Play ideas for your 9 month old

Your 9 month old may well now be showing developments in these areas:

Physical
Catch a ball if it’s rolled right to them

Cognitive
Be able to wave bye-bye or lift their arms to say, “Pick me up!”

Social and emotional
Recognise familiar faces

You may also notice that your baby follows your gaze and be able to reach for a toy without falling over and picking up and passing objects between their hands is probably easier now.

Games and toys that will help them learn even more

More building, sorting and stacking

Build a pile of blocks for your baby and a pile for you. Stack the blocks, and point out to your baby which are at the top and the bottom. Encourage your little one to ‘help’ as you build. The y will love knocking over your pile … over and over.

For shape-sorting, start simply. Start with one shape and let them persevere until they find the right hole and really encourage them when they find it. You’ll help baby gain confidence this way.

Toys to encourage standing and cruising

To stay safe, make sure you clear a path all around a toy when encouraging your baby to try and stand to get it.
Give toys back to your baby as they play and help build excitement and anticipation by saying: "I wonder where the ball is?" That gets them to start thinking, even at this young age, about estimation.

Toys for those fine motor skills

Encourage them to try to and explain what you’re doing. "I turned the dial … now it's your turn!" All helps to hold their attention and improve those fine motor skills.
Reinforce learning colours by pointing out things that are the same colour: "See? Your trousers are blue too."

Not too long from now your little one will be ready for letter, number and shape recognition. You can help things along by pointing these out on the toy, and then pointing out matching ones you see in everyday things around you.

Always encourage language

Initiate a conversation and listen and wait as your baby gazes back at you and responds with a coo or babble. Say something back to help your child understand the idea of dialogue.

Start reading to your baby while they’re still young and encourage a love of books. When you read together, point out pictures and encourage baby to point to them, too. Make the sounds of animals in books, or the sounds that other things make.