Tag Archives: developmental play

Sitting and Playing at 7 – 8 months

Infant Health & Safety, ,

Once your baby has mastered a solid sitting position, you’ll find that he is able to remain sitting upright and stable for longer periods of time. He is able to make subtle balance adjustments and may begin reaching for objects further out of reach.

Now that he doesn’t need to focus as much on keeping his body from falling, he can shift his attention to the important work of baby play. Like a little scientist, your baby will study his toys, how they feel, taste, look and sound.

Your baby will still mouth everything, but no longer is that his primary way to investigate an object. Instead, he’ll inspect toys carefully, using wrist rotation to turn it in different angles, and hold it with one hand to manipulate it with the other. Learning to use two hands in a coordinated fashion is a developmental task at this stage: watch your child stabilize the toy in one hand, and use the other hand spin, poke or explore the object. Using both hands differently to accomplish a goal is new and exciting.

In addition to more complex rattles, your baby is ready for more complicated developmental toys now. Stacking cups, nesting boxes, Tupperware containers and small blocks are excellent toys for this age group. Try placing an assortment of small but baby-safe toys or household objects in a plastic bowl or shoebox for your baby to explore. He’ll likely spend time removing objects one by one to empty the container. Show him how to put them back “IN” and take them “OUT” again. Your baby will also enjoy holding two objects, one in each hand, and banging them together. He may intentionally drop one object to pick up another and experiment with the different sounds he can make banging first one and then another object against another or against the floor or table.

Select open-ended safe developmental toys, meaning that you can play with them in different ways during different developmental stages. For example, your baby may not yet be ready to place blocks through the lid of a shape-sorting set, but he will enjoy using the blocks in other ways or just taking them out of the container. Keep your toy areas “fresh” by preventing your baby from being overwhelmed by a big pile or baskets of toys. Instead, put out a small assortment, and rotate the selection every few days. Have baby safe books available (washable fabric books or plastic “bath books” are good choices if your child tends to chew on board books) and keep board books handy in every room so you always have a book in reach to read to your baby when the opportunity arises.

Gross Motor Play for Babies

Infant Health & Safety, New Moms, ,

Gross Motor Play for Babies about 5 to 8 months old

Once your baby is enjoying more “Floor Time” and finding new ways to move his body, incorporating new “gross motor” activities will create fun new ways to challenge his skills.

Always keep safety in mind: stay nearby (or provide hands-on “spotting” if needed), make sure all toys and materials are child-safe and choke-hazard-free, and provide an appropriate surface for the expected occasional tumbles such as carpet or foam-flooring.

Try any of these ideas from about six months onward.

Tunnel Play: a collapsing tunnel is a fantastic play environment that offers many different uses over the coming months and years. Before your baby is crawling, try placing a sheet folded into a long strip all the way through the tunnel. Then, give your baby a “ride”, pulling him slowly through the tunnel, first on his back, and next on his tummy. Once your baby is crawling, he’ll crawl through the tunnel with your smiling face encouraging him at the  other end. Later still, he’ll crawl after a ball or pull toy you roll through the tunnel. And after that, a tunnel can become part of a more complex “obstacle course” set up for your toddler. Best still, when not in use, your tunnel collapses flat and can be tucked in a closet or under a bed.

Rody and Gym Ball play: With your hands-on assistance, your baby will enjoy practicing bouncing on these objects, and tilting from side to side. Slide your hands down to your baby’s hips (rather than holding him under the armpits) to allow his own trunk muscles to work on balance. If you are using a gym ball, you can sit him on top for some activities, and lay him tummy down on the ball for others. Facing a full-length mirror is fantastic when possible.

Bouncing on parent’s lap with songs and rhymes. Your baby is ready for exciting “rides” with bigger rises and (controlled) falls and swoops! Three favorite active bounces to try:

Trot-Trot to Boston
Trot-trot to Boston, Trot-trot to Lynn. Look out little Baby, that you don’t FALL IN!
Bounce baby on your lap and while holding securely, allow your baby to either tilt back or drop through your legs at the end.

Noble Duke of York
Oh, the Noble Duke of York, he had ten thousand men.
He rode them UP to the top of the hill, and he rode them DOWN again!
And when you’re UP, You’re UP. And when you’re DOWN, you’re DOWN.
And when you’re only HALFWAY UP, you’re neither UP nor DOWN!
Sit baby straddled across your leg like a horse and bounce baby rhythmically, raising and lowering baby to the up and down cues of the song. This is a truly a favorite!

Pop! Goes the Weasel
All around the cobbler’s bench, the monkey chased the weasel.
The monkey thought it was all in fun, then… POP! Goes the weasel!
Bounce baby on your lap to the rhthm of the song and while holding securely, do a big lift up at the “POP!”

