Play is great fun, but structured play teaches your baby about the world and it is a great way for your baby to learn some early STEM skills.
Object Permanence Games:
- Play peek a boo
- Hide toys under blanket or scarves and help your baby find them
- Play with toys that hide such as jack in the box or pop up toys
- While playing these games say, “Where did it go?” And, “There he is!”
Cause and Effect Games:
- Play with musical instruments. Make the sound and show your baby how to make the sound.
- Squeeze the washcloth in the tub and let the water run on your baby. Encourage him to squeeze the washcloth.
- Squeeze toys for the bathtub that squeak are great for teaching cause and effect.
- Flip the switch. Allow your baby to switch the light switch on and off after you show her how to do it. Point out that she made the light turn on, then off. Then do it again.
- Build towers with your baby out of blocks then help your baby knock the tower over. Have her use her hands and her feet. Applaud when the tower tumbles over. She is learning that she has some control over her environment.
Midline Games:
Bringing hands and feet together at midline (an invisible line separating baby’s left side from the right) is a great activity for your baby’s developing brain.
- Clap two toys or blocks together, then give them to your baby and encourage him to bring them together.
- Lie your baby on his back. Clap his opposite hands and feet together to the rhythm of nursery rhymes.
- Hand her a toy, then another toy to the same hand so she has to transfer the first toy to the other hand during play.
References:
Barbre. J. (2017). Baby Steps to STEM Infant and Toddler: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Activities. Redleaf Press.
Healy, J. (1994). Your Child’s Growing Mind. A practical Guide to Brain Development and Learning From Birth to Adolescence. Doubleday.