Aimee's Babies DVD and Love Notes© CD

Aimee E. Ketchum, OTR/L CNMI, founder of Loves Notes Developmental Products LLC:

"I am a pediatric occupational therapist. My role as an occupational therapist in a school setting as well as a new mom, has allowed me a unique perspective on development. Constantly comparing what I saw in the classroom to what I saw my babies doing at home shed a lot of light on the developmental delays that left teachers, parents, and sometimes other therapists banging their heads against a wall. I realized that a lot of developmental delays during preschool and school-age years were the result of missed milestones in the first year of life. After a lot of research and unorthodox treatment methods of taking eight-year-old children back to crawling stages, I realized that this was invaluable information."



"I was already in the process of making a baby massage instructional DVD for families I had been working with in the NICU. My motivation for that DVD was simply to give overwhelmed families some instruction for when they took their sick babies home and support wasn't necessarily available. I decided to add all kinds of developmental information to the DVD so that parents would understand the importance of development through the first year and progression of milestones."

"I made my CD for similar reasons. To give parents a structured activity to do with preschoolers that would not only be fun, but assist with motor skills, cognitive skills, coordination, balance, and body awareness."

Product Descriptions:


The Aimee's Babies Developmental DVD is approximately one hour long and it is geared toward babies who are 12 months or younger. Babies learn about the world from their senses. This sensory-based 60-minute DVD is divided into seven segments: one segment for each of the senses, plus an additional segment with detailed baby massage instruction. The sensory segments, including vision, hearing, taste, smell, movement, balance, and position in space explain what the baby is currently able to do in each of these areas. It then it provides tips and techniques to help with the developmental milestones in each of these sensory areas.


Love Notes©, Music and Exercise for Young Children is a program of music, movement, exercise, strengthening, and sensory integration for infants and children. The CD of 11 children's songs engages children in healthy exercise while building on important developmental milestones. Sold along with a curriculum manual, it is easy for parents to teach children the movements and learn the rationale behind each song.

The music and movements of Love Notes© encourage:

*sensory integration
*gross motor skills
*fine motor skills
*body awareness
*stretching
*strengthening
*social skills (when done in a group setting)
*creativity

Love Notes is ideal for children with special needs or developmental delay. The Love Notes curriculum is also used by several toddler play groups,nursery schools, and summer camps.

Recommendations for use:

Aimee:

"The DVD is appropriate from birth through about 12-18 months. I actually give it out to expectant moms when I teach developmental classes at the maternity hospital I currently work at. I encourage parents to watch it before they even have the baby because the developmental information starts right away, for example, the importance of tummy time, the use of baby massage to help baby heal from the trauma of birth). It makes a great shower gift! The can begin to massage their infant immediately. I am certified in Baby's First Massage which is geared toward newborns and even perfectly fine for pre-term infants. It helps them to gain weight and regulate their body temperature. The only time you don't want to massage a baby is if they aren't medically stable, if they have a fever, a malignancy or a fracture. Otherwise massage is fine any time, at any age!"

"The CD is best used for babies as soon as they can hold their head up through preschool. The booklet that accompanies the CD is full of suggested movements to do with children and babies and even has adaptations for children with special needs. It is great for one on one or a group setting and can help to establish social interaction in a group."

PURCHASING:

*www.aimeesbabies.com

*amazon.com


Success Through Play™ comments:

An experienced pediatric occupational therapist such as Aimee Ketchum, OTR/L, CNMI is uniquely qualified to present a sensory motor program which will teach caregivers how to stimulate their baby during the first year of life. Aimee consulted with Pediatricians, Occupational and Physical Therapist to produce Aimee's Babies, a one-of-a-kind comprehensive, developmental and baby massage DVD. The goal of this DVD is to "provide structured stimulation to enrich your baby's development and exercises for your baby to encourage your baby to develop and reach important milestones during the first year of life." Aimee explains the importance of stimulating your baby during the critical period of birth to 1 year which serves as the perfect introduction to the DVD.



The DVD is divided in 7 segments: Touch, Stretching, Vision, Hearing, Balance and Movement, Taste and Smell and ends with a Massage Routine. In the touch segment, Aimee explains how beneficial infant massage is and presents a quick and easy to follow massage routine that you can follow. Aimee's experience in teaching infant massage is quickly evident as her skillful hands demonstrate the beautiful art of this ancient tradition. Other segments that impressed us were the vision segment, where Aimee provides simple exercises to enhance your baby's visual skills and the balance and movement section where parents will learn how to use an exercise ball to help their baby to improve his balance and develop protective reactions.


Aimee explains how carrying your baby upright in a soft carrier can help to develop your baby's balance skills, among other things! Tips are provided for helping your baby to lift his head during tummy time and how to prepare your baby for rolling. The importance of the crawling stage is emphasized and parents will learn about the sensory and motor aspect of crawling which make crawling such an important and often overlooked milestone. The DVD concludes with an instructional infant massage routine, but this time, the massage routine is presented without the verbal instructions (provided in the touch segment) but instead, visual prompts are provided on the screen, to guide you. Background music is provided to enhance the routine.

In true occupational therapy style, Aimee shows how everyday objects found around the house including laundry baskets, pegs, playing cards, feathers etc can be used in activities to stimulate your baby. There is no need to run out and by the most expensive battery operated "developmental toys", because in fact, everyday objects around the house and toys that you make are often more effective and more engaging for your baby.



Aimee presents the information in the DVD very clearly and her experience, enthusiasm and passion is infectious! Aimee takes the time to explain the relevance and importance of each of the techniques and activities and how they help to prepare your baby for future milestones and skills later on, which will help parents to develop insight into why they are doing the exercises. This 1 hour long DVD contains a wealth of practical information and will make an ideal Baby Shower Gift which will equip the parents-to-be with information and techniques that they can implement simply to help their baby to thrive. We recommend watching the DVD before your baby arrives, so that you can be ready once baby arrives.

Love Notes© CD
In addition to being a mom and a pediatric occupational therapist, Aimee is also a talented musician and she combines her skills to produce Love Notes© CD: Music and Exercise for Young Children. This CD comes complete with a 37 page booklet which contains lyrics to the songs as well as a fantastic curriculum manual. In the introduction, Aimee explains how she observed the positive effects of music on children with cerebral palsy and children with speech impediments when she was working as a pediatric occupational therapist in the school system and how her love of music and spending time with children inspired her to create this CD.



For each song, Aimee includes an introductory paragraph which explains the aim of the song and the skills that the song helps to promote. Instructions for performing the song with your child are explained and the suggested movements are outlined with the goal of "whole body movements". Of particular note are the adaptations for children in wheelchairs or those with special needs, which we were really pleased to see. These insights are what set this CD apart from other CDs on the market and which make this CD so special. Performing the songs according the suggestions provided will help your child to develop oral-motor skills, fine and gross motor skills, tactile stimulation, body awareness, proprioceptive and vestibular stimulation, bilateral integration, rhythm and coordination plus much more, all while having heaps of fun! At the end of this booklet, there is a glossary to explain the meaning of each of these terms. The CD includes 11 songs which are fun and catchy and the the entire family will enjoy moving to! The Love Notes© CD will be a favorite in the house well beyond the toddler years!



We would like to thank Love Notes Developmental Products, LLC for sending us evaluation samples for this review as well as sponsoring the giveaway.

For more information about either of these products and to view classes that Aimee offers, please visit:

www.AimeesBabies.com