A few months ago, I posted about the idea of creating a Mother Goose on the Loose program for parents with premature babies, hospitalized in NICU units. I am proud to announce that with the assistance of Port Discovery Children’s Museum (and a big shout-out to Summer Rosswog), of PNC bank, and of the University of Maryland Medical Center (with a shout-out to Brenda Hussey-Gardner), I have created the Mother Goose on the Loose Goslings program.
Goslings is a combination of MGOL nursery rhyme activities adapted for the medical needs and fragile conditions of premature babies, along with a large parent education component.
We have piloted four programs and have already had great feedback. (We were getting the positive comments after just one week — a family told us that when they used to come into the NICU, they would immediately wake up their baby so they could play together, but now they knew that it was important to let him sleep.)
Each family that attends our program leaves with a kit of items that they can use to play with their baby. One of the items in the kit is an “Indestructible Book”, since it can be easily wiped, washed, and disinfected. This book is great for ALL young children, not just preemies!
I gave Wiggle, March, an Indestructible book, to my friend Jen, after the birth of her son. She recently sent me a video of him “using” the book. It is so wonderful, I am including the video below!
THIS IS AWESOME!! Is there any need for specific training to use this new model or is it a modification of the training we already received?
HI Debbie,
The program is still in it’s pilot stage. Because we are dealing with such an extremely fragile population, a one day workshop would not be enough. It would probably take a four day training to be sure that everything is done exactly right. We are working on the details, though, and would love to take this program nationally.
Please check back with me in six months!
Thank you.
Betsy