in the air and turn it into leaf caught in the wind.
  • Word and sound recognition and attachment building: try reading the same story and singing the same melody repeatedly over a period of time, pointing out specific words and matching your facial and vocal responses to the word or phrase “the happy puppy”.
  • Spatial awareness and attachment building: try moving with and for your baby, this does not need to be “dance” it is simply allowing your baby to feel close to you as you hum a melody and let him/her explore moving in different rhythms in your arms.
  • Sensory exploration: try exposing your baby to different colours and textures around them. Tickle his/her arm with a feather, rub velvet on his/her hand, if you have a brightly coloured scarf, swirl it in the air.