Baby Life Topic

Playtime with your Newborn Work / Play / Leisure Suitable for stages: 0 - 3 Months

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Updated 21 December 2023

Play is the main occupation of children, and as parents, we get to help them learn and develop through playing with them and creating opportunities to play. We can also have loads of fun in the process as we get to re-experience aspects of our childhood long since forgotten - only now we are in the role of the parent! It's amazing how fast you will remember the nursery rhymes of your childhood once you get started which can transport you right back to when you first heard them. 

When deciding on what baby equipment and toys your baby might need, you first need to understand a bit about their development during their first 3 months. Pitching invitations to play is all about setting the 'just right' amount of challenge for your baby to work on their skills and avoid getting too frustrated or tired. In your excitement to welcome your baby, it is tempting to go overboard, buying things your baby will never need or try to get them to engage with the play-thing at the wrong developmental stage for your baby. 

How you play with your newborn and as they grow will be guided by being both responsive to their developmental needs and abilities, and providing the opportunity for them to experience and learn something new about their natural world, the people in it, and the things around them.

Your newborn at first has very short amounts of time where they are active and alert - which is the time when they are receptive to play and interaction. The average awake time for your baby between naps starts at around 45 minutes and increases gradually to an average of 105 minutes in their first 3 months (note: there is a huge range to what is considered normal and it will change all the time). As your baby's attention span increases, so will their capacity for play and interaction. 

When you think about newborn awake time, they are feeding for a large portion of it, getting their nappy changed, with only a little left over time for much else. Their bodies prioritise food intake and sleep (particularly REM sleep) which helps their brain and body to grow rapidly in what is known as the 4th trimester.

Newborns are born with nearly twice as many neurons as adults and at the end of the first 3 months your baby's cerebellum, which controls movement, balance, and core survival mechanisms, grows by 110% compared with its birth size. The entire brain more than doubles in the first 90 days. This post-birth rapid brain development helps your baby to develop a brain hardwired for social interaction. Your baby is instinctively equipped to be curious, social and experimental.

You can play with your baby anytime they are awake including while changing them, dressing them, bathing them and feeding them. Exposure to language and communication, different positions, sensations, and a variety of experiences will help your baby to lay the foundations to build their skills over time.

Your baby is born with poor vision, a strong sense smell, are highly receptive to touch and repetitive sounds or the sound of your voice, they can communicate using sounds and cries and body language, and have a large set of primitive reflexes which dominate their movement patterns and are thought to be protective for their survival. 

Carrying or babywearing during this 4th trimester is the perfect fit to meet your baby's needs. There are so many benefits, as discussed in the Discover Baby Carriers Topic.

 

Visual and Social Development and Receptive Language

At birth, your baby has poor vision. What we can see clearly, to them may appear blurred or a double image. It is known that they see clearest at around 20cm - the approximate distance to see their mother's face when feeding at the breast.

Newborn vision

Their vision does gradually improve, but initially, high contrasts of light and dark will catch their attention and they enjoy staring at faces (particularly eyes). Initially, they will be working on developing their skills at facial recognition, figure-ground and colour discrimination, pattern and shape recognition.

Interactive play where you make faces with your baby is a natural form of play and promotes bonding - it's also free and can be done anywhere. Great to do while babywearing and toys and props are optional:

  • Watch your baby's eyes to see when they are focused on you and then make a face at them.
  • If given enough time, you may notice that your baby will copy your expression. Then expect to receive smiles in return at around the 6-week mark.
  • Move your face slowly from side to side to see if your baby will follow your eyes. Musical toys or toys which make a sound can be good for encouraging tracking eye movements.
  • If you want to get a book that they will love to look at, get a book featuring photos of baby faces. It's sure to get a workout over the first years.
  • Your baby is also likely to love looking in the mirror. They won't recognise themselves until much older, but they will love to stare at themselves. If you have a mirror at floor level at home, lay them in front of it and encourage them to look in the mirror. If not, hold them in front of a mirror to 'see the baby'. 
  • Encourage them to touch your face, even if you need to put their hand there at first.
  • Try covering your eyes or use their hands to cover your eyes and play 'peek-a-boo'. You could use their grasp reflex by putting your finger in their palms while they grasp onto your fingers.
  • Talk or sing to your baby as you are playing or when doing your everyday activities. Newborns prefer a high pitched sing-song voice with exaggerated speech sounds and mouth movements known as 'motherese' or 'parentese' which you may find yourself instinctively adopting. Your baby can recognise and prefer their parent's voices and language patterns. It's a good idea to getting into this habit early to help their language and emotional intelligence. From a couple of months old, your baby may also talk back, making basic vocal sounds such as cooing and gurgling and start smiling and laughing. When they start communicating back with smiles and laughs, it is pure joy to laugh along with them.  
  • Singing to and exposing babies to music has benefits to both the parent and the baby. Incorporating music into everyday routines can make activities fun and engaging for parent and baby alike—time to brush up on your nursery rhymes.
  • One of the best things you can do for your baby is to read to them every day. One of the best books on the subject is Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever by Mem Fox. Highly recommended as an inspirational read for all parents to help them realise that reading aloud is a fun and enjoyable activity for everyone involved as well as highly effective for language and social development for children. For newborns, any language they are exposed to helps them to develop pre-language skills. Sitting and reading a book is a bonding experience that introduces them to what a book is, you can turn pages, see pictures, hear new words. Books that encourage touching and turning pages, seeing shapes and objects, and hearing your parent's voice or a sound will engage your baby even from a young age. 
  • By 8 weeks, your baby will be better able to focus their eyes on people’s faces and will be able to coordinate looking with both eyes on an object rather than going cross-eyed.
  • By around 3 months, they should begin to follow moving objects to judge distance to reach and grab accurately.

Newborn vision

If you want to buy some eye-catching books, toys, & hanging mobiles, for your newborn, look for black & white high contrast coloured images, patterns and shapes. From about 2 months, their perception of colours will have improved, and you can introduce more colours.

Examples of black and white newborn books available from Amazon Au are Black and WhiteBaby Touch: My First BookBaby Animals Black and White & Black and White Nighty Night.

Examples of black and white toys include The Stork Nest range of rattles, and the Skip Hop Mix & Match Book.

Puppet Play book (Gifts Australia)

The Very Cranky Bear - Five in the bed - a hand-puppet board book

Novelty Books from Amazon Au

 

Motor Development

Your baby is born with a set of primitive reflexes which help them survive such as the rooting reflex and the suck reflex. If you want to know more about newborn primitive reflexes and why they are important, watch the first half of this YouTube video by OT MIRI. You can test these out on your newborn and through triggering the reflexes, this provides opportunities for your baby to integrate these reflexes and replace these with voluntary movement.

At first, your baby won't have a lot of voluntary control over their movement. Over time, through practising different movements and experiencing different sensations, their brain begins to map a body schema including a growing awareness of where their body is in space (known as proprioception). By repeating actions that they find pleasurable, they learn about their body and their environment.

At birth, your baby will have very little head and neck control. Neck control and back strength gradually develop mostly over the first 3 months.
 

Sensorimotor play ideas:

While you do these with your baby, talk or sing to them - labelling their body parts, talk about how their body is moving and what they might be feeling.

 

Exercises -

newborn exercises

Your newborn will enjoy being in a flexed (foetal) position at first and then start to stretch out as they get more control over their movement and posture.

  • When laying on their back, gently flex and extend your baby’s legs in a bicycle movement - this can help massage their belly if they are experiencing any constipation or stomach upset.
  • Gentle neck exercises, including massage, can help your baby with any birth-related stiffness, restrictions in neck movement and fussiness. If your baby favours looking to one side or at particular objects, try alternating the direction you lay them down or moving objects of interest to the opposite side.

 

Massage/touch -

baby massage

Massaging your baby has many benefits for their sensory system and is calming for their nervous system. Every time you touch your baby, you are giving their brain information about their body, they are learning about pressure (soft-touch vs deep touch pressure) and temperature (the difference in what their cold feet feel like after your hands warm them up). While you are carrying your baby, they are getting heaps of sensory and touch inputs. When your baby is naked, their body can receive more sensory information, and their skin can get a break from being confined in clothes. 

  • After a bath, if your baby is happy, give them a massage with Baby Massage Oil (available from Biome Eco Stores). You can do an infant massage course if you want some instruction.
  • You can give your baby a foot massage anytime such as when they are feeding, or when you are babywearing.
  • Give your baby plenty of no-nappy time either laying on their back (supine) or their tummy (prone). You can lay them on a waterproof surface and look out for leaks or put them on a towel, Terry Towelling nappy, or absorbent change pad liner to soak up any leaks as they happen.
  • Use a soft toy and different textured toys to expose your baby to different touch sensations on their skin.

 

Postural / gross motor - 

newborn

It takes time for your baby to develop postural control starting with head/neck control. Initially, your baby, when in prone (tummy down) position through to 1-month-old, can lift their head spontaneously. Healthy babies can do this at birth to do the breast crawl for their first feed. At 1.5 months old, when in supine (on back) position, they may start to lift their head spontaneously. At 2 months, they may hold their head steady when held upright. By 3 months, most babies can turn their head to both sides when on their backs, lift their head when held at your shoulder and lift their head to a 45-degree angle while on their belly.

