Best Baby Sensory toys for newborn
You might have heard of the term sensory play, but do you know exactly what it is? Sensory play helps babies learn about their world through the five senses of smell, sight, touch, hearing and taste.
And the best sensory toys will help promote that development through a range of activities that are designed to stimulate the senses. Messy play and noisy play, like rattles and Play-Doh are good examples.
The benefits of sensory toys and play can include developing language skills, fine motor skills, and inducing a sense of calm by relieving boredom. It helps build nerve connections in the brainâs pathways to help baby complete tasks, and also increases brain activity.
From play gyms to soft books, weâve rounded up the best sensory toys for babies below, so they can have fun and learn all at the same time.
When your little one is under six months, your baby might not show too much interest in baby toys, no matter how bright or noisy they may be, but fast forward a few weeks and they definitely will. As your baby becomes more alert, theyâll start to engage in their environment and enjoy looking at bright or high-contrast colours, and listening to music.
How can baby toys help my baby's cognitive and physical development? Of course, these toys arenât just designed to look cute, theyâll help your babyâs development in a number of different ways:
- Developing sense of touch: The soft, cuddly toys designed for newborns will often be a lovely texture, that your baby will enjoy reaching out and touching.
- Developing listening skills: From around two months old, youâll notice your baby will enjoy playing with soft rattles. Itâs also a good idea to calm a grumbly baby with a cot mobile.
- Tummy time: From around three to four months, your baby will begin trying to grasp things around them. As their strength increases, encourage them to try and lift their heads during tummy time. Now is a good time to introduce a play mat, with plenty of different toys for your baby to engage with.
- Developing cause-and-effect: By around five months old, your baby will be starting to learn about cause-and-effect â if I hit this, it will make a noise, if I push this, it will move. Now is a good time to introduce musical toys.
- Developing fine motor skills: This involves using the smaller muscle of your little one's hands and is commonly in activities including using pencils or construction.
- Developing hand-eye coordination: This develops at around six months old, so toys that involve your baby putting one object on or in another are great.
- Developing social skills: From around seven months old, your baby will start enjoying social interaction more. To help develop skills and ease any separation anxiety, use peek-a-boo toys that reassure your little one that even though something disappears, it comes back.
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