Engaging Educator Interaction Activities for Babies Aged Six to Twelve Months

From infancy, play is an important part of a child’s life. For babies, simple, playful interactions with adults help develop sturdy brain architecture, the foundations of lifelong health, and the building blocks of resilience. Through games and playful activities, children can practice and strengthen important executive function skills that will help them throughout their lives, including learning to focus their attention, strengthening their working memory, and developing basic self-control. The following provides suggestions for games and play-based activities based on a child’s age. The activities for younger children are designed for adults to engage in with children.

Social and Emotional Development Activities

Children begin to learn important social skills at a young age. This happens through lots of coaching and interaction from caring adults. Attachment to primary caregivers is an important foundation for your baby’s development. Your baby will develop a strong and healthy attachment to you when you respond to his cries, help her feel better, and interact in calm and caring ways. Establishing routines is a good way to help children feel safe and secure as they try new things.

Here are ideas to help babies up to 12 months old develop social and emotional skills:

Talk, sing, and play with babies while feeding them or changing diapers. The routine of sharing and repeating favorite songs is reassuring to babies.
Read books or tell stories to babies using a quiet voice. Point to the words and pictures in a book as you read.
Play hiding games by hiding a stuffed animal or toy under a blanket or cloth. Look for the toy together. Show surprise and delight when you find the toy.
Look at photos together. Look at pictures of other babies. Talk about what you see in the pictures. Mimic the expressions or emotions expressed by the subjects in the pictures when appropriate.
Older babies will enjoy rolling a ball back and forth. Talk about what you are doing as you are playing a sharing activity together.
Play games like “my turn, your turn” with a ball or toy. This even works when you are putting on a baby’s socks or shoes. Having fun together builds a positive relationship.
Talk to babies by asking questions and waiting for a response as though you are in a conversation. Mimic their response, which may be a gurgle, legs kicking or a laugh. Repeat this several times if the baby is interested in maintaining the responses.
Narrate your actions as you do daily tasks, using a variety of words and voice tones. Show and label your emotions.
Curious about what to do with your baby all day? Play is an important part of your child’s learning and growth - it's how they explore their environment, practice developing skills and bond with their caregivers (that’s you!). As your baby grows, playtime will evolve based on what developmental skills they are working on.

Playtime Activities for Babies Aged Six to Twelve Months

Here are some activities for supporting your child’s development during their first year, all while having fun! While these activities can be enjoyed by children of all different abilities, feel free to modify as your little one needs.

Activities for 6-Month-Olds

Let’s get rolling! Place your baby on their back or tummy on a safe surface and place their favorite toy or another baby-safe object just out of reach. Encourage them to roll over to reach for the toy. This game helps support your baby’s gross motor skill development by working on a big milestone like rolling over.
Go exploring. Take your baby for a walk outside and talk about the things you see and noises you hear. Going outdoors helps to expose your baby to new sights and sounds, helping them to develop their listening, visual and social skills.
Magical ride. Place your baby on their tummy on a towel or blanket on a soft surface free of any obstructions.

Activities for 9-Month-Olds

Copy cat. Observe what your baby does and copy their actions. This lets your little one take the lead! By showing interest and placing importance in what your baby does, you’re helping them to develop their social and emotional skills.
Independent explorer. Let your baby explore your home on their own but stay close by to make sure they are safe. This helps them to feel secure while they’re trying new things. Allowing your baby to have supervised freedom helps them to build their independence and self-esteem.
Follow the leader. Give your baby commands to follow like “clap your hands!” and show them how to do it.

Engaging Activities Inspired by Daily Rotations

Consider setting up a daily rotation of activities to keep things fresh and exciting for your baby. Even if they are toys he had seen before, if he didn't see them as often, they were more interesting and would keep his attention and focus for a longer period of time.

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Here are some ideas for activities that can be incorporated into a daily rotation:

Day 1

Magnetic Letters & Play Doh: Prop Kade up in his bumbo booster chair at our kitchen table and laid out some play doh for him. I set out a tub with some magnetic letters and let him just explore. I showed him how to squish the different letters into the play doh as we talked about the colors of the letters and searched for the letters to spell his name.
DIY Lift the Flap Book with Post-Its: I used one of our beloved "first words" books that has lots of real life pictures and just covered a few of the pictures on each page with post-it notes. Kade loved turning the pages, and tearing off the post-it notes to discover what was hiding underneath them. This activity works on fine motor skills (turning pages and pulling up post-its), and helps build vocabulary.
Finger Puppet Board Books: We have three of these sweet little nursery rhyme finger puppet board books that are perfectly interactive for this age. We read/sang them together and Kade loved touching the puppet as I wiggled it around and read to him. These books help build vocabulary, promote a love for reading/literacy, and are great for bonding with your little one.
Stacking/Nesting Cups: An EXCELLENT developmental toy for this age. This set of cups was one of Kade's favorite toys to tinker with even before he was a year old. As he grew older, they grew with him as he was actually able to build towers with them and nest them from largest to smallest. This toy helps promote problem solving, and works on early child development skills such as stacking, building, and nesting.
Straws in an Empty, Plastic Water Bottle: We still bring this activity with us in the car on longer road trips! We have switched it up from straws and also used pipe cleaners.
Muffin Tin Color Sort: I used some colored paper that I had to cut out little circles and taped them to the bottom of a 6-cup muffin tin. I put coordinating colored plastic balls that we had from a ball popping toy in a little bin with a plastic ice cream scooper.
Things That Go Felt Playmat: Great for sorting and categorizing all the different "things that go."

