8 Simple Ways to Develop Your Baby Through Play (Part Two)

Just as you go the extra mile to see to the comfort and care needs of your baby, it’s also important to make out time to consistently stimulate them through play as babies learn primarily through interaction with caregivers and exploration. Doing this is instrumental to laying the appropriate foundation for all-round development and facilitating speedy acquisition of motor, cognitive, social and language skills, amongst others.

Find 8 tips to keep you on track:

Continued from Part one

5. Play Gyms and Activity Toys

These interactive toys are fun and great for introducing your baby to the world of colours and shapes as well as developing his visual discrimination and motor skills. They help your baby develop the ability to maintain focus on moving objects, control the direction of their gaze and tempt them to reach out to touch, grasp, squeeze or stroke. Procure one with bright twinkling lights and sounds to stimulate their visual and auditory senses. Help them feel different textures on the toy and put the sounds on and off.

6. Looking Around

Babies catch plenty of fun looking at things in their environment that might appear insignificant to adults like the blender at work in the kitchen, cars zooming across the street, trees blown by wind, movements in the aquarium, and so on. These elicit curiosity which aids improved brain function. Instead of putting him in front of the TV, fascinate him by visually stimulating him with everyday activities in and around your home. Have other kids over, take walks in your neighborhood, take him shopping while pushing him around in a pushcart, there’ll be lots of fascinating things for him to look at.

7. Reading To Your Baby

It might interest you to know that researches have established that babies as young as 8 months can learn to recognize the sequence of words in a story when it’s read 2 or 3 times in a row and this aids language skills acquisition.

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Introduce series of books for babies, note the ones they love most and read to them over and over again. This helps them begin to understand the rhythms of speech. Picture books are also great. Flip the pages, allowing them scrutinize through their eyes and hands. They may rip off a page or two, but be rest assured they’re learning through play.

8. Songs, Rhymes, Music, and Dance

You might not be an opera star but your baby loves your voice all the same. Discover plenty of nursery rhymes, play some music, sing to them and clap their hands or simply move their body to the rhythm. Infant researchers say singing affects a baby’s brain center for language more than ordinary words do. So, note your baby’s favourite rhymes and songs and make it a habit to sing or play them to their hearing repeatedly. Don’t forget to move them to the rhythm. You just might raise an amazing dancer.

Your baby will learn and develop at an amazing rate if you dedicate quality time for lots of playful interactions with them. So, commit to engaging them in regular, creative and age-appropriate play activities that suit their developmental needs. The benefits of these are lifelong and immeasurable.