Activity of new born baby

Newborn Activities: Learn and Play Together

Between all those diaper changes, feedings, and naps there will be times when your newborn is awake and alert, ready to take in his surroundings and engage with you.

Every experience is fresh for your newborn, and this makes each little activity or interaction with you a chance to learn and bond. You may be wondering what activities you can do with your newborn when she is just days or weeks old, so read on for some great infant activities.

Sensory Activities for Infants

Stimulate your newborn’s senses with these sensory activities for infants:

Talk to your baby. You may be wondering why you would talk to your newborn when she can’t yet understand you, much less talk back, but babies pay special attention to the sound of human voices during the first month, especially high-pitched ones — like when you do “baby talk.” When you talk to her, she may turn her head toward you and may pay close attention. Look at how she reacts to your different tones — she may even make subtle movements of her arms and legs that are in time with your speech.
Read to your baby. Did you know that, even at this young age, your baby remembers some of the sounds he hears? Try it out: Read a simple story to your little one for several days in a row, and then wait a couple of days and read it again, observing your baby’s body language. Does he seem to recognize certain sounds? You might already have some story books at home, but if not, check out the best baby books according to Pampers Parents.
Listen to music together. Music is not just fun for you, but it can also be fun or soothing for your baby. Listening to music together can be a bonding experience as well, so put on some soft music, hold your baby, and gently sway to the tune.
Introduce different textures and surfaces. Let your baby experience different tactile sensations by placing her on various surfaces such as a smooth or a textured blanket, a towel, or a straw mat. Let her safely touch different surfaces when she's able: from sticky to smooth, bumpy to flat, cool to warm. You'll have as much fun as she does as you watch her explore.
Play tracking games together. Your baby’s vision will develop slowly over the first months and years, but you can start encouraging tracking by moving something eye-catching slowly in front of him. For example, move your head slowly from side to side or use a colorful or patterned toy, like a rattle, to try to catch his eye. Your little one might not be able to follow the movement to begin with, but he will learn soon enough. Read more about how your baby’s eyesight develops here.
Play with expressions. Smile at your baby, stick your tongue out, and make different expressions — the sillier and more exaggerated, the better! Get nice and close to your baby so she can study your face and its features. Before long your little one might start imitating your expressions, and you’ll love it when she smiles in response to your broad grins.
Sing to your baby. Sing your favorite lullaby or song to your baby. Even if you don’t think you have the best singing voice, you’ll find singing can have a soothing effect on your newborn when he’s feeling fussy.
Enjoy skin-to-skin contact. Hold your naked newborn (save for a diaper) against your bare chest and enjoy patting your baby and stroking her face and hair. Skin-to-skin contact offers many benefits for you and your baby, and it’s a great bonding activity you can do together.

Indoor Activities to Do with Newborns

You and your little one will spend most of the first weeks together indoors, but luckily there are plenty of fun infant activities you can do together inside:

Tummy time. Lay your baby on his stomach for a short time — just a few minutes at a time, two or three times a day — while he’s awake. Tummy time helps him strengthen his neck and shoulder muscles over time. Stay with him and watch him closely when he’s on his tummy. If your newborn doesn’t seem to enjoy tummy time on a play mat on the floor, try placing your baby tummy-down on your chest. Your newborn may enjoy it more if he is close to you and can see your face and feel your warmth.
Baby mirror games. Even when your little one is a baby, she’ll love looking at faces — even her own. A baby-safe mirror can help your baby explore the world. Try holding your baby in front of the mirror and let her look and maybe even reach out. You can even get baby toys with unbreakable mirrors built into them.
Baby massage. Touch can be a great way to bond with your baby, and giving your baby a gentle massage can be soothing for both of you. Of course, babies are more delicate than adults, so you’ll want to educate yourself and learn how to massage your baby. Maybe there is even an infant massage class in the area to teach you some safe techniques.
Puppet play. Although you can buy finger puppets online, you can also get creative and make your own hand puppet from an odd sock and some stick-on eyes. Play peek-a-boo, do silly songs and dances, move the puppet back and forth, and give your little one kisses with it. A puppet can be entertaining for both of you, especially if you make lots of funny sounds for the puppet as well.
Clap your baby’s hands together. Sing your favorite children’s song to your baby and gently clap her hands together in time with the tune.
Dance with your baby. Hold your baby, taking care to support his head at all times. Put some upbeat music on and gently dance together. Your little one will enjoy the movement with you.
Smiling games. Encourage your little one to smile by sticking your tongue out at her, or by pulling silly faces. Keep in mind, you may have to wait until your baby’s second month before seeing your baby’s true smiles. The smiles you see during those very first few weeks are more likely one of your newborn’s reflexes.

Outdoor Activities to Do with Newborns

When it’s a beautiful warm day, why not spend some quality time with your baby during a walk or at the local park or playground. Remember that your newborn should not be exposed to direct sunlight, so you'll need to find a shady spot to enjoy the outdoors. There’s plenty you can do together outside — here are just a few ideas:

Go for a walk. Put your little one in a stroller or a baby carrier, making sure she is dressed appropriately for the temperature, and has the shade of the canopy and a wide brimmed hat if it’s sunny out. Getting outdoors can be stimulating for your baby, and also gets you moving. As your little one grows you can start pointing out all the things you see to your baby.
Tummy time in the backyard or park. Lay a comfortable blanket down on a safe area — grass in your yard or in an area of the park free from anything like sharp stones — and give your baby a little tummy time outdoors.
Read to your little one in the fresh air. Reading with your baby is a good activity no matter where you are, but when the weather is nice, grab a book and a picnic blanket and find a good place to settle down together for some story time.
Play with bubbles. Blow some bubbles into the air and let your baby watch them. Babies love to watch bubbles, and it’s fun to do this outside on a nice day! Just remember to blow the bubbles away from your baby so the soapy water doesn’t get in your newborn’s eyes or on her sensitive skin.

The Bottom Line

When it comes to finding activities to do with your newborn baby, there are lots of things that help develop the bond between you. Talking and reading to your baby, enjoying tummy time and skin-to-skin contact together, and going for stroller walks in the neighborhood are all things you and your newborn might enjoy. Your baby is like a sponge, so all the things you do together help your baby develop and learn about the world. Enjoy this special time together and take lots of photos. Later on, you’ll love being reminded of the newborn phase and seeing how far your baby has come. As your child gets bigger, there are many more activities you can do at home with your older baby or toddler.

Learning, Play, and Your Newborn (for Parents)

Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD

en español Aprendizaje, juego y su recién nacido

Play is the main way that infants learn how to move, communicate, socialize, and understand their surroundings. During the first month of life, your baby will learn by interacting with you.

The first thing your baby will learn is to associate you with getting their needs met. So, the feel of your touch, the sound of your voice, and the sight of your face will begin to mean nourishment, warmth, and comfort.

Even at this young age, babies are ready to learn about the world around them. Your newborn loves to look your face. Newborns can recognize and respond to a parent's voice (or other interesting sounds) by looking alert and becoming less active. Babies may try to find out where a sound is coming from by looking around.

When is My Baby Ready to Play and Learn?

During the first month of life, your newborn will spend much of the day sleeping or seeming drowsy. Over the next several weeks to months, your baby will begin to be awake and alert for longer periods of time. You'll learn to recognize when your baby is ready to learn and play:

A baby who is quiet and alert will be attentive and responsive and interested in their surroundings. Encourage learning with smiles, soothing sounds, and gentle caresses.
A baby who is awake but active (squirming, flapping arms, or kicking legs) or fussing is less able to focus on you. The baby may seem upset or cry when you try to get their attention. These are signs that your baby may be getting hungry, tired, or overstimulated.

How Can I Help My Newborn Learn?

As you care for your newborn, talk, smile, and interact with your baby. Pay attention and respond to your baby's cues. For example, watch how your baby moves or starts to make sounds back when you speak. Take turns "talking" to each other. This is how your baby learns to communicate.

In the first few weeks, you may want to introduce some simple, age-appropriate toys that appeal to the senses of sight, hearing, and touch, such as:

rattles
textured toys
musical toys
unbreakable crib mirrors

Choose toys and mobiles with contrasting colors and patterns. Strong contrasts (such as red, white, and black), curves, and symmetry stimulate an infant's developing vision. As vision improves and babies gain more control over their movements, they'll interact more with their environment.

How Can I Help My Newborn Play?

Here are some other ideas for encouraging your newborn to learn and play:

Smile, stick out your tongue, and make other expressions for your infant to study, learn, and imitate.
Use a favorite toy for your newborn to focus on and follow, or shake a rattle for your infant to find.
Let your baby spend some awake time lying on the tummy to help strengthen the neck and shoulders. Always supervise your infant during "tummy time" and be ready to help if they get tired or frustrated in this position. Never put an infant to sleep on their stomach — babies should sleep on their backs to reduce the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).
Talk and read to your baby.
Put on soothing music and hold your baby, gently swaying to the tune.
Pick a soothing song or lullaby and softly sing it often to your baby. The familiarity of the sound and words will have a soothing effect, particularly during fussy times.

When Should I Call the Doctor?

There is a wide range of normal development, so some children may gain skills earlier or later than others. Talk to your doctor if you have any concerns about how your newborn sees and hears, or if you have any questions or concerns about your baby's development.

Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD

Date reviewed: May 2022

Child Development Calendar from the Health of the Nation

The Child Development Calendar from the Health of the Nation medical center is a convenient system that tells parents by months how the baby is developing.

Child development by months

Newborn

How does the baby behave in the first weeks of life? Should I be worried if he sleeps 18 hours a day? What you need to know about the features of feeding the crumbs, and what recommendations for care should be followed?

1 month

What happens to a child at the age of one month, how his behavior changes. Features of development and the emergence of new actions. What you need to know about nutrition, daily care. Planned visits to doctors and testing.

2 months

What happens in the life of a child at the age of 2 months? What behaviors should be taken into account? The appearance of the first emotions of the baby, the development of the vocal apparatus.

3 months

What discoveries do parents expect when a child turns 3 months old? The emergence of new skills, the first conscious manifestation of emotions and desires. What you need to know about the features of feeding?

4 months

What happens to a 4 month old baby? The first serious games and interaction with the outside world. What you need to know about the features of feeding, and what recommendations for care should be followed?

5 months

Transition period from horizontal position. What you need to know about the features of feeding crumbs? What should parents of a five-month-old baby be prepared for?

6 months

What did the baby learn at 6 months of age? How critical is the discrepancy with accepted norms? What you need to know about the features of feeding crumbs, how to introduce the first complementary foods?

7-9 months

What happens to a child aged 7-9 months? The baby begins to sit, crawl or even take the first steps. The first attempts to speak appear. Toys are used in a new capacity.

10-12 months

How does a 10-12 month old baby behave? How does his daily routine change and what games will be more interesting to play closer to the first birthday?

12-15 months

How does a 12-15 month old child behave? What has changed in behavior, and what features of development is important to remember?

15-18 months

How does the child behave at the age of 15-18 months? What you need to know about the features of behavior, what to pay attention to?

18-24 months

How does a child aged 18-24 months behave? What did the baby learn in 2 years? How to make a diet?

More details

Child development at different age stages

CHILD DEVELOPMENT AT DIFFERENT AGE STAGES
Infancy (first year of life)
When a child is born, it is physically separated from its mother. He finds himself in completely different conditions: cold, bright light, an air environment that requires a different type of breathing, the need to change the type of food. To adapt to these new, alien conditions, the child is helped by hereditarily fixed mechanisms - unconditioned reflexes.

What kind of unconditioned reflexes does a newborn have?

This is, first of all, the system of food reflexes. When touching the corners of the lips or tongue, sucking movements appear, and all other movements are inhibited. Because the baby is completely focused on suckling, this response has been called "feeding focus".
Among the unconditioned reflexes, protective and indicative ones stand out. Some reflexes are atavistic - they are inherited from animal ancestors, but are useless for the child and soon disappear. So, for example, the reflex, sometimes called the "monkey", disappears already in the second month of life.

