Ages and Stages: 0–3 months
What do we offer our babies from 0–3 months old? What toys? What are the best early activities for our baby to develop? I get asked this a lot so here are my suggestions.
You are the best toy
You the parent or the caregiver are the BEST toy a baby could have in the first three months. The most important thing is to talk and sing to your baby, to look and hold your baby and offer your face and voice! Use sing song intonation as much as you can, and as often as possible. We know that babies respond really well to interesting voices, singing or funny sounds. Use your facial expressions!
It is important to encourage early turn taking: leave pauses in between what you say or sing to allow your baby to respond to you. Once you see any signs of your baby responding you continue as if you are having a conversation.
Visual Stimulation
We know that baby’s eyesight still needs to develop in those first months and that a newborn can only distinguish light, shapes and faces. And their distance vision is blurry in the first month. A baby can see up to 15 cm away and this is roughly the distance between the feeders’ face when bottle or breastfeeding the baby.
Black and white
Your baby can see black and white and some shades of grey. So, in the first month you really will need no toys at all other than your face and your voice, your smile, giggle and your hands! Of course, there are a range of black and white visual toys available these days like the ones below. But if you are on a budget, I would say you don’t need those.
From the second to third month a baby can begin to follow objects with their eyes. They recognise a familiar face and now they start reaching for things. Their colour vision is also gradually improving.
Baby gym
One of the best early toys is a ‘baby gym’ where bright and colourful toys dangle off foam padded arches. You can sometimes get ones with a mirror hanging off one of the arches or a mirror sewn into the mat. This is useful as baby likes to look at his/her face at around three months old and this can also be great for tummy time. If you are on a budget this would be the one toy, I would recommend you to get.
If there is no mirror on your baby gym you could get a mirror toy. There are lots out there, this one is a good example. I would probably get a mirror toy that has other sensory components attached so you get more value for money, i.e., three toys in one.
O-ball
Another great toy to get around 2–3 month is an O-ball for easy grasping, bright colours, very lightweight.
Sounds
Lovely early toys are sound makers, bells or rain makers. Some very light weight bells can be attached to your baby’s ankles and they ring every time your baby moves his/her legs. This is a nice and easy introduction to early cause and effect understanding.
Peek-a-boo
A great early game is Peek-a Boo and you could complement your hands hiding your eyes with some nice lightweight pieces of material like a piece of organza veil fabric for example. An added benefit is that later on baby can try and grasp the materials and pull them out of the container.
Music
Music is very important. Turn on the radio to classical or any easy listening station you like. If nothing else you could sing of course! And do not worry about not hitting the right notes your baby won’t judge you (until they are about three years old!)
After three months
At the end of three months your baby is likely to show you the following:
- makes cooing and early babbling sounds
- seems to know your face
- smiles at you socially
- cries for different needs: hungry, bored, needing attention, looking for you
- opens and closes hands to try and grasp items
- takes swipes at dangling
- kicks his/her legs
- looks at faces and toys, lights
- turns his/her head towards sounds
- starts to understand the world around him/her.
Don’t panic!
But don’t panic at all if you feel your baby has not quite mastered any of those stages. Chances are they are doing so very soon. If you are worried, please do come and bring your baby to our clinic for a screen and we will give you plenty of assurance and ideas on how to help your baby move forward.
On a final note, Early Intervention is key and bringing your baby for a one-off consultation to a speech and language specialist is always a great idea, just to get ideas, to see that baby is on track and to help baby develop.
The earlier you bring your baby the better. Chances are one consultation is all you need and perhaps a six-monthly review to just stay nicely on track.
Look out for my next Ages and Stages from three to six months old!
I look forward to seeing you! Get in touch with me via my contact form.
Sonja McGeachie
Early Intervention Speech and Language Therapist
Feeding and Dysphagia (Swallowing) Specialist The London Speech and Feeding Practice
The London Speech and Feeding Practice
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.