Day 2

Rubber Building Blocks: Kade still plays with these blocks at age two! Another great developmental toy that grows with your child. When he was younger, these were great for gnawing on ;), banging together, and throwing around. As time went on, they were great for watching mommy and daddy build towers and getting to knock them down. As he grew even older, he is now able to stack them AND knock them over all on his own.
Flashcards in Envelopes: This one took a bit of prep time before hand but it was such a fun, different/unique activity for us! I took a set of alphabet flashcards and stuffed them all in separate envelopes. He definitely did not open all the envelopes in one sitting since attention spans at this age are very, very short but he did come back to them on and off throughout the day.
Mother Goose Mini Board Books & Cloth Book: I tried to put some fun, new, different type books out for each activity rotation to switch things up from his regular basket of board books. Giving little ones different sizes, shapes, and textures to explore in book form is a great way to keep them interested and excited about books/literacy. Kade still absolutely loves these mini mother goose books and he especially loves the little "suitcase" that they come in.
Stamps: Stamps are a great, not-too-messy, yet still fun art project for little ones. I obviously had to model how to use the stamps with the ink pads so he knew what to do with them but then he loved it. I only had letter stamps from teaching but this would be fun with animals, shapes, or any other little stamps you could find.
Magnets on a Cookie Sheet: Another super simple activity using household items. Probably an obvious statement, but make sure the magnets you choose are not ones that you would need to worry about being a choking hazard for your child. The magnets don't have to be anything special- as you can see, some of the ones we used are actually also what we use for chip clips. Babies/toddlers don't care- they love playing with real life, household items that they wouldn't typically find in their toy baskets.

Day 3

Small Toys in an Empty Wipes Container: If you've ever wondered what on earth to do with all these extra, empty wipes containers- don't throw them! You can use them for fine motor play. ;) I used some small wooden fruit that we scored from the Target dollar spot for this activity but you could use a variety of different items. Kade loved using his little fingers to push the play food into the slot and down into the empty container. He then would open it up, dump it out and do it all over again.
V-Tech Musical Rhymes Book: Another one of Kade's favorite toys as a little babe. This book came in handy on our road trips home to see family. He loved flipping the pages, listening/learning the songs, and playing with the little buttons and switches throughout the book. I would definitely recommend these musical rhymes books for little ones!
Bucket of Balls: This is a simple one I just threw together based on toys we already had laying around. I grabbed a little bucket and just filled it with all the different balls that we had collected. We have plastic balls, rubber balls, balls that light up, balls that make noise, etc. This was great sensory play as Kade explored the different looks, feels, textures, and sounds of all the different balls. We also worked on skills such as rolling, "throwing," and "catching."
Popsicle Stick Drop: For this activity, I just taped an empty paper towel roll up to the wall and set out some colored craft sticks for him to drop down the tube into a bin/basket. This activity is great for hand-eye coordination and could easily be turned into color matching/sorting by adding colored paper to a few different tubes.
Pom Pom Push: This is another one (similar to the straws in an empty bottle) that we bring with in the car on long road trips, to this day. The poms that I used for this activity are fairly small, so make sure you monitor this closely if your child is prone to putting things in their mouth. I just used an empty plastic yogurt container and had Kyle drill some holes in the top.

Day 4

I See Me! Personalized Board Book: These books are BRILLIANT. They are personalized in that they allow you to insert your child's name in the story and also include a picture of their actual face as a character in the book. Definitely a great way to get your child excited about/interested in reading at a young age!
Stickers: Yes, that simple. I pulled a couple pieces of blue paper, and any fish/under the sea related stickers I had laying around in my stash. I peeled stickers off the paper for him as he pointed to the ones he wanted and then we talked about putting them "in the water." I did this same activity another time with green paper and farm animals (putting the animals "in the grass"). This is great for little ones as they get older, too, because peeling the stickers off the sheets themselves is great for fine motor muscles. Before then, it still helps to grow their imaginations and it fosters creativity.

Day 5

Melissa & Doug Chunky Farm Puzzle: I mentioned this before but we love these puzzles! This one in particular has been a favorite for a long time. It was especially popular around this stage when we were learning animal names and the sounds they make. We also have the truck one that is very well-loved.
Toys in Tin Foil: This one takes a little prep time before hand, but still is super simple with toys you already have and a common household item. I gathered up a bunch of random, small toys and literally just wrapped them up in tin foil and tossed them in a tub. It was like having a bunch of tiny presents for him to open.
Musical Instruments: Noise makers are such a hit with little ones. Musical instruments can be played with/explored completely independently, or with someone else. When Kade and I played with these together, I would demonstrate different ways to use the instruments, talk about loud/quiet, fast/slow and describe the different sounds we could make. This is a great activity for when you have music playing too which is great for development.

Additional Activities to Support Development

Create a sensory station: Creating a sensory basket, or sensory station, will give your child the opportunity to explore new objects in a safe and creative way, and sensory play supports cognitive development and the development of fine motor skills.
Build a busy board: From zippers and latches to snaps, buckles, and knobs, busy boards are a great way to encourage exploration, creativity, and promote muscle dexterity.
Count on fingers and toes: Toddlers love to hear you count things or hear things counted, so show your little one how to count by touching each of their fingers and toes as you recite the numbers.
Write in sand or rice: Looking for a creative way to engage your 12-month-old? Try filling a shallow container with rice or sand and letting your little one draw in it. The feel of each material is extremely appealing and will allow your child to learn, grow, and explore.
Play with blocks: Block building can help your child develop their fine motor skills and enhance their hand-eye coordination.
Sort toys by color: Color matching helps children develop their cognitive skills.
Complete puzzles: Completing puzzles with your little one will help improve their motor and cognitive reasoning skills. It will also help them understand the concept of a whole and parts.
Make a discovery basket: A discovery basket will give your child the chance to explore unique objects and items. Simply fill a basket with child-safe things you have around the house.
Stack ’em up: Stacking toys is a great way to help your child develop dexterity and grasp the concept of “big” and “little.”
Have your child fetch objects: Asking your child to collect objects around the house isn’t just helpful; fetching objects will help your little one learn to listen and follow directions. It will also foster independence and an overall sense of pride.
Make music: Music helps children develop socially, emotionally, and linguistically.
Play house: Playing house is a great way to expand your child’s imagination and foster creativity.
Go ‘fishing’: Fishing games are relatively common - from board games to bathtub toys. So catch your child’s interest with a pretend fishing set and watch them improve their motor skills as they have fun playing.
Make a DIY ball pit: You can make your own ball pit with plastic balls and a playard or plastic pool. Cheap and easy entertainment!
Build a fort: Whether you’re 12 months old or 12 years old, forts are fun.
Play with puppets
Create a tunnel maze: Making a tunnel maze will encourage exercise and help your child use cognitive reasoning skills.
Go outside: Touch the grass, play on a blanket, have a picnic.
Ride a tricycle or push car: Some models come with push handles for parents to allow trike fun before your little one has mastered riding on their own.
Turn on the sprinklers: A simple sprinkler that your child can move through can provide plenty of entertainment.
Paint with water: With some colored construction paper and a paintbrush, your child can create a mess-free masterpiece.
Play with play dough: Playing with dough helps your child develop dexterity and fine motor skills.
Color: Coloring helps children focus, encourages self-expression, and improves muscle dexterity.
Finger paint: Put a sheet of paper and a few drops of acrylic paint in a Ziploc bag and voila! Your little one can squish and spread the paint through the plastic bag. You have tons of mess-free fun.
Paint in the bathtub: Consider letting your child use finger paints to paint in the bathtub.

Tips for Educators

Be creative in your play: Sounds, touch, taste… these are all ways to teach babies. You don’t need to buy a ‘Teach my baby learning kit’ … you just need to play.
Incorporate music: Studies have always shown a link between music & cognitive development in babies. Sing with your baby. Dance with your baby.
Encourage movement: If your child is still crawling, add a few hurdles, like having them crawl over pillows. Guide them along the side, teaching them how to cruise, walk to the other side.
Make getting dressed fun: Seriously- talk about things. “This wipe is cold!” “I am going to put on your diaper now."
Check for safety concerns: During months 12-18, your toddler is wanting more independence, but still needs close supervision, especially as they are becoming more mobile. It’s a good idea to check around your house for any new safety concerns (think areas that your toddler may not have been able to reach or open before). Be sure furniture is anchored and door knobs are child proofed.

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tags: #six #to #twelve #months #educator #interaction