Unconditioned reflexes of the newborn

Stimuli Reflexes
Action of bright light Eyes close
Slap on the bridge of the nose Eyes close
Hand clapping near the baby's head Eyes close
Turning the baby's head to the right Arms flex rapidly
Finger pressing on child's palm Child's toes clenching and unclenching
Finger pressing on child's soles Toes clenching
With a scratching movement, we draw a finger along the sole from the fingers to the heel The big toe rises, the rest are extended
Prick the sole with a pin Knee and foot bend
Raise the lying child with the stomach down The child tries to raise his head, stretches his legs
By the end of the first month of life, the first conditioned reflexes . In particular, the child begins to respond to the feeding position: as soon as he is in a certain position on the mother's lap. v him there are sucking movements. But in general, the formation of conditioned reflexes is characteristic of a later time.
How can you describe the mental life of a newborn? The brain of a small child continues to develop, it is not fully formed, therefore, mental life is associated mainly with subcortical centers, as well as an insufficiently mature cortex. The sensations of a newborn are undifferentiated and inextricably merged with emotions, which made it possible for L. S. Vygotsky to speak of “sensory emotional states or emotionally emphasized states of sensations.”
Important events in the child's mental life are the emergence of auditory and visual concentration. Auditory concentration appears at 2-3 weeks. A sharp sound, say, of a door slamming, causes a cessation of movements, the child freezes and becomes silent. Later, at 3-4 weeks, the same reaction occurs to the person's voice. At this time, the child not only focuses on the sound, but also turns his head towards its source. Visual concentration, which appears at 3-5 weeks, outwardly manifests itself in the same way: the child freezes and holds his gaze (of course, not for long) on a bright object.

The newborn spends time in sleep or drowsiness. Gradually, separate moments, short periods of wakefulness, begin to stand out from this drowsy state. Auditory and visual concentration give wakefulness an active character.
A child comes into this world weak and completely helpless. Such helplessness, complete dependence on an adult constitute the specifics of the social situation of the development of an infant.

A newborn, having acquired the ability to respond to the voice of the mother caring for him, to see her face, establishes new subtle emotional bonds with her. At about 1 month, the baby, when he sees his mother, stops looking at her face, throws up his arms, quickly moves his legs, makes loud noises and begins to smile. This stormy emotional reaction has been called the "revitalization complex". The revitalization complex, which includes a truly human feature - a smile - marks the appearance of the first social need - the need for communication. And the formation of a child's need for communication means that in his mental development he is moving into a new period. The transitional stage of the newborn is coming to an end. Infancy begins.

Infancy

The baby is growing rapidly. The growth of a healthy child in the first year of his life increases by about 1.5 times, and weight - by almost 2 times.
Physical development of the infant
Time of onset Motor development
1 month Raises chin
2 months Raises chest
3 months Reaches for an object, but usually misses
4 months Sitting with support
5-6 months Grasping objects
7 months Sitting no support
8 months Sitting up unaided
9 months Standing with support; crawls on belly
10 months Crawls on hands and knees; walks with two hands
11 months Stands without support
12 months Walks with one hand

Perception . After the second month, the concentration becomes quite long, by 3 months its duration reaches 7-8 minutes. At 4 months, the child not only sees, but already looks: he actively reacts to what he sees, moves and squeals.
A child in infancy perceives the shape of objects, highlights the contour and their other elements.
It can be said that in infancy, children are already able to navigate in many parameters of objects. They are attracted by contrasts, the movement of observed objects and their other properties.

