Health for Conception and During Pregnancy

What to Eat While Pregnant

Avoiding Miscarriage

Cord Blood Banking

Packing for the Delivery Room

Tips for the New Mom

Bringing Home Baby

Getting Baby to Sleep

Budgeting for Baby

Traveling with Baby

Dressing Your Newborn

Breastfeeding Myths

Finding a Safe Baby Crib

Soothing a Newborn

Losing Weight After Pregnancy

Best Toys for Your Baby

Many parents hope to help their child develop a vivid imagination, but it's not necessary to choose the biggest or most expensive baby toys in order to encourage a child's imagination and learning.

Playing helps develop a baby's social, emotional, language, intellectual, and problem-solving skills. Batting at a mobile, giving a musical ball a shove, or transferring a rattle from one hand to another helps babies learn about the world. Such play also helps them connect sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell to objects; to recognize shapes, patterns, and colors; develop hand-eye coordination and memory; and to bond with you and others.

When you choose toys and activities that enhance your child's development, you're speaking your baby's language and helping him foster cognitive and social skills he can build on. But don't give toys all the credit. You're a key player. The right toy, though, can make key developmental stages more fun--for your child and for you.

When toy shopping, follow the manufacturer's age recommendations displayed on the package. Although you may think that a more "advanced" toy will present a welcome challenge, it could be a source of frustration if it is inappropriate for your baby's stage of development. It also may be unsafe. A stuffed toy, for example, that's labeled for a child over age 3 could have eyes that are potential choking hazards for a younger child.

Babies are born with natural curiosity and gather information about the world through their senses. Babies enjoy looking at the world around them--lights, shapes, patterns, and colors. At around 3 months, they begin to swipe at objects and may try to reach for them. Rattles and play keys with high-contrast colors that make interesting noises because babies can see bright colors and shapes of rattles and play keys, feel their smooth or nubby texture, hear their rattling or clinking sound, and mouth them, which stimulates brain development. In the best rattles, the source of noise is visible so your baby can see the beads inside and link sound with sight. That helps babies learn about cause and effect--if they shake a rattle or keys, they make a sound.

By now, babies can reach for and grasp objects, move them from one hand to the other, and play with their feet. They'll search for the source of sounds.

A take-off on overhead mobiles, activity gyms feature charming, brightly colored floor and hanging detachable toys that make sounds, play music, and have tantalizing textures; some may include unbreakable, embedded mirrors, a definite plus. Like rattles and play keys, activity gyms help babies explore their environment through their senses of sound, touch, sight, and taste.

Their fine-motor skills get a tune-up when they bat, reach, and grab for toys. And if you place your baby in a gym on his tummy, you'll help develop his posture and neck strength, a prerequisite for crawling and other physical skills.

Babies of this age also tend to enjoy soft balls with sounds inside, musical toys, washable baby books, and toys with flaps or lids that can be opened and closed. They'll still be fascinated with rattles, and the more their pick-up skills develop, the more they'll reach for and play with them.

Starting at about 9 months, babies play by shaking, banging, throwing, and dropping toys. They enjoy searching for hidden objects, taking objects out of containers, and poking their fingers into holes. Your baby will be able to grasp objects with her fingers and put one object on top of or into another, such as a ball into a box.

Stacking and nesting are another way babies develop eye-hand coordination and learn about spatial relationships--how things fit inside and on top of one another. Stacking and nesting also help babies develop the fine-motor skills of grasping and releasing, and the visual ability to align one object with another. Sorting helps babies understand the relationship among objects--how they fit together and spatially relate to one another and how they differ in size and shape.

Playing and talking to your baby encourages them to keep trying and also lets them understand how they are doing. Be sure that you interact while your baby is playing.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBlast.com

Article Author: Lee Brochstein