0-3 Months
3-6 Months
6-9 Months
9-12 Months
12-24 Months
2 years onwards
Awareness
3-6 Months
A 3 to 6 month old undergoes some amazing developments in terms of their sight, hearing and the ability to touch. Your baby's awareness of his or her surroundings is intensifying day by day and it is during this time that you may experience your baby's first noticeable responses to sights, sounds and textures. The day your baby first smiles or giggles will be one for the memory books.
Playtime tips
- Have a designated playtime. As your baby is learning to reach for items, provide a variety of toys on a play mat and interact with your infant as she or he plays.
- At this stage there are many ways to start your baby on a road towards developing good language skills. Always speak slowly and clearly when you talk to your baby, and talk lots! Use short sentences and continue to identify objects, showing and touching them as you say their name. Your baby is also learning to locate the sound of your voice so vary your position and talk across the room - your infant will increasingly be able to tell where your voice is coming from.
- Focus on repetition. Singing the same songs or reciting nursery rhymes over and over not only entertains but will foster learning.
- Your baby is never too young to enjoy books. Read picture books often - talking about the pictures, asking questions and pointing out colours, textures and objects.
- Give your baby time to respond to your voice with sound. Don't talk at your baby, but rather talk with them - let your baby interact with you with conversational babbling.
- Water play can provide great practice for developing motor skills.
How your child perceives the world
Hearing Your baby probably seems to respond to higher pitched voices and will mimic sounds and gestures. Many people naturally raise the pitch of their tones and exaggerate their speech when talking to babies but it's important to mix in some regular adult talk as well - as you'll be setting the stage for future language development. Music and the routine sounds of life will also be fascinating for your baby now. Staying alert for longer periods of time, baby rattles, musical mobiles and toys with other interesting sound effects are great ways to stimulate your infant's hearing.
Recommended toys
At this stage, your baby is developing rapidly and beginning to use their hands to explore and discover. Toys to touch, feel and grab, with lots of different textures and colours are ideal to help foster curiosity. With your assistance our early activity toys open up a world of creative play and exploration - with buttons and knobs to grab and twist and textures to feel and hear - there's lots of squeaking, rattling and spinning fun to be had!
