See your baby talk

Here is my reply to a query expressed by one of my readers, a mum of a 16 month old on how to encourage her 16 month old to speak more and how to communicate with one's child. The faster your child learns to speak, the faster you will be able to understand the needs of your child and reduce the frustration and crying of your little toddler.
There are lots of views on using sign language for babies. It could be interesting to see how fast your baby picks up some of the signs to be able to communicate correctly with you.
There are quite a few things that you could do to increase your baby's vocabulary.

1) First and foremost, don't pressurize your baby to speak. Just let her be while giving her lots of input on all the things that you see. Just keep TALKING a lot to her in ADULT language. It can seem weird but they grasp words quickly.
2) Use lots of picture flashcards (pictures on one side and text on the other) and show her at very fast speed. Note that you would need a thumb holder (available at the stationary section in Popular or other book stores). Gradually, you can encourage her to say the word instead of letting it out.
3) Teach her how to blow if she doesnt know already. You can make an octopus with threads hanging as legs and ask her to blow it. You can make various interesting craft work and ask her to blow. Once she knows how to blow, you can ask her to blow a candle. Also, ask her to blow a whistle to see how much strength she has in her blow. She will be able to pronounce words like P, Kh, etc. that require air to be blown out of the mouth.
4) Listening is the first step to speaking. Babies love nursery rhymes. Rhymes, Finger rhymes, Action rhymes are tools that you can use. Start with simple rhymes like 'Johny Johny' or 'Are you sleeping'. Finger rhymes like 'Two little blackbirds sitting on a wall', Action rhymes like 'Eensy Winsy spider'. Something that is very easy to pick up.
5) Sing regularly to her. Children love music and will start humming and then saying the words in no time.

6) Some children dont speak much because all that they want to say is being understood beforehand. Sometimes, act as if you are just not getting it (without telling her in words that she needs to speak). But, dont do it too often.

7) Read picture books to her everyday and point out the pictures while spelling out the words clearly.
8) Follow her focus of attention. This is something I did a lot while dealing with my child. Instead of asking her to say words that you want her see, you can follow her eyesight and keep giving words to her that SHE is looking at. Say when she is looking at a ball under the sofa. Dont ask her to see a 'bird'. Focus on her object of attention. Tell her, "Yes, get the ball".

9) How to speak to your child: Speak short simple sentences of 3-4 words in a sentence. Break up all your conversation into short sentences. For example: "I am hungry. I need food". Say a bit loudly but slowly with lots of intonation in your voice.

10) Use lots of play sounds while you play with him/her. Children love it. Let her be surrounded by lots of 'