Image credit: Healthy Families BC
Cognitive development is essential for baby to promote active learning. It enables them understand perception, thoughts, memory, language and physical coordination.
Most of baby’s cognitive development happens naturally as baby gets older, but you can play a big part in helping it along the way. Babies learn by doing things over and over, so play simple games with them and keep practising it!
Here are 10 simple games you can do with baby:
Sing to them
Singing with baby encourages him to mimic and sing along with you. Let them listen to nursery rhymes and music in the house and car regularly. Throw in some actions too! Eventually, they will be able to start singing along by himself. This promotes memory and word identification.
Identify daily noises
Let your child identify noises he hears in his daily life. Birds chirping, the door opening, a car horn, the aeroplane. He will start to understand how sounds relate to objects in his everyday environment.
Practice the ABCs
Help your child identify letters by singing the ABCs, reading books about the alphabet and playing with puzzles.
Practice counting
Find opportunities to practice counting! Count the number of blocks he is playing with, the number of snacks in his bowl, count the levels when going up the lift. He may not respond immediately, but he’s absorbing it and one day he might just surprise you!
Practice shapes and colours
Describe what you see to him. If it’s a ball, say ‘do you see that round red ball?’ or ‘that’s a yellow rectangle signage.
Give him choices
By giving him options, it will help him feel more independent and learn how to make confident decisions that will affect his day. Try things like ‘do you want to wear pants or shorts today?’, ‘would you rather have the yoghurt or juice?’.
Get out of the house!
Make trips to the museums, carnivals, library or market to stimulate his curiosity and give him hands-on experience. Narrate your actions and activities with him and listen to his responses and actions. This is a great learning experience for him!
Play with things around the house
Encourage your child to match the lids to containers, help to put away the laundry, play with shadows, identify his face when looking at the mirror. Everything is new to them! So don’t worry about them being bored, playing with everyday household objects is equally educational, fun and of course, free!
Introduce a variety of games
Games like peek-a-boo, puzzle games and hide-and-seek encourages him to problem solve and increase creativity.
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