You may find it a little tiresome singing the same songs over and over, but your baby thrives on the repetition, and begins to anticipate the movements and exciting finish! This familiarity helps him be an active participant in the activity.


Baby Ball Pit
Take one package of Ball Pit Balls and dump the balls into your pop-up travel crib/play-yard. Presto! Easy ball pit!

This is an easy activity and can provide many hours of play when used selectively. The balls are easy to put away and bring out on special occasions when you need a diversion. Meanwhile several balls at a time can be used for other activities such as dropping in and out of a bucket, rolling down a makeshift ramp, playing “catch” by rolling back and forth with caregiver while sitting on the floor, and as your child grows, for “indoor bowling” or counting and sorting by color.

 

Fine Motor Play Ideas from Six to Nine Months

Infant Health & Safety, New Moms, , ,

Midway into the first year, your baby will be busy learning and experimenting with how her hands and body work, and how the world works.
There are many easy and fun “fine motor” activities you can incorporate into every day play.

These interactive activities incorporate thinking and learning skills: how to use the hands in a coordinated fashion to achieve a goal, “motor planning” to position the fingers and hands, arms, trunk and body more intuitively to complete a task efficiently, cognitive skills by observing and learning by “cause and effect”, and the satisfaction that comes as your baby anticipates a result and sees it occur as expected.

Some fun toys and activities to add to your play:

Pull toys with string: A classic toy and way for your baby to learn cause and effect and how she can impact her environment. Show her how to pull the end of the string and draw the toy closer to her. Similar activities can be created by placing a folded receiving blanket near your baby and placing a toy or object on the far end. Show your baby how she can slowly pull the edge of the blanket in toward her body to bring the toy into closer reach.

What’s Inside, #1? Take some random objects or toys safe for exploring, and wrap each one in material that will be safe for your child to unwrap: a scarf, a receiving blanket, tissue paper, gift wrap. Let your baby practice unwrapping the packages to discover what is hidden inside.

What’s Inside, #2? Take a baby-safe toy or rattle and place it inside a clean sock, initially with an edge of the rattle exposed. Show your baby how to work to pull the sock off the object, or take the object out of the sock, and cheer when she succeeds. This can be made more challenging over time depending on the item “hidden” in the sock. Try a small safe ball. That’s hard!

What’s Inside, #3? Use safe containers like a cardboard shoe box with lid or a purse for your child to investigate. Place a stuffed animal or several small safe toys inside. Demonstrate how to take items OUT, place them back IN, and close the lid or top. Ask, “Where is it?” and show that it’s still in there where you put it.

Ball Ramp: Take a long cardboard tube and cut it in half. Use this as a ramp to roll a baby-safe small ball or car down the tube. Initially, your baby will probably be on the receiving end, catching the ball as it rolls down the ramp, but soon, she will have the skills to place the object at the top of the ramp and let go so down it rolls!

Large Knobbed Puzzle: A chunky wood “beginner” puzzle will be of interest now, even if your baby initially is more interested taking the pieces out, tasting them and banging them against the table. By modeling how the pieces fit back into the frame, your baby will soon try to imitate that action as well. Hint: secure the frame of the puzzle to the table surface with painter’s tape to reduce frustration from the frame sliding around or falling off the table.

Quick Tip: Too many toys piled up can be overwhelming. Instead, put out a small selection of toys at a time, and rotate new ones in and out of the mix every few days to keep things fresh and stimulating/ Of course it’s fine to leave favorite items that are frequently used.

Floor Time for Babies

Infant Health & Safety, , , , , ,

Your baby’s gross motor development occurs along predictable Cephalo-Caudal principles. As a reminder, this means that your baby develops motor strength and muscle control starting from from the top (Cephalo, Latin for “Head”) toward the bottom (Caudal, Latin for “tail”). This principle of development means that first, your baby works on achieving head and neck control, then upper body strength in the arms, shoulders and upper torso, then lower abdominal strength, and finally, leg strengthening and balance for walking.

For this context, think of the first year of life for a human child as a timeline from birth, essentially laying flat with very little muscle control, to one year, when a baby is now upright, standing and moving independently (cruising, crawling or walking).
The mid-way point, six months, the baby is halfway there. During the sixth month, most babies will be working on sitting upright, and on finding some way to move. Here’s how tummy time plays a critical role in building strength for these skills. Tummy time doesn’t go away, it evolves into “Floor Time”.

Between 2 – 4 months, babies (hopefully!) are working on tummy time, beginning to push up on bent arms and support their head, neck and eventually shoulders and upper body (pushing their chest up off the floor to the nipple level, even) for increasingly longer periods of time. What the 2 month old found frustratingly hard work when placed on his tummy, the 4 month old effortlessly performs: remaining propped up on his bent arms for much longer periods of time.

