A baby is born, and with it, a parent’s hope for the future. Every parent’s wish is for their child to grow healthy and happy, and to enter the world making the most of their skills and strengths. All babies develop at their own individual rate, some developing certain skills or attaining particular milestones earlier than others; often babies can be “ahead” in some developmental areas and “behind” in others, all the while developing within the healthy expectations of that age group. The warm, loving interaction between you and your baby at this age is especially important for your baby’s neurological development, and lays the foundation for the rapid sensory-motor development your child experiences during the first year of life.

The sequence of sensory development

As you interact and play with your baby, you are helping him learn new things about the world around him, and encourage him to begin using his senses to explore. His eyes learn to focus on your face, and soon to other faces in the room, and soon to objects and eventually to his own body, as he becomes aware of his fingers and feet. He learns to recognize the sound of your voice, and eventually the sounds of other voices become familiar as he begins to recognize the other members of the family; he learns the feel of his clothing, his blankets, his bed, the carpet, the grass, and all the different textured surfaces he explores while playing with you. Soon, he will become more curious about where certain sounds come from, he’ll try to find the source of those sounds, and he’ll begin to experiment with his own voice as learns to communicate with you.

Activities for your baby and you

There are many activities that we can do with our birth to three-month-old babies that give them the opportunity to practice these newly emerging skills within the context of their everyday routine of eating, sleeping, and playing with you. For example, babies love examining faces, and by giving babies a variety of different faces to look at, you are helping them develop focus and clarity in their vision. You can experiment by making mobiles to hang above their crib, and hanging pictures of faces from it, creating a “moving target” for your baby to practice focusing on. As your babies vision and focus improves, try introducing your baby to his own reflection by showing him a mirror.

Babies love experiencing and learning about things with all their senses; it seems that as soon as babies learn to hold objects, they begin to place objects in their mouths! And for good reason, as babies learn a lot about texture, taste, and density by experiencing objects with their mouths. Try giving six to nine-month-olds something tasty to learn about, such as crunchy cereal and soft fruit or yogurt; or, warm pasta and cold watermelon cubes. The fun of this is that you and your baby can enjoy a snack, while your baby gets an opportunity to develop his sense of taste and learn to distinguish between different and contrasting textures.

Follow your baby’s cues and have fun together

With a little inspiration and experimenting, you can create a wide variety of fun, enjoyable, and meaningful activities for you and your baby to enjoy together, that provide him with the opportunity to practice and hone his newly emerging skills in an effort to explore and learn about his environment in greater depth and detail. While all babies develop these skills in their own time, we can have a lot of fun with our babies while encouraging them to explore, expand, and enjoy their world. What is most important is that we take our cues from our babies, as they give us the best idea of what they want and need, and that we enjoy the time we spend playing, learning, and growing together with our babies.