When you play and interact with your baby, this helps you and your baby bond and get to know each other and also helps him/her feel safe, loved and cared for. Here I'm sharing some developmental activities I did with my baby at 3- 6 months old.
TUMMY TIME
By three months old, your little one probably already developed some milestones such as raising his/her head and chest while lying on stomach, grasps and shakes hand toys, begins to babble, smiles at the sight of your voice, begins to develop a social smile, and watches face intently. To help with your baby's sensory and motor sensory development, tummy time will help your baby develop more milestones such as crawling and reaching, to name a few.
One of your baby's first exercise and developmental activity and perhaps one of the most important one is tummy time! If your baby can not lift his/her head up just yet for "tummy time play" then a breastfeeding pillow (boppy pillow). If you do not have a boppy pillow, you can simply use just a pillow that you have in your home and when your baby is awake you can do tummy time for about two times daily with a time duration of about 2-4 minutes. You can also lay your baby on your chest, which will also encourage more bonding time with your little one.
“ "Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul." ~ Friedrich Frobel .”
2. BABY CLOTH PLAY BOOK
Giving your baby a soft cloth play book with flaps to flip, along with colorful scenery to foster early brain development is a great way to enjoy screen-free time/electronic-free time, and hands-on play which stimulate the baby's fine motor skills through sensory play. This book I used here is from a popular Japanese baby store called "Akachan Honpo" and can be found all through out Japan and it carries all things maternity/pregnancy, postpartum care, baby, toddler and young children. You can find it here: https://www.akachan.jp/
I also have another book that is a soft cloth play book from a famous baby/toddler/young children's company called Fisher price and it is a farm scenery interactive soft cloth play book and can be found on this Japanese website : https://item.rakuten.co.jp/toysrus/681729700/
3. SENSORY BLANKET / CRINKLE BABY BLANKET
Sensory blankets or crinkle baby blankets can encourage sensory exploration and learning. This activity is so great to do with your little one because it has many colorful and contrasting colors, encouraging color and visual recognition. Early social games, such as playing Peek-A-Boo can also be played with these blankets and those are always fun activities to play with babies and toddlers!
4. READING TO YOUR BABY
Reading to your baby results in many various benefits, one being that it can stimulate brain growth, while also creating a nice bonding time between you and your baby, because it involves one to one interaction, so your baby will feel safe and secure with the sound of your voice. Reading also introduces your baby to visual learning such as pattern recognition with different shapes and colors. Implementing reading time with your little one reassures him/her that reading is an enjoyable activity, rather than a task that needs to be done in the future.
5. BABY PLAY GYM WITH VISUAL MOBILES
Baby Play gyms and play mats offer objects and toys that your baby will reach for and later on grasping, encouraging freedom to move around. This activity creates sensory interaction, developing hand-eye coordination skills and fine motor skills. This activity is quite fun and also helps with baby development! This baby gym we got here is from Akachan Honpo.
6. SINGING AND PLAYING MUSIC WITH YOUR BABY
Music is another great developmental activity to do with your baby ! Though, I could not find any photos of me singing to my baby, I was able to take a picture of a musical toy we used and still use some times. I sing to my baby everyday! I love to sing in general so that's a plus. My little one's favorite's are: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (in Japanese) and some other Japanese children's songs he loves ! For english ones, he loves : " Wheels on the Bus" and "If you're happy and you know it" !
Music, inevitably, will enhance your baby's sensory awareness, motor skills, language development, emotional regulation, activating parts of the brain accountable for music, speech, and pattern recognition (due to the differing melodies) which is a great skill for learning math later on !
7. TEETHERS
While babies teeth are coming in, your baby might get sore gums, and teether's do get some comfort and relief from chewing on toys like teethers. soothing their gums. Aside from soothing your baby's gums, teether's also help with your baby's sensory development, due to the variety of textures and shapes, stimulating your baby's fine motor skills, and spatial awareness.
These are 7 Baby Developmental Activities that I did with my baby around 3-6 months, so I hope this can be of help to you all !
What are some baby activities you all like to do with your baby ? Feel free to leave a comment below on some baby activities you guy's like to do !