How to Play With a 1-Month-Old Baby

Series Summary

The first several months of life are formative times for a baby. Everything is brand new, including their own bodies. When babies begin noticing their surroundings at around 2 months of age, it is important to begin stimulating their physical development. Early childhood and physical development creates a foundation for their social upbringing. They should be comfortable with physical touch and movement as they begin reaching for toys, rolling over and pushing themselves up with their tiny arms. An essential aspect of baby care, physical development is important to assess early on. In this free video series on child development, a licensed psychotherapist discusses and demonstrates several ways to play with an infant throughout their development, from 2 months to 12 months of age. Through play, parents can introduce different sounds, sights and textiles to their new baby using toys, bubbles, music and books. Playing enhances both physical and sensory development, as well as heightening fine motor and social skills.

Video Transcript

"So you're a new parent with a 1 month old, you're starting to get some sleep, and you want to know, how should I play with my baby? Hi, I'm Dr. Donna with some advice on how to do that. First of all, remember, with a 1 month old, they're just starting to take in everything, their sounds, their whole environment, all the sounds, and the sights. And you want to encourage to promote more awareness of what's in their environment. You can use all kinds of little toys, little stuffed animals, to just move across them, let them visually track it. Move it up, move it down, sing songs with them. Also instruments of any type, little shakers, little rattles. Work on just tracking it left to right, putting it down to their ear, they will love it. One thing you want to make sure is, with little babies, at 1 month, 2 month, you want to make sure that you're not over stimulating, they will let you know. They'll start to maybe whine, or fuss, or move their body, so keep an eye on that. Also you can take a straw, and just blow into it on different parts of their body. Blow on their foot, blow on their hand, blow on their cheek, just blow in their hair, they will enjoy having that done to them. Take a beach ball and just start to twirl it. Take a beach ball, move it over here, twirl it here, twirl it up high, take it across their visual feel, just back and forth. Also you can toss and catch, make sure you don't drop it on your baby though, that might startle them. You can take some scarfs and some balls, and you can just work on some little simple motions, back and forth, twirling them, anything that's going to cause them to look, and maybe reach and grab for them. And puppets. At this age, children love faces, so give them some puppets, to let them see these faces, talk to them, just play with them, they will love that. Instruments of all kind, as I mentioned little drums, anything that will cause them to look and listen. And bubbles, I love bubbles, bubbles are a wonderful way for visual stimulation, as they get older they can work on gross motor skills, and fine motor. Just blow them, make sure you blow them up, high and up, maybe off to the right or to the left, so you don't blow them in their face, because they will drop down. So just keep them away, or maybe somebody can hold the baby while you do it. I'm Dr. Donna with some advice on, how to play with your 1 month old."