Playing with your baby

As the saying often goes, babies aren’t babies for long, so it’s important that you make the most of this special time with your new baby and encourage your baby to make the most of her abilities as she discovers them.

Babies develop at an amazing rate over the first year and they’re constantly learning new things. It won’t be long before your helpless little bundle will be learning to wriggle, smile, laugh, roll over and crawl!

I’ve put together a few ideas of games that are ideal for babies under three months. These games will help you to encourage your baby to make the most of her new abilities as she discovers them and you can both have lots of fun playing them and seeing which ones your baby responds to the most!

Copycat
Your baby loves having the chance to watch your face and this game will help sharpen her visual skills too. Hold your baby close, make eye contact and as she’s gazing into your eyes, slowly poke your tongue out. Do this every 20 seconds or so. It might take a few minutes of repeating this but your baby should soon start sticking her little tongue back out at you! She’ll try to copy other facial expressions too – try giving your baby a big smile or opening your mouth really wide and see how she responds.

Roll and stretch
Your baby will soon be able to raise her head up for a second or two when lying on her tummy. If she’s happy in this position, roll a brightly coloured ball across her line of vision. To begin with she’ll probably concentrate on watching the ball but she’ll soon try to stretch towards it. This will help strengthen her neck, arm and leg muscles. Always give her lots of praise and finish the game and give her a cuddle if she starts to get frustrated.

Singing & Touching Games

Newborns love to be touched so include tickling, massage and toe counting in your games. Talking and singing to your baby are also vital ways of boosting baby’s language and communication skills. It’s never too early for rhymes and action games like ‘This little piggy’ and ‘Round and round the garden’.