While caring for your baby you can boost brain development by exposing your new one to sights, sounds and feelings - they’re all brand new to them! Babies are born with a wide range of temperaments; some might enjoy loud noises while others might prefer moving objects, so it’s best to experiment with a wide range of activities together, to discover what they respond best too.
It’s a scientific fact that when babies feel happy and secure they release a hormone, oxytocin, which acts like a fertiliser for their growing baby brains. Doing these activities while smiling, talking and listening to your baby will trigger the hormone oxytocin which will promote brain growth.
Top 5 activities to boost baby’s brain development
1. Eye contact games
Take time to gaze into those beautiful baby eyes! Babies love looking directly into your eyes and can learn all about mum or dad’s facial characteristics and movements. They can learn to focus on your face and follow where it’s looking, which is great for developing physical and emotional skills. Play games like peek-a-boo to keeps things light and fun.
2. Baby talking and chatting
Babies love to listen to you, and talking to your baby is an essential first step in moving towards conversing with your newborn. Try speaking slowly, use short words and sentences and repeat words and phrases to build an association between words and objects, people or events. You can use a different sing-along, high, or low tones to keep your baby entertained.
3. Moving hands or toys
Being able to see the effect of playing with your hands, pushing a toy on a mobile or pulling a string will put a huge smile on both you and baby’s face. Playing with objects that react to your baby’s touch builds the important connection between different actions and outcomes.
4. Water games
Bubbles, taps, water guns, baths and basins of water are all a baby needs to have a great time! Get ready for a soaking as you splash, dip, lick or crawl with your baby, and experience your baby’s first reaction to playing with liquids. Experiment with cold and warm water to give baby experience with all kinds of wet and slippery liquids and objects. Always supervise your baby when playing with water. You can even go swimming with your little one!
5. Play with rattles
Teach your baby how to create noise with a rattle! Shaking a rattle - homemade or bought - in front of your baby will quickly teach your little one how to connect the movement with the noise. Teaching your baby early on ‘how things work’ will give them ideas to experiment and learn from in the future. Get shaking today!