Fun & Developmental Games for Babies

Between 12-16 months old, read books that’ll grab their attention. Let them look at the pictures. Introduce objects and shapes from the pictures. Later, after you’ve shown them, ask, “where’s this, where’s that?”.

After they reach 16 months old,
– they’ll start to learn more words and it’s important to support that. Make sock puppets or balloon models and invent stories using the puppets. This will help develop your child’s creativity and vocabulary.
– you can start playing with puzzles and blocks, which will help improve their math and science skills.

From 18 months on, memory cards and matching cards are important to match shapes, objects, and concepts. By combining the objects in the cards and by creating a story, you help expand their vocabulary.

Children around the age of 2 get bored quickly. Here are some suggestions to entertain them.
– Play the “guess what” game: “Hmmm…. I’m looking around, and I spot something red! Any guesses for what it might be?
– If there are people around you, put them in categories. “Let’s see how many men and how many women you see! How many blonde women do you see?” and things like that.
– You can play counting games based on observations such as, “Let’s look at the sky, how many clouds can you count? What do you think that cloud looks like?” And so on

Again, take these moments to dance to music and move about. While dancing, stop the music randomly. Tell your child to stop too. When they’ve stopped, start it up again, then stop again. Repeat this over and over again. This improves their listening and their self-control skills.

Take a flashlight and follow the shadows together in a darkened room. Make different shapes with your hand, then have them make different shapes with their hands. Let them follow their own shadows. Ask whose shadows is whose. Turn on the light, let the shadows disappear, then turn it off again. Repeat over and over again. They like things that suddenly pop up like that as a surprise. These kinds of activities contribute to the development of your child’s cognitive skills.

Put toys or objects of different size and texture inside a bag. Ask your child to put his or her hand inside without looking and just touch an object and guess what it is without removing it. Let them try to guess all the objects in the bag and remove them one by one. This is an ideal game for learning how to follow instructions, problem solving skills and sensory awareness.

Cut up different fruit on a plate with your toddler. Use the pieces to highlight features of your face, or emphasize emotions. For example, place round slices of kiwi over your eyes. Make lips from an orange slice. Cut grapes to make teeth, an ear out of apples, and so on. When your child does the same, laugh or express surprise. While exploring colors, shapes, different tastes, they’ll develop imitations skills and understand the range of different emotions.

Use large cardboard boxes to make tunnels. If you want, place something on the end of the tunnel or close it up so they have to try to open it. If you make the last box in the tunnel out of a small box, your toddler will have to stretch his or her body to get through, which will help them develop spatial perception. This game is also useful for your child's fine motor skills development and coordination. Make sure you supervise their play.

Check our own fun, educational and interactive games for toddlers here at Apta Advice!
And don’t forget, wash our and their hands as recommended by your local health authorities, before and after playing. Avoid any face contacts with the hands as much as possible.