The Importance of Play – For You and Your Baby

Playing with your child is one of the most fun, entertaining, and rewarding experiences of being a parent. Playtime creates many long lasting memories and it’s important to remember that playtime is an essential part of a child’s upbringing and development.

How to Make Playtime a Fun, Rewarding Experience
Many first time parents worry about providing enough stimulation for their baby. We all remember reading articles and watching scenes from movies where infants are presented with flash cards assuming this will help them learn. Fortunately, child development experts have debunked this myth. While stimulating play is essential, play can be basic and does not require expensive toys. It’s also important, however, to establish soothing times to help prevent over stimulation. The following tips can help you establish a positive and enriching playtime routine for your baby:

• For young babies, introduce them to toys with high contrast colors that also make some noise or sound. Two or three toys are optimal as a child gains comfort from recognizing the same toy and gaining mastery over it. As their confidence grows they will become more creative by using it in different ways. For example, the first month she might reach out to touch the bright colors on the toy and the following month try to rattle it to make noise. Safety note: Be sure that these toys are not so small that they present a choking hazard. A simple way to test this is to see if they fit through a toilet paper roll. If they do, they are too small.

• For older babies, select toys or items that they can fill up and empty, stack, pull, push and eventually ride on. This can be as simple as a big Tupperware container that gets filled up with large blocks that they can empty out and then stack up.  Safety note: Any pull toy should have a string less than 12” long or it might present a strangulation hazard.

How to Tell When Playtime’s Over
Doctors specializing in children’s development, caution that you need to recognize your baby’s signals when she’s had enough playtime so she doesn’t get frustrated.

• If your baby turns her head away from the toy, it could be a sign that she’s had enough and needs to process and digest the information she’s received.

• Know your baby’s patterns and recognize when it’s the right time of the day for play and when it’s her quiet time. Playtime needs to be around her schedule not yours.

• Don’t set expectations. Play should be fun, not forced.

Finally, enjoy! This is the time when you can have some fun too and be a wonderful role model for your child. Be silly, get your hands dirty, laugh out loud, dance and create great lasting memories for you and your child.