Games To Play with Your Baby

Your baby needs to play to learn about the world. When you play with your baby, remember that your baby needs you to touch and hold him. He needs to look at you and have eye contact.

Your baby also needs to look at, feel, taste, smell and hear different things. He needs to move around. His experiences with toys and objects help him begin to learn how things work and that objects have different shapes, colors and textures.

Give your baby objects of different sizes and textures (square, round, hard, soft, fuzzy, long, short, sticky). Make sure these objects are safe. They need to be too large for your baby to put into his mouth. (Small objects are dangerous. Your baby can choke on them.) Help your baby play with these objects. Show him how to hold them and make them move.

If you have a crib mobile above where you change the baby’s diaper, give it a jiggle to make it move. Your baby enjoys watching things move. He might hold still for a moment so you can put the diaper on more easily. You can play patty cake on his tummy when you change him, too.

When he coos or gurgles, make the sound back. Babies love to make sounds back and forth with you. It is the first step toward talking.

Sing songs to your baby. Sing lively tunes when he is awake. Sing soft lullabies when you are quieting him. You can even make up your own songs.

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