At five months, he’s ready for a new challenge: rather than resting on his bent forearms during tummy time, he may push straight up on extended arms, getting almost all his chest off the floor down to his belly button. After doing this for a week or two, you’ll begin to see some fancy developments: he’ll start pivoting in a circle and then moving (creeping) backward. Using some combination of pushing off with his arms, typically these earliest movements will take your baby sideways and backwards. These fun efforts mean that your baby will creep backward until he’s halfway under the couch or coffee table. You’ll watch him get stuck many times over, often to your amusement.

To encourage him to pivot (which strengthens his upper body) yet to lower his frustration (Frustration Tolerance – another skill) place a few tempting toys around him in a circle. This way, when his efforts take him away from the object of interest in front of him (because early movements tend to take babies sideways and backwards!) there will be a new and rewarding item that catches his attention.

This activity is called “Floor Time”. Unlike Tummy Time, where you may have needed to use a prop, position your baby carefully, and a receiving blanket was all that was needed, Floor Time requires more space. Your baby needs some space to begin to explore how his body can move, and motivation to investigate his environment. Months before he can crawl and even though he may not yet be able to roll, he’ll still figure out ways to somehow scooch, creep, wiggle or otherwise inch and arch himself a few feet in one direction or another.

A clean area rug or foam matting makes a perfect surface for floor time. Blankets and quilts tend to get bunched up under your baby’s efforts to move. When possible, bare feet is best for sensory input and for traction. Watch those little toes flex and dig into the surface to get leverage to push off with!

By six to eight months, your baby will figure out some version of movement. Though it may not be what you think of as “crawling”, most babies in this age group have some way of getting a few feet away from where you left them. HOW they move matters less than having the motor strength to move, and the cognitive desire to explore. Some babies will use their arms to pivot and creep backward, others will “commando crawl”, using lots of effort with their upper body to drag themselves forward. Some will use an amusing combination of rolling, shimmying or scooting to get around!

Time to Baby Proof!

Changing Table Activities

Infant Health & Safety, New Moms, , , , ,

Changing Table Activities – Soon a favorite part of your baby’s routine!

"Hey, Let's Play!"
“Hey, Let’s Play!”

Changing Table Activities don’t involve diapers – they’re little games to build into your  baby’s daily routine.  During a diaper change, your face is the perfect visual distance from your baby, and she can see your facial expressions more clearly. Take the opportunity to “narrate” your activities and talk throughout during the diapering process. Once your baby is through the early newborn phase and stops crying during most diaper changes, chances are good that she’ll soon decide the changing table is a favorite place to play!

What are Changing Table Activities?
The few minutes of positive interaction, play and pleasant bonding time that occur before, during or after your baby’s diaper changes. They don’t involve the diapers and wipes, and don’t even require a changing table!

Build several fun little songs and simple play activities into your baby’s routine. Babies love repetition, so by using the same few rhyming games, she’ll soon recognize the activity, becoming more excited and engaged. Together you’ll begin to have special “favorite” songs and games to share.

Don’t think you know any nursery rhymes or baby games? Bet you do!
“Row, Row, Row Your Boat” with rocking movements
Cross baby’s legs one over the other, then flex them up toward her body so the legs are closer to her belly. Sing one verse of the song while slowly rocking your baby gently from side to side. Allow her legs to relax and unfold down, reverse the crossed legs so the other foot is on top now, and bring the legs back up, and sing the song again while gently rocking your baby side to side. This is also helpful for gassy babies (which are most babies!).
Even if not fitting the traditional “Nursery Rhyme” category, in a pinch, you can sing Jingle Bells, Happy Birthday, the Alphabet Song and Row Your Boat. Your baby will be thrilled as you make up little pats or bounces to go along with your song, for example, try gently “clapping” baby’s feet together in rhythm to the song.

Maybe you also remember The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, or This Little Piggy Went to Market. These old standards even have easy hand movements built in. Also incorporate any songs or rhymes you remember from your childhood, especially if they are in a different language, and lyrics from favorite bands. Your baby will love them all if you’re singing them.

Because you’ll need to stay in hand’s distance from your baby at all times when on the changing table, use a nearby shelf to store a few playful items to explore with your baby to extend the playtime. A rattle, a board book, a brightly colored puppet or stuffed animal and a baby-safe mirror are some items that you might use to engage your infant. When singing or reading to your baby, use a high-pitched, sing-song tone of voice. Often called “Motherese” or “Parentese”, as annoying as it may be to adults, it’s been shown by research to be significantly better at holding a baby’s interest.