Ways to Interact with your Infant

     Parents don’t realize how important it is to be active with their baby new born to one and a half months old. Well, they are mistaken. It’s very important to do things with your child, even though they are still at a young age. There are many things you can do that they will enjoy and benefit from. Kids love to have a lot of attention; it gives them interaction and a sense of being loved.

     A great activity that they love is being sung to. Some of their favorite songs are; Hush Little Baby, I love you, Row-Row Your Boat, Old McDonald and most any song a care giver will sing to them. Infants love to hear the familiar voice and know that they have someone paying attention to them. This helps them have eye contact and gives your baby social interaction. They especially love it when you change the tone of your voice and really makes them excited.

      Infants also love it when you make faces at them and play games. This makes them giggle and is a fun and special time for both you and the baby. Some of the most common games that can be played include: Peek-a Boo, Tickle, Tickle, and Pat-a-Cake. Other types of activities would be: setting the infant down and grabbing a stuffed animal and going up to them and saying “get you, get you” and keep repeating it. This gets the infant very excited!  Another common game is playing; This Little Piggy went to Market with their toes. Games are a critical part of development and are important to infants even at such a young age. Just being there and having a good times makes the infant very happy and feel loved.

       Infants love being read to.  Even though they are young and can’t understand what the book is about, but they will grow up remembering you reading to them and love to read themselves. They love the comfort of your voice while you are reading. It’s important to read several different times throughout the day. They love the books with bright colors, animals, numbers, and shapes on them. It’s a good idea to keep the book close to them so they can see until they get a little older. Infants like that the books are short and don’t have very many words on a page because they like to see different things. Touch and feel books are a good idea to read to them because they like the feeling but they are also learning to use their senses and get to know different feelings. Having separate soothing books for bed time is a good idea. This helps them calm down before they go to bed.

      There are endless ways to play and communicate with your child,  just use your imagination. It’s just very important to have interaction with you child at this young age.  It helps with their development and is the best way for communication between a parent, caregiver and the child.