1 and 2 months old

You can help them practise their postural control by trying a variety of positions and postures where your baby can move their arms and legs in different directions and experience gravity-assisted positions. Since it is recommended to sleep your baby on their back (supine) to sleep, they can spend a lot of time in that position, so you can try to include face down (prone) positions (always under supervision) and supported side-lying positions and supported upright positions such as in a carrier. Some different ideas for prone positions which all count towards tummy time include:

  • Support the head/neck/shoulders in the crook of your arm as your baby is laying along your forearm lay baby chest to chest while you are laying in a semi inclined position to encourage neck muscle use and bonding (they can find your heartbeat, breath sounds and voice soothing).
  • If your pram or bassinet has a flat surface where there is no chance of falling out, you can try laying your baby in prone facing you or away from you. Change their position if they become unhappy.
  • When out and about- all you need is a padded or water-resistant/picnic mat or rug. With a large mat, you have space to alternate your baby's positions and your own regularly.
  • When introducing new toys and having play/connection time. Try putting yourself in the tummy time position (do some yoga stretching while you are there!) face to face with baby. Some play mats have interesting textures, sensory sections sewn in, mirrors and toys attached to keep baby’s interest.
  • Once baby has some ability to lift their neck, you can try a small propping pillow under their chest to extend their view and keep their interest for longer in this position. Some baby gyms come with these pillows.
  • Gradually increase the time your baby spends in prone but try to limit it to when they are happy and alert and graduate them to independent tummy time when they show signs that they are ready.

 

Finding and using their hands - 

hands newborn and 2 month old

Initially, your baby's grip is completely involuntary - their fingers will grasp anything placed in the palm of their hand via the involuntary grasp reflex. By 2 months, your baby's hands are starting to open up half of the time. By 3 months, they can usually move their arms equally to 'bat' at toys presented near them and bring their hands to their midline while on their back when shown a toy. Activities can encourage visual-motor integration. If a toy makes a sound when moved, this helps bring your baby's attention to it. They can start to see and feel their hand movements, and when they hear a sound, this further reinforces the cause and effect message. 

hands gripping an o-ball and introducing baby to a rattle

 

Balance

baby wearing and carrying

An important part of early brain development is the vestibular system. The vestibular system is the combination of the inner ear receptors telling our brains where your head is in space and the proprioceptive receptors in your muscles and joints creating the internal awareness of where your body is in space. Both these inputs create your sense of balance and sense of movement and direction. The more exposure or input the vestibular system has, the stronger it becomes, which goes on to help in all facets of life and learning.

Babies instinctively love being rocked, swayed, bounced, swung and carried. Even inexperienced parents seem to know this information instinctively and will quickly figure out what movement the baby likes. In traditional societies, babies are carried or held to the mother's chest almost exclusively, which has so many benefits, including building the vestibular brain connections and promoting postural strength and control.

There are many other ways to develop your baby's vestibular system:

rocking chair and swiss ball bouncing

Pram bassinet - The gentle rocking and bouncing motion your baby experiences while in a pram/stroller can be good for their vestibular system and calming for their nervous system. You can rock the pram easily if it has suspension in the wheels. You can push the pram back and forth over a bump on the floor, the bumpier, the better. If your pram has lockable front wheels, this will be easier to control with the wheels locked. If you don't have a bump, you can buy a Bubba Bump which attaches to the wheels for just this purpose.

Swiss/Exercise ball (eBay) - There are many exercises you can do with your baby on a swiss ball, including bouncing with them supported on your lap or up to your chest.

Rocking Chair (from The Stork Nest) or Rocking Chair (from Mocka)- The rocking motion of the chair is calming for both you and your baby for relaxed feeds or reading time.

baby swing and baby bouncer

Baby Swing (Baby Bunting eBay Store) - baby swings should be used in moderation but can be an easy way to calm your baby and stimulate their vestibular system. As they grow, make swinging part of their daily routine.

BabyBjorn Bouncer (Baby Bunting eBay Store) - great for popping your baby in for short periods while you use the bathroom or cook dinner. Any leg movements they make will cause the bouncer to rock up and down. Easy to fold up to store out of the way when not being used.

Beaba Up & Down Bouncer (The Stork Nest) - great for parents with limited ability to bend and lift from below knee level or need a bouncer at seated height. Like all devices, limit the time your baby spends in these and change their position often.

 

So you can see that how you play with and interact with your baby is based on back and forth responsive communication. You bond with your baby through play. Play is not just for your baby, you can have fun with it too. In many ways, it is a trip around memory lane as you re-learn forgotten nursery rhymes and trigger vague memories of being rocked and cuddled in your own childhood. You will have a newfound appreciation for your parents and the miracle of how a baby builds skill upon skill to become the person they were meant to be. Enjoy this time where they stay where you put them and get in as many giggles and cuddles that you can. 

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Written by Anna Noud - founder of BabyPeg

Anna Noud headshot

Anna is a mother of 2 boys and an Occupational Therapist, holding a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy with Honours from the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. A lifelong learner with a passion for everything health-related and a drive to improve the lives of Mothers and the babies who will be the leaders of our future. The most important asset we have in this life is our health, well-being, and happiness. Writing for BabyPeg is a passion project alongside life tripping in the caravan, parenting, and working as an OT to help people with disabilities fulfill their potential. Find me on LinkedIn or message me through the BabyPeg Facebook page.

 


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