Trips to the doctor’s office can be a great opportunity to spend quality time with your baby. Bring along soft toys and books and explore them with your baby. Place him on your lap facing you, and sign songs, play simple games, such as “peek-a-boo,” and respond to your baby’s coos.
Make the most of this down time to teach your child to express feelings, to show interest and familiarity in you, and to respond and use sounds to communicate. She will learn that she can cause things to happen and learn how to move her body around.
Turn your car into a theater! Sing songs for your baby, tell him stories with different voices, and react to his singing and monologues. Give your child a sturdy book to “read” as you drive. He will enjoy having something to do with his hands while you are on the go.
This activity will help your child learn to express and calm herself and to demonstrate an interest and attachment in you. Listening to your songs and stories will help her respond to sounds and begin to understand how communication works, and reading will help her begin to associate words with pictures. She will learn that her actions cause other things to happen. Also, she is learning to coordinate the movements of different parts of her body.
Going to the mall with your baby will open her eyes to all sorts of new discoveries. As you visit the different stores, point out and identify colors, textures, and things you see. Let your baby watch the other people passing by as she plays with her favorite toys or books.
Taking your baby to a new location will help her learn to express herself, show interest in adults and other children, and grow her attachment in you. Listening to your voice will help her respond to sounds and begin to understand how communication works. She will learn to develop her reading skills by looking at books. She will begin to understand cause and effect, and to coordinate her movements to move different parts of her body.