Baby
Smart Start Baby Ten brain-building games to play By Malia Jacobson
Playing with your baby yields more than sweet smiles, squeals, and coos. According to researchers and child development experts, simple, everyday games can boost your baby’s brain development, fostering growth in language, science, math, and organizational skills (called executive functions) along with social and emotional learning. Babies at play are learning about themselves and their world, says Sarah R. Lytle, Ph.D., director of outreach and education for the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) at University of Washington. “Babies are these natural scientists. They’re always playing games that are actually experiments. Every time a baby drops their spoon off their high chair, they’re figuring out their world and how it works.” Here’s how to help your little scientist along with games that benefit cognitive development from birth through age one.
Back and forth
Baby gym
No, you don’t need to take your baby to spin class. But physical activity—think tummy time, crawling, scooting, walking practice, or parent-child swim—can boost brain growth. Canadian researchers found that physical activity benefits cognitive development, especially executive functions and language skills, in children from birth through age five.
Why, thank you!
When your baby hands you a toy and looks at you expectantly, they’re initiating a game that develops social and emotional intelligence, says Lytle. Play along by responding with delight (“Thank you so much!), waiting a beat, then handing the toy back, and keep the back-andforth going for as long as your baby stays interested.
Quality interactions with loving caregivers are vital to cognitive development in general—things like responding to babies’ coos and cries, gazing into their eyes, and making silly faces. “In a high-quality interaction, you want to see a true back-and-forth exchange between a parent and a baby. When the baby babbles, the parent responds like they’re having a conversation,” says Lytle.
Bust a move
Where’s the cup?
Rhyme time
By four to seven months old, babies begin developing object permanence, or the knowledge that something still exists even when it’s not visible. Simple games like moving a cup just out of sight and asking your baby 20
“Where’s the cup?” help your baby toward this memory milestone.
Our Kids Magazine | April 2020
Exposing babies to music introduces the concept of rhythm, which benefits mathematical skills, says Lytle. Encourage this learning with mini dance sessions as early as the newborn stage (holding your baby, of course), spending 5-10 minutes bouncing and swaying to the beat of songs you know and love. Reading books filled with rhyming words, like The Cat and the Hat, help your baby develop phonological awareness, an important component of language and literacy, says Lytle. “Books work well for this because as FRIEND US @ facebook.com/OurKidsMagazine210
