Playing with your infant child is a great way to bond with the child while helping him or her to learn and grow. At such an early stage, children learn through play and such activities are often great for their development. Many parents however may not know many activities that they can undertake with their infants. In this article, we introduce you to some great play activities that you can safely do with your infant child.
Fly & Hide
During this activity, you lie on your back with the baby on your tummy. This way, your infant child is facing you. With a firm grip on the child, as loudly where (his or her name) is. After this raise your child high up so he or she is looking down at you and then with a big smile, say “There you are!” Remember that at this age, your infant recognizes facial expressions and so make your face as expressive as possible. Fly & Hide is a great activity to help you bond with your infant child. It also helps him or her with neck control as well as core strength. You can repeat this process for as long as you want but keep an eye for any indications that the infant is getting bored by this game.
Hammocking
When playing this game, you start by having the child lie on his or her back on a small blanket. It is important to ensure that the child’s entire body is safely on the blanket. With the help of another person, lift the child up (with the two adults holding both ends of the blanket. If the child is comfortable, swing the hammock gently, and ensure that you have eye contact with the infant. Just like the previous game, ensure that you keep your face as expressive as possible. If the child breaks eye contact with you, ensure that you sing a song so that your child gets to learn reciprocal interactions. Other benefits of this game are that the infant learns to make (and hold) eye contact and at the same time develops sound localization skills.
Buzz the Infant
Here, you lay the infant on his or her back and make a buzzing sound as you move a finger towards the child. The nearer the finger is to the child, the louder the buzz. Make contact with the baby and when you do that, say loudly ‘buzz the Baby.’ You can vary some elements of this game by saying aloud the part that you touch. For example, if you touch the infant’s toe, you can say ‘Buzz the toe’ and so one. This particular activity helps the child to perfect his or her skills in locating sources of sound. It also helps the infant to learn head control as well as tactile stimulation.
There are many more activities that you can do with your infant child to help in his or her development. You can even create your own! The important thing is to ensure that your child is safe at all times. Always think through every single activity to ensure that no element of it endangers the child in any way. If you notice that a play activity makes your child uncomfortable (if they start crying or look distressed), terminate it immediately and give him or her a break to recover. You could also consider Home Away Child Care Center who run an excellent infant program. This way, your infant child benefits from our extensive experience in handling infants.