Developmental Toys for Your Baby

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Toys are essential in the early development of your baby. Not only they are great learning materials but they are also perfect in honing the different characteristics and skills of your little tots. Before buying a certain toy for your child, it is important to look at the different qualities of babies in different stages to match them with the right toys that will optimize their learning and development.

0-4 Months:

Newborns do not have the ability to be fully mobile but their senses are very active. Their hearing and touch are fairly good but their sense of sight is not yet well developed. You can start by giving your little ones crib mobiles and soft rattles such as foot and wrist rattles that make great sounds. Position the mobile a foot away from the baby because this is the optimal distance that their eyes can focus on. Stimulate their sense of sight by also providing them with toys that have contrasting colors such as black, white and red.

2-5 Months:

When a baby is between two to five months of age, they will start moving their extremities and they will have a range of movements such as kicking, reaching, poking, pulling, and grabbing. Developmental toys that will make babies move around will help them build good muscle control.  During this stage, it is best to get your baby a play mat or an activity gym. Try developmental toys that have big parts that they can move around. Find the ones that make sounds, spin, and jitter, move back and forth, or vibrate. Just make sure that the toy parts are big enough so that your child won’t put them in his mouth at any point in time during play.

6- 12 Months:

Babies that are between six to twelve months of age have longer attention spans, have better understanding and awareness of their environment, and can have a wider range of motion such as crawling, sitting down, picking up and holding on to objects. Take advantage of this by providing them with developmental toys that enable them to be more active during play. A classic developmental toy for this stage is soft building blocks. Other good choices will be nesting cups and stacking rings of different colors and sizes. With these toys, they will be able to distinguish different colors, size, quantity, and shapes. You can also start giving them stuffed toys wherein you can incorporate a lesson on distinguishing different species of animals. Baby picture books are also great in helping them learn more about the things around them. Just make sure that there are a lot of big and colorful pictures and an easy to follow story.

Every stage in a child’s development marks different skills and characteristics that they acquire. Take advantage of the changes that happen as they grow. These developmental toys for newborns, infants and toddlers are essential in making sure that they reach optimal growth in time.

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