By 2-3 months, babies usually show interest in objects that are somewhat different from those they have seen before.
The child distinguishes visually perceived objects by shape, complexity and color. An active interest in color appears later, from 6 months.
Spatial perception also develops, in particular depth perception. American psychologists conducted a beautiful experiment with a "cliff": the baby was placed on a glass table, under which there were two large boards attached at different levels. The difference in the levels of these boards, covered with bright, large-sized fabric, created the illusion of a cliff. A small child, tactilely feeling the smooth surface of the glass, crawls to the mother, not noticing the depth. After 8 months, most babies avoid the "cliff" and start crying.
Movement and action. The movements of the baby's hands directed to the object, the palpation of the object appear at about the fourth month of life. At 5-6 months, the child can already grasp an object, which requires complex visual-motor coordination. Grasping is the first purposeful action of the child, it is a prerequisite, the basis for mastering manipulations with objects.

In the second half of the year, hand movements and corresponding actions are intensively developed. The child swings the objects he has grasped, knocks, throws and picks them up again, bites, shifts from hand to hand, etc. Chains of identical, repetitive actions unfold, which Jean Piaget called circular reactions. After 7 months there are "correlating" actions: the child puts small objects into large ones, opens and closes the lids of the boxes. After 10 months, the first functional actions appear, allowing relatively correct use of objects, imitating the actions of adults. The child rolls the car, beats the drum, brings a cup of juice to his mouth.

By the end of the year, the child begins to explore the world of human objects and learn the rules of action with them. A variety of actions lead him to the discovery of more and more new properties of the objects surrounding him. Focusing on the surrounding reality, he is interested not only in "what it is", but also in "what can be done with it."
Perception and action is the basis that makes it possible to judge the initial forms of visual-active thinking in infancy.
By the end of the 1st year, the child is involved in rather complex actions of the game.
Memory. The cognitive development of an infant involves the inclusion of memory mechanisms, of course, its simplest types. Recognition comes first. At 3-4 months old, he recognizes the toy that the adult showed him, preferring it to others that are in his field of vision, a 4-month-old child distinguishes a familiar face from an unfamiliar one.
After 8 months, reproduction appears - the restoration of an image in the memory when there is no similar object in front of the child.
Along with cognitive development, emotional development is also observed during infancy. This line of development also directly depends on communication with close adults. In the first 3-4 months, children manifest a variety of emotional states: surprise in response to the unexpected (slowing down of movements, a decrease in heart rate), anxiety in case of physical discomfort (increased movements, increased heart rate, closing eyes, crying), relaxation when a need is satisfied.
After 3-4 months, he smiles at acquaintances, but is somewhat lost at the sight of an unfamiliar adult. At 7-8 months, anxiety increases sharply when strangers appear.

Approximately at the same time, between 7 and 11 months, the so-called "fear of parting" appears - sadness or acute fright at the disappearance of the mother (when she is gone for a long time or she just went out for a while).
Communicating with mother or other close person, by the end of 1 year the baby strives not only for purely emotional contacts, but also for joint actions.
Begins in infancy and speech development. In the first half of the year, speech hearing is formed, and the child himself, with joyful animation, makes sounds, usually called humming. In the second half of the year, babbling appears, in which one can distinguish some repetitive sound combinations, most often associated with the actions of the child. Babble is usually combined with expressive gestures. By the end of 1 year, the child understands 10-20 words spoken by adults, and he himself pronounces one or several of his first words, similar in sound to the words of adult speech. With the appearance of the first words, a new stage in the mental development of the child begins.

Crisis of 1 year

The transitional period between infancy and early childhood is commonly referred to as the crisis of 1 year. Like any crisis, it is associated with a surge of independence, the emergence of affective reactions. Affective outbursts in a child usually occur when adults do not understand his desires, his words, his gestures and facial expressions, or understand, but do not do what he wants. The word "impossible" in a crisis period is of particular relevance.
The main acquisition of the transitional period is a kind of children's speech, which L. S. Vygotsky called autonomous. It differs significantly from adult speech both in sound form (phonetic structure) and in meaning (semantic side). The child has his own logic, and his words become ambiguous and situational.
A young child's language is agrammatic. Words do not combine into sentences, but pass into each other like interjections, resembling a series of incoherent exclamations.
Children's speech is understandable only to the closest people who are constantly next to the child and understand the meaning of his words.