Social & Cognitive Skills

Your baby is 3 weeks old today and you may have noticed that day-by-day he is becoming more alert and interested in thethings around him. Your baby’s cognitive skills continue to develop as you, your partner and other caregivers constantly stimulate him.

When he is awake and having floor time (on his back or his tummy), it gives him the opportunity to see, hear and feel everything around him. Since he still can mainly see black and white at this time, go through the many baby gifts you have received. Iif you have a black and white stuffed animal or toy, show it to him. You will be amazed at how interested he is in the object as he looks at it and attempts to track it visually.

If you don’t have any black and white toys, you can make improvise to help foster his cognitive skills. For example, you can go to a craft store and buy a stack of colored construction paper (it is pretty cheap and you get a whole bunch of different colors at the same time). Take out a sheet of white construction paper to use as the foundation and cut it into four equal pieces. Then take a sheet of black construction paper and cut out different shapes (i.e., circle, square, triangle, rectangle) and tape or glue them onto pieces of white construction paper. Of course you won’t expect your newborn to know the shapes anytime soon, but the visuals will be appropriately stimulating for him.

Along with showing interest in objects in his environment, your baby is also slowly demonstrating an interest in interacting with people, especially you! As you are cuddling him and talking to him (don’t worry about how high-pitched your voice becomes or the silly things you say, for the sillier and more high pitched, the better!), notice that your baby is looking at you or in the direction of your voice. This is his response to hearing and recognizing your voice! Although your baby cannot respond yet, just by him looking at you lets you know that there is a definite connection that has been made.