The Games to Play For the Social Development of Infants
Infants are traditionally classified as children between the ages of 1 and 12 months. Around 6 months of age, infants often begin exhibiting forms of stranger anxiety as they become more aware of their surroundings. Helping to develop your child's social skills will involve building the confidence that comes with self-awareness, establishing trust and exposing your child to other adults and infants.
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Verbal Interaction Games
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Talk and sing to an infant while diapering, bathing and feeding to help build social skills. Gently sway your child while talking and singing to him to help develop a sense of trust with others. When talking to an infant, occasionally imitate the sounds, body movements and facial expressions they make to further develop beginner social skills.
Self-Awareness Games
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Helping an infant develop self-awareness is another way of furthering his social development. Point at the child and state his name while standing in front of a mirror, then point at yourself and state your name. When the child responds to its name with smiles, noises or arm movement, validate the recognition by giving him a hug.
You can also spur self-awareness necessary for social interaction by pointing to different parts of their face or arms and legs and naming those parts to the infant in the form of a song (e.g. the childrens' song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes")
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Peek-a-Boo
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Playing peek-a-boo can help develop social skills as well as teach the child the concept of object permanence, a concept that is reinforced by disappearing and reappearing again. The disappearing and reappearing of peek-a-boo also helps to establish trust with the infant, a key factor in child social development.
Group Games
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While forcing an infant to interact with strangers is not advisable, supervising the handling of your baby by people you know and trust helps expose infants to how other people interact. In this regard, setting up playtime with other infants who can crawl and hold and manipulate objects will teach children how to play and share with other infants. One simple group game that encourages social interaction between infants is to sit in a circle, passing a lightweight inflatable ball from person to person. Again, games and activities taking place between infants should be closely supervised for the duration, offering parents of infants an opportunity to bond.
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References
- Photo Credit infant image by Andrey Kiselev from Fotolia.com
