Making the right choice in baby toys

For virtually all babies, toys serve as not only a piece of entertainment but as a tool in the enhancement of their physical and the mental development. Age-appropriate toys let babies realize and learn their place in the world, as well as help them in adjusting to the society and their environment. Toys are able to provide excitement to babies and assist in the development of their basic skills and the motivation to interact with others.

However, as a parent, you should not just give all the cute toys to your child. It is absolutely vital to make sure that all the toys that you hand to your baby would be age-appropriate, particularly if your baby is less than a year or about a year old. This is because the first year is very important to their overall growth and development. Here are a couple of examples and suggestions of toys that would be most appropriate to the age of your baby.

Less than 3 months

Babies at this age group are almost always asleep – around 20 hours everyday. And once they wake up, the first thing they do is eat. After eating, babies are fully awake and that would be the right time to play with them and expose them to appropriate toys. When babies are this old, they are only able to see things that are 8 inches away and so, make sure that you would be holding the toys at that distance.

It would be good to introduce appropriate toys at this age as it would provide a stimulating environment for the baby’s sustained developmental benefits. A good choice for toy would be a baby mobile as even though your baby would not be able to closely focus on a particular shape, the toys which are hanging from the baby or crib mobile would certainly provide entertainment. It would help in the baby’s development in the skills for hand and eye coordination and for pattern recognition.

You could also choose one that has plays music and melodies as sounds have a calming effect on babies and have been studied to have the effect of boosting the IQ, stimulating the alpha waves of the brain as well as improve a baby’s overall health.

From 3 to 6 months

During this stage, babies are starting to discover their hands and their mouths. They start holding things as well as putting them into their mouths to suck. You could probably start introducing more interactive toys as babies start learning to respond to fondling and tickling.

You could probably offer a nursing necklace to your baby which would prevent him from hurting and pinching you as you breastfeed him. It would also be able to provide him some tactile and visual stimulation.

You can also have some picture books with colorful picture and simple words that you could read to him. Some handheld toys would also be great. You could try getting toys that have various sizes and textures as well as lights and sounds which could help in enhancing their hand and eye coordination.

From 6 to 9 months

At this time, babies start sitting up and start learning to crawl. They are also starting to learn how to grasp and pinch objects with the use of just two fingers. If your baby is at this developmental stage, you could provide him with playthings that have all kinds of sizes, shapes and colors which would be able to satisfying their curiosity and encourage them to do some exploration.

Your baby is also starting to develop some reasoning skills and so, toys that would make them think and imagine would be best. To encourage physical development, toys that can be moved and stretched as well as balls and playthings that have wheels would be most advisable.

You could also get some toys that would be appropriate for bath time. You could start introducing water toys like cups that could be filled with water and squeaky ducks. This would make bath time a lot more educational and enjoyable.

From 9 to 12 months

During this developmental stage, babies start learning how to stand up and walk and like to do all kinds of activities and so, activity walkers that offer lots of buttons to press and activities to do would be most appropriate. You could also give toys that have some buttons to press for lights or for sounds or both.

Interactive toys that teach cause and effect should also be on your shopping list. Toys that could be stacked and nested together would also provide great games for both you and your baby to enjoy.

Other good ideas for playthings during this stage would be toys that teach simple words, counting and colors, as well as those that have videos. These toys would give your baby a head start on the learning process. You could also get some realistic toys to give your baby an idea of how objects in the real world work. Examples would be small grocery carts, play telephones and steering wheels.

Related information

August 4, 2008 | Filed Under Baby training