Caring for a newborn isn’t easy. During these first few months, your baby just seems so fragile and sensitive, plus if you’re a first-time parent, getting used to the rigors of parenthood can take a toll. Aside from feeding your baby and getting her to sleep, you’re also supposed to engage your baby with games.
Play is defined as any spontaneous or structured action that provides delight, entertainment, amusement, or diversion. It occurs when a baby explores and interacts with the items around them, whether by putting a toy in their mouth or feeling an unfamiliar textured object. Playtime encourages your child to discover his or her own skills and abilities while connecting with others and their surroundings.
What you can read in this article:
- Playing with newborn: The role of playing in your baby’s development
- Stimulation for babies 0-3 months
- How to play with a newborn?
Playing with your newborn: The role of playing in your baby’s development
Dr. Tiff Jumaily, a pediatrician at Integrative Pediatrics and Medicine Studio City in Los Angeles, thinks that “play is how children learn.”
Play is an excellent approach to encourage motor, sensory, communication, and social-emotional development, and it may begin as soon as your baby arrives home.
Of course, as they get older, play may change, but here’s an example of the early play with a newborn. It’s crucial to remember that playtime assists your infant in mastering and reinforcing concepts that will become significant milestones.
Furthermore, play relieves stress, according to a 2012 study Trusted Source. “Play, on the whole, is linked to responses that improve learning… [and] work off stress,” Jumaily explains.
Know the milestones achieved in each area in your child’s overall health through play.
Physical development
Babies learn through observation and experience. As they explore their surroundings, they use all of their senses, which is why our nursery rooms are filled with vibrant colors, textures, sights, and noises.
Play stimulates all of the senses. Your baby’s developing senses assist him in better connecting with you and the rest of the world.
Babies need to acquire body awareness and balance in addition to their five senses, so we spend time on the floor with them – rolling, crawling, climbing, and cruising – to help them move freely and develop their sensory systems.
Play is also beneficial to your child’s physical development since it improves hand-eye coordination, fine-tunes motor abilities, and strengthens the upper and lower body. Play improves children physically in a variety of ways, including the development of their motor skills.
Image from Shutterstock
Mental development
Play is beneficial to a child’s growth and critical thinking abilities. It helps youngsters remember things, grasp cause, and effect, and explore the world — and their place in it, according to Mayra Mendez, PhD, LMFT, a certified psychotherapist.
Through play, young children learn how things fit together. It allows kids to engage their senses and stimulates inquiry and curiosity, which are essential abilities for intellectual growth and cognitive processing.”
Emotional development
Play is their primary mode of communication, interaction, and ‘being in the world” for infants.
Emotional security is created through play. Make time to cuddle: Parent-baby connection establishes a sense of safety and trust in infants, whether you’re reading, singing a lullaby, or making a comical face. It shows babies that their parents, caregivers, or anyone they’re dealing with value them.
Emotions are enriched by play. Stick your tongue out when you’re playing with your newborn to exhibit your funny side while also encouraging his.
And when your tiny one grins, return the smile. Expression and reciprocation of emotions teaches how to recognize and express various emotions.
Social development
Play is also beneficial to children’s social development since it teaches them how to interact with others. Talk to, smile at, and interact with your infant while you care for him or her.
Pay attention to your baby’s signals and respond appropriately. Consider how your baby moves or begins to coo in response to your words. Take it in turns to “speak” to one another. This is how your baby learns to communicate.
Stimulation for babies 0 to 3 months
Here are some suggestions for getting your baby to learn and play:
1. Talk to, smile at, and interact with your infant while you care for him or her.
Pay attention to your baby’s signals and respond appropriately. Consider how your baby moves or begins to coo in response to your words. Take it in turns to “speak” to one another.
This is the method by which your child learns to communicate. Push out your tongue, smile, and make other expressions for your baby to study, learn, and imitate.
Image from Shutterstock
2. Allow your baby to grip and explore colorful toys of various textures, shapes, and sizes.
A baby’s developing vision is stimulated by strong contrasts curves and symmetry. Toys and mobiles with contrasting colors and patterns are a good choice.
You may want to introduce some simple, age-appropriate toys that appeal to the senses of sight, hearing, and touch such as musical toys, textured toys, rattles, and unbreakable crib mirrors. Babies will engage with their environment more and more as their vision develops and they gain control over their movements.
3. Play calming music while holding your infant and swaying softly to the beat.
Choose a calming tune or lullaby to sing to your infant on a regular basis. The comforting sound and words will help your baby relax.
READ MORE:
Child development and milestones: Your 6-years-1-month-old
Caring for newborn baby: How long should your baby sleep?
Parenting hacks on how to give newborn a bath
How to play with a newborn?
Playing with a newborn can be challenging because they cannot sit, crawl, walk, talk, or stand. Playful learning, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), can begin with a baby’s first smile. Here are some simple ways to play with your newborn baby:
1. Go face-to-face
According to research, newborn babies love looking at faces—they’d rather look at faces than anything else, even toys. Going face-to-face with your baby will make him happy and also strengthen your bond. Babies prefer faces that are:
- smiling
- have open eyes
- are looking at them directly in the eye
- belong to their parents/caregivers
- responsive to their actions
How to play with a baby? | Photo: Dreamstime
2. Baby talk
Keep your baby’s attention by speaking in a high-pitched, sing-song voice. Talk to him as you dress, feed, and bathe him. It doesn’t matter what you talk about at this point, but talking is definitely essential.
Research has found that talking to your child for three hours a day during their first month develops the part of the brain that processes sound and helps your baby focus on human voices.
3. Mirror
A mirror is ideal for discovery and investigation. Whether you hang a mirror at ground level on a wall, prop up a soft-sided toy mirror during belly time, or speak in front of the bathroom mirror, newborns can’t get enough of looking in the mirror.
4. Monkey see, monkey do
Imitating your baby’s sounds, facial expressions, and movements teaches her about communication. Being responsive to her cues shows her that what she says and does matters.
Lay your baby down with your legs stretched or on a soft mat and make facial expressions while conversing with your baby for an easy way to play at any time.
Imitate their conversational noises and facial expressions, and watch as they seem to imitate yours, particularly entertaining in the 2-3 month stage.
5. Dance
It’s natural to rock our babies back and forth when we hold them, so make it more fun by singing to them and dancing with them.
You can also set your baby down and move their hands around as you sing to them. This is also an excellent way to help your baby stretch and create awareness. This will encourage their motor skills in a really fun way.
Photo: Shutterstock
6. Follow the sound
Making sounds or playing music might help you turn your newborn baby’s head and develop his neck muscles.
Whether the music or sounds come from you, a musical toy or rattle, or something else, place them in different places around your baby and watch them try to figure out what it is and where it came from.
7. Sensory games
Give your baby some visual stimulation with a colorful mobile, mirrors, or a magazine. Give your baby several textures and materials to touch. Baby play gyms are great tools for this purpose. You can also read to your baby with colorful picture books.
8. Tummy time
Playing with your newborn on the floor is vital for developing your baby’s motor skills—rolling over, sitting, crawling, walking, and so forth.
Placing a tummy time pillow, wrapped blanket or other sorts of support under a baby’s chest help prop them up and enables play for newborns who can’t fully support themselves on their arms.
Image from Shutterstock
Independent play
When your child first begins to play with toys and explore the objects in your home, they may do so while interacting with you at times and on their own at other times.
Independent play, also known as Solitary play, is a stage of infant development in which your newborn engages in playing autonomously.
Solitary play allows newborns to entertain themselves, which is really useful when you need to get things done, as well as encourages their future independence. While this may appear to be a sad situation at first, you may feel comfortable that they’re gaining valuable knowledge.
Children as young as 0–2 years old engage in solitary play before engaging and playing with other children. Older preschoolers and children are also at a period where they can engage in independent play.
The importance of play in your child’s development cannot be overstated. While the benefits of play are numerous—it aids children’s cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development, play is more than just fun and games. Play games with your newborn and have a good time!
Additional information from Matt Doctor
