Taking care of a room full of babies may feel like a daunting task. Infants need a lot of care and attention for their basic needs, such as feeding and diapering. However, babies also need assistance with their development. Child-care providers can create fun and age-appropriate activities for infants that will help them grow into healthy, happy children.
Sensory Development
Help the infants in your care develop their senses with these activities:
- Touch: Gather a variety of materials with different textures (like feathers, cotton balls, pieces of fur fabric or rubber bumpy toys). Gently touch them to baby's skin--for example, her tummy, legs, or arms--and tell her about the textures she's experiencing. "Ooh, bumpy!" or "Isn't this soft?" Baby will react to her new game by squealing and cooing with every new touch.
- Sound: Put baby in a central spot in the room, secured in an infant car seat or bouncy seat. Then move away from his direct line of sight. Call to him or sing songs to him so that he has to try to recognize your location by the sound of your voice and the direction it comes from. This will help him learn to recognize sounds from near and farther away.
- Sight: Take babies in your care on a walking tour of your day care center. Put them in strollers or hold them and walk them around, pointing at all of the interesting and colorful objects you see along the way. Spend some time indoors and some time outdoors to show them the different objects in their world.
Movin' Right Along
Help babies learn to move and crawl with these activities:
- Make a small pile of pillows or cushions on a soft floor. Place crawling babies a few feet away and encourage them to climb the mountain of cushions. You may have to coax them verbally, place a favorite toy at the top of the pile, or even hide behind the pile and play peek-a-boo until they come and find you.
- Make an obstacle course on the floor for crawlers and walkers. Use objects like stuffed animals, pillows, chairs and books to create the obstacles. Then hold the baby's hand and guide him through (or crawl beside him) the course.
- Create a dance party. This will work for babies at all stages of development. Play upbeat, fun music (not too loudly) and dance around the room. The babies will follow your lead. Babies who can sit up may bounce or rock back and forth. Older, walking babies may actually shuffle their feet or wiggle their bodies.
Hand-Eye Coordination
Help babies learn to use their hands by participating in these activities:
- Stack soft blocks or other toys, and let baby knock them down. Eventually, he'll enjoy this so much that he will learn to stack the toys himself just so he can knock them down whenever he wants.
- Encourage older babies to hold the spoon during mealtimes and learn to feed themselves. It might create a slightly larger mess than usual, but it will also help baby learn an important life skill.
- Let babies have a series of small containers and spoons or shovels. Then provide something for them to fill the containers with, such as rice or cornmeal. Show them fill the containers and empty them out again. They will enjoy this simple task for hours. Just make sure you're prepared for a big mess, and watch to make sure the filler stays in the containers and not in their mouths.
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