Playing with Your Baby 

In the coming month we will be bringing you an in-depth look at Playing and Learning with your child, whether they are newborn, babies or pre-schoolers. With information play ideas, play without paying and movement and play  Bubs About Town is proud to be bringing you these fantastic articles sourced from the Raising Children’s Network. This week’s article is about Playing and Learning with your Baby, stay tuned in the coming weeks for Playing and Learning with your Toddler and Pre-schooler.

Outdoor play

Research shows that outdoor play is essential to a child’s development.
Children need room to run and jump, to play elaborate imagination games and to swing, skip and play hopscotch.

Playing outside gives them the chance to explore their environment, create imaginary scenarios, enjoy messy play, become more active and have the freedom to express themselves boisterously.

Outdoor play is an essential part of gross motor skills development.

Outdoor play in a public park or school playground also lets your child socialise with other children.

Research shows that the more a child plays outdoors, the more active the child is likely to be. If a child remains active throughout life, he is much less likely to suffer obesity and other health.
 

Movement: babies
 

Your baby is now on the move. This is a busy time for your baby as she learns to roll over, sit up, crawl, stand and finally walk – all in the short period between three months and 18 months.


What to expect
Your baby is likely to:

• roll over (from 4-6 months)
• sit up (from about seven months)
• crawl (about nine months and, in some babies, even earlier)
• clap hands and wave bye-bye (from nine months)
• pull up on the furniture (from 10 months)
• stand and walk with hands held (from 10-11 months)
• walk unaided (by 15 months)
• scoot around on a four-wheeled toy (from 12 months)
• develop a pincer grip, also known as ‘pincer grasp’ (between 9-12 months)
• scribble with a crayon (from 18 months).

By the time she is 18 months old your baby will want to touch, pull and feel everything in reach. She will be a busy bee investigating the world and testing limits. She can also be a danger to herself, but there are easy steps you can take to keep your baby safe.

Your baby will enjoy any play that tests her developing physical skills, such as pushing a trolley or doll pram, straddling small ride-on toys, and using your furniture and everything in sight as a jungle gym.

Other play such as picking up small objects, sorting blocks and putting small containers into bigger containers helps to develop fine motor skills (but watch out for objects small enough to choke on). You can expect it all: emptying and then methodically refilling your peg basket, and taking all the spoons out of the cutlery drawer and dropping them into your magazine rack one by one.

Babies are unique and all develop at their own rate. According to research, if your baby is not walking by 15 months, it's a good idea to visit a health professional.

Play ideas to help movement
• Push-and-pull toys, from eight months. These will still be a source of great interest when your baby starts to toddle, anywhere between 12-18 months.
• Soft balls, from four months.
• Ride-on toys, from 12 months.
• From seven months, provide a safe environment for crawling and pulling up.
• Provide cause-and-effect toys (for example, a jack-in-the-box) from six months.
• Towards 12 months, start heading out to the playground.
• Encourage your baby to practise fine motor skills by putting small containers into larger containers.
• Turn yourself into a play gym – you can do this by hopping down on the floor and playing with your baby.
• Sing songs that have simple actions – your baby will try to copy the actions.

Babies all gain skills at their own pace. Playing together is about having fun rather than trying to speed up developmental progress. Your baby will also like to lead play – she learns more this way, including that she can control some things. Let her do this. Follow her attention and interests (unless she’s interested in a dangerous object or situation).
 

Rough-and-tumble play
 

Most children love to play fight. Play fighting is most common among boys (both because of their hormones and because grown-ups tend to play more roughly with boys) during primary school years. Boys tend to like wrestling and holding each other down, while girls who enjoy rough play prefer chasing each other around.

While rough play might have developed among children as a way of learning the fighting skills they’d need to survive, these days it is more important for helping children learn who among their friends is stronger and weaker. Knowing who they can beat and who’ll beat them, and having a hierarchy of stronger and weaker children in their play group, helps children avoid actual fights.

You might worry that your child is being aggressive, but you can usually tell this rough-and-tumble play from genuine fighting. In rough-and-tumble, children will be smiling and laughing, and once they’re finished they’ll keep playing together. Children who are really fighting each other will separate once the fight is over. However, rough-and-tumble play can easily lead to real fighting, so try to establish some rules about what is and isn't acceptable during play.

Primary school children are the biggest rough-and-tumblers, but babies and even toddlers enjoy exciting movement as well, as long as they feel safe. Toddlers and babies like to be bounced on your knee or lifted into the air, although it is best to be gentle with young children to avoid any accidental injury.

Young children also enjoy climbing over one another and rolling around – it helps them understand the limits of their strength, explore their changing position in space and find out what other children will and won’t let them do. Toddlers love playing chasey or tiggy, spinning around and dancing. This kind of active play works best when your child is wide awake and not expected to go to bed or sit quietly any time soon.

 

Newborn play and learning: in a nutshell

Play helps babies learn about themselves and their world. All you need to get started is you and your newborn

Play for a newborn is a gentle affair. At this age, a baby is easily tired and may only be able to manage a few minutes of stimulation at a time. Playtime is about slowly discovering the world and trying out his different senses on the objects around him. Everything is new so there's no need to rush in the beeping, flashing toys.

Your newborn’s play can be as simple as tummy time on a mat, touching a textured soft toy or watching a mobile slowly turn. You are your baby’s most important play buddy.
 

Play ideas for your newborn

• Funny faces: Make different faces at her, smile, laugh, roll your eyes and wave your hands gently. She will be fascinated and may even try to imitate you.
• Peek-a-boo: This simple game of ‘now you see me, now you don’t’ is an enjoyable spectator sport for your newborn. In months to come, she will learn to play it with you.
• Singing: Your newborn loves the sound of your voice and your songs can help her brain develop. You can sing to her during nappy changes, in the car and at bathtime. You may want to make up your own songs about whatever you are doing. Or brush up on some classic songs in Baby Karaoke.
• Toys:Simple toys allow a newborn to exercise their sense of touch. Try soft toys or a rattle made of various textures, like crinkly fabric, satin and velvet. By touching and feeling things, your baby finds out more about her world. Just be sure your toys are safe for newborns and clean – that way you won't have to worry if they end up in her mouth!
• Talk: You may not always have time to stop and play for a few minutes. Chatting to your baby about whatever you are doing (running the bath, cooking dinner) not only keeps her entertained but can start laying the foundations for language development.
 

Movement: newborns

• At first, all your newborn’s movements are involuntary or reflexes.
• At about eight weeks, newborns start to move their limbs on purpose.
• A few weeks after birth your baby will start copying your facial expressions, and you might even see signs of this shortly after birth.

Your baby is naturally inquisitive and will want to experiment with her new body from the moment her eyes open. It starts with movements so small that you may not see them, and continues through play and exploration until your child goes to school.

These simple games and play all have a very important purpose: your baby is finding out what her body can do and working out how the world around her works. She's also developing motor skills by getting lots of practice at moving her body.

Something else quite marvellous is happening at the same time. Your baby is giving you, her chief audience, lots of opportunities to wonder and exclaim aloud at how clever she is. That makes your baby feel great, and gives her the self-confidence to keep striving to do lots of new things.

What to expect

• In the first eight weeks of life your baby will have no control over her movements and all physical activity will be either involuntary or a reflex.
• From the first few moments of life, when you stroke your baby's cheek she will turn to that side to suckle.
• She will soon begin to uncurl her fists and swipe at dangling objects, though with more ambition than luck for now.
• By six weeks old she will start to figure out how to turn both eyes in the same direction at once, so you’ll have less of those disconcerting cross-eyed stares.
• When she is about two months old your baby is likely to discover her legs and will enjoy kicking, especially in the bath or when out of a nappy.
• When she reaches about three months of age, she will watch her hands and feet waving around and start to move her hands toward your face or a toy. Your baby is discovering what her body can do.
• Your baby can see from birth, but can only focus on things closer than 20 to 30 cm from her face for the first few months.
• She will learn to lift her heavy little head while lying on her tummy, somewhere between about four and eight weeks.
• Your baby will be keen to copy your facial expressions almost from birth. If you give her a big, bright grin she will try to do the same; frown and she will attempt to furrow her brow back at you.
 

Play ideas to encourage movement

• Putting your baby on her tummy helps her learn to hold up her head and develop her neck muscles. If she is unhappy on her tummy, try again in a day or two; your baby is the best guide to what she finds fun.
• Between one and three months, you can put a toy or rattle in your baby’s hand and she will hold on to it.
• By three months she may reach for objects voluntarily; fun, bright objects that she can reach for and suck on are a great way to encourage this play. Read more about what's safe for a baby.
• You can put toys within easy reach by attaching a frame over a pram or bouncer and hanging toys from it.
• Give your baby a chance to play on the floor and experiment with her body, but try not to rush her into doing things before she’s ready. Just enjoy watching her play.

Babies develop at their own pace with little regard for what the experts say. If you have concerns about development it is a good idea to see your health professional, particularly if you have noticed that your baby seems unusually floppy or stiff, doesn’t startle when there is a loud noise nearby or does not seem interested in you.


If you would like to see more articles like this then please log onto http://raisingchildren.net.au/. Don’t forget to stay tuned next week for Playing and Learning with your Baby article.

“Sourced from the Raising Children Network's comprehensive and quality-assured Australian parenting website http://raisingchildren.net.au”