How a partner doing paid work from home can help meet the sensory motor needs of your baby or toddler

Are you doing paid work from home, while your partner cares for your baby or toddler as the primary carer?

Spending time inside the house is often quite difficult for primary carers, because the interiors of our homes are low sensory environments, in which babies and toddlers tend to dial up, due to a relative lack of sensory motor stimulation.

One way that you can help while still meeting your paid work responsibilities is scheduling in power sensory motor interventions for your baby or toddler throughout the day, timed to occur when your partner and little one are in the house. This is possible to do because everyone working in front of the computer is advised to take a five to 10 minute break every hour. A power sensory motor intervention will meet your little one's need for sensory stimulation, your partner's need for a quick little break, and your own body's need for vigorous physical activity for a short period of time each hour.

This is what a sensory motor power intervention might look like, though you'll devise your own version.

You arrange a time with your partner. At that time you emerge, and become a whirl of physical activity and interaction with your child. Depending on your little one's age, this might mean

• Tossing her into the air (safely!)

• Getting down on all fours on the floor, so that she can take a ride on your back, or you might lie on your back, so that you can give put her on your lower legs and give her a ride, up and down

• Dancing vigorously with her for a song or two.

If you can possibly get out of the house for this sensory motor power intervention, it will be even more effective in dialling your little one down and dosing up his sensory tank (which you can find more about here for a baby, and here for a toddler). If you live in a cold climate, your partner might have your little one's coat, mittens and shoes on before you come out. You need only swoop through, gather your child up, and

• Take him for a power walk in your arms if he is a baby (often facing out)

• Put him in a carrier or stroller or pram for a power walk or a quick jog.

A sensory motor power intervention every hour while your partner and little one are in the home can be a wonderful way of providing practical support to your partner, as you meet your daily paid work responsibilities in front of a computer at home.

Selected research

Antonious E, Stamoulou P, Tzanoulinou M-D. Perinatal mental health, the role and the effect of the partner: a systematic review. Healthcare. 2021;9:1572.

Antoniou E, Tzanoulinou M-D, Stmoulou P. The important role of partner support in women's mental disorders during the perinatal period. A literature review. Meaedica a Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2022;17(1):194-200.