Great Games for Baby's Development

by Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger

10 Sep 2007 03:30 PM

I have mentioned in past blogs how I'm not a big fan of television and other electronics that supposedly make your baby smarter. Research has shown that human interaction is what babies need in order to develop cognitively, socially and physically. But what kinds of things should you talk about with your baby? Here are some great games to help your baby learn, grow, and develop!

Pretend and Make Believe

One of the fun things about having twins is that they are so much more socially aware than any of my other children were. Perhaps it is just them, but I am assuming it's because they are twins. Consequently though, they love to play socially with their dolls. We have places set at tables for the dolls at meals and the girls often pretend their dolls want to walk, eat, drink and everything else.

The best thing you can do when this happens is to join in! Talking to the doll (or stuffed animal) helps model language skills for your baby in social situations. (Think about a tea party and asking, "Please pass the tea.")

Clap, Clap, Clap Your Hands!

Your baby, at about 12 months, may be a bit young to clap her hands on her own, but you can clap with her. Games like Patty Cake are excellent for boosting both language skills and hand eye coordination. Even clapping along to music or singing with your baby are great activities that the two of you can enjoy together.

Playing Catch

Okay, so you're not really playing catch with an 18 month old baby. But rolling a soft ball back and forth inside to one another is great for building hand eye coordination. Playing games also benefit baby's social skills as they have to learn 'rules' to play the game by. (Nothing too complicated--simply learning to roll the ball back and forth instead of hogging it is a giant step in the land of toddler hood.)

Now that you have a few ideas--go out and play with your little one!

Learn more about Valorie Delp

Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line.

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