Bringing in a new life into this world is such a miracle! The moment your baby is born, the exhilarating journey begins. It is not just the firsts that make this journey special but every aspect of it holds a special place in your heart.
Our senses help us experience the world, the life, emotions, feelings and nature the way they are. Awakening your baby’s senses is like introducing him or her to a new universe. So here are some sensory activities that will make your baby’s exploration into the world of senses special.
Why Are Sensory Activities Important?
Most people think that only children with certain sensory difficulties benefit from sensory activities. Truth is that your baby’s earliest sessions of learning only happen through his senses.
Way before your tiny baby opens up his wrist to grasp the world around him, his senses – touch, smell, sight, taste, hearing and even his muscle sense – unfurl him to new experiences through his sensory system.
Benefits Of Sensory Activities For Infants:
Introducing your tiny baby to the world around him can be really satisfying and thrilling too. You sure want to make your baby’s entrance into every phase unique and extraordinary.
- Sensory activities are a great way of helping your baby knows the world through his senses.
- It helps them make better sense of the world too.
- It helps your baby examine, explore and even categorize.
- Helps in language acquisition.
- Creates awareness about how the world operates.
- It helps his overall development.
- It helps in his motor skill development.
- These activities are said to have a calming and therapeutic effect on your baby.
[ Read: Tips To Make Your Baby Smile ]
Sensory Activities For Babies:
Sensory activities must be planned in a way that they help invoke all the senses equally. There are thousands of different sensory activities possible. Here we have compiled 6 basic sensory activities for infants to explore:
1. Sensory Board:
Take a simple card board or any firm surface.
- Now clip on clothes, things like paper, plastic, fur and even grains onto it.
- Help your child touch these different textures and each time he touches one you must help him by introducing the texture’s name to him.
- This activity can also invoke your baby’s sense of sight.
- You can even clip torn guitar strings to it.
[ Read: Activities Of 6 Month Old Baby ]
2. Colored Ice Cubes:
Fill up an ice tray with liquids of different colors, size and textures.
- Once frozen, let your baby explore these.
- Help him differentiate between colors, size and textures.
- You can also make your baby feel plain water, warm water and then ice to help him understand the difference.
3. Building Blocks:
Building blocks are the oldest and yet the best when it comes to infant sensory activities.
- They sharpen your baby’s sight, reasoning, touch and muscle sense too.
- Various colors, shapes and sizes help your baby categorize.
4. Texture Balls:
If your baby loves to kick it off with the ball, he sure will love this sensory activity.
- Place various types of balls in your baby’s play area.
- Include all sizes of balls in different colors, texture and even weight.
[ Read: Bedtime Routines For Babies ]
Foods not only introduce textures but tastes too!
- Help your baby learn about textures of different kinds of food.
- You can teach your baby the names that describe various tastes.
- Make your baby feel pasta, noodles, pancakes, breads, biscuits, pastries, grains and as many other textured-foods you want.
- Add more foods with stronger smells to help your baby learn more about sense of smell.
6. Sound Basket:
Create a sound basket for your baby.
- Put things that make different noises and sound in the basket.
- Help your baby explore all sounds.
- Make every object in their different from each other to help develop your baby’s sight sense too.
- You can add things like plastic bottle, paper cups, a small instrument, an empty can or small tin and small metal and plastic spoons.
- Your baby will sure bang spoons together and on other objects too.
[ Read: Homemade Finger Paint For Toddlers ]
Enjoy Spending Time With Your Baby:
Sensory activities can be really powerful. They are not only critical for your baby’s development but for your bonding too.
- Many activities can be done by your baby alone. But it always makes better sense when you accompany him on a one-on-one session and help him share his experience with you.
- The trick to the success of these activities is to be patient and repeat as many times as possible.
- The more you repeat these activities the better it will be for registering in your baby’s brain.
- You must always conduct these activities through a conversation. This will help your baby understand the word associated with each sense better and help him communicate later.
We hope you liked this article on sensory development activities for infants. Please post in more baby sensory activities with us in the comments section below.
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