Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 1 Early Literacy Tip Tuesday November 17th – Discovering Their World: Play for Babies (Birth-12mo.) Hello everyone and welcome to another Early Literacy Tip Tuesday! Throughout this video series we are discussing the Five Practices of Early Literacy: Talking, Singing, Reading, Writing, and Play. Last week we started our discussion on the practice of Play by talking about the benefits it has for our early learners and breaking it down into Imitation and Imagination play. This week, and the next two weeks we’re going to dive deeper and talk about ways to make play meaningful for our children at their different stages of life. A reminder before we start, just like with all our past videos that discuss ages and activities for them, remember that every child is different and every child will develop their skills at a different rate. The ages I use in these videos are averages, so don’t worry if your child isn’t ready for the activities yet, and don’t gloat if your child has already “been there, done that”. Each child has strengths and weaknesses, that is what makes us so unique. If you are concerned about where your child is at developmentally, ask your pediatrician for their opinion. Alright, let’s start at the beginning with babies, birth through twelve months. Play for babies as a whole is more foundation building than traditional playing, and that is what makes it so important! For the youngest of babies, birth to four or five months, we’ll call bonding our form of play. Babies this age are working on discovering their new senses and will delight in hearing and starting to see caregivers for the first time along with learning to grasp objects to bring to their mouth for a taste test. If there is an older sibling involved, they may be a little disappointed that their new sister or brother can’t “play” with them Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 2 like they thought they would, but remind them to be patient, babies develop so fast and will start making more meaningful interactions soon! By four to six months, babies are really on a roll with learning how to interact with their world around them. Their hand-eye coordination is really coming together! They can now see further away and they have more control over their limbs to get to things they want. It’s early, but some babies will begin to roll over and learn to scoot to get around to places where they want to go. Babies this age are learning more about communication and they might start trying to imitate sounds that their caregivers make. Play that engages baby’s senses is the best for this age. Spend time talking to your baby and making funny faces. Mobiles and other bright things to look at are great for working your baby’s eyesight and keeping them entertained. You’ll notice more and more that whatever babies can get their hands on, they send straight to their mouth. It’s important to make sure they are in a safe environment to do this because taste is their strongest sense at this age! Work on helping to build their gross motor skills by moving their hands along to Patty Cake, Patty Cake rhymes, or bouncing rhymes. (Check out JBrary for some good ones). Engage their fingers and toes with rhymes like This Little Piggy. As we reach the last few months of a baby’s first year, we really see them kick it into high gear and grow their own personalities. The best kind of play at this age is still activities that help them discover the world and engage each of their senses. Babies at this age are so curious and love to imitate what is going on around them, from sounds, to maybe words, to actions, and to simple games! Babies this age will love to play Peek- a-boo because they know how! You can also start to play simple hide and seek games with them as well. Put a toy partially out of view and ask baby to go find it. This exercises their critical thinking skills while they figure out what to do and then their gross motor skills when they go on the hunt. Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 3 Lots of baby toys are designed to engage the senses and develop fine motor skills too. Some of the best are toys that encourage color matching, shape matching, and organizing skills. Babies will learn how to better control their hands while learning shapes and colors. Toys that are versions of “big-kid” things are going to be a hit too! Play phones, kitchenware, tools, keys, and other toys like that are great for encouraging your child to play through imitation! In the last video we mentioned that children learn about the world by copying what others do. Providing little ones with safe options to do this with is a great idea. Sensory bags and other manipulatives are also great for keeping little ones entertained. Check out the link from mylittlemoppet.com in the descriptions of simple, safe exploratory toys you can make yourself! Sing and dance! Play involves a little bit of each of the Five Practices and babies love a happy sing and groove party. Keep on reading to your child to help them develop their vocabulary! Let your baby take control of the book and let them turn the pages. Chances are, they’ve been watching you and they probably almost know how to do it on their own. Remember our Board Books video? Keep those books close. They will stand up to the wear and tear of little hands and mouths much better than books with paper pages. Over the next few years your child will go through an array of social skills. Start them, and yourself off strong by engaging with other caregivers and children the same age. Most of the time, babies this age won’t play together in a traditional sense, but a space like a Mommy and Me group, a parent and baby group, or Baby Storytime are great ways to get started introducing them to others. Alright, like our other videos, this isn’t an extensive list of ways to play with your little one. If you want to learn more about ways to engage your baby from the start and help them play and learn, check out the links in this video’s description. I also want to Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 4 recommend the book “Baby’s First Year Milestones” by Aubrey Hargis. Since so much of the first year is foundational development, this book does a great job at covering what milestones you’ll encounter and age-appropriate activities to go along with them. Next week we’ll talk about toddlers, 1-3, and how their play develops so much within those short years. Thank you all for joining me for another Early Literacy Tip Tuesday… see you next week! Book Recommendations: Baby’s First Year Milestones by Aubrey Hargis Sources: https://babyday.us/resources/five-senses/ https://www.mylittlemoppet.com/34-creative-play-activities-for-babies-below-1- year/ http://makingdanish.com/mum/2016/03/25-fun-indoor-activities-for-your-8-10- month-old-baby/ https://jbrary.com/baby-storytime-favourite-lap-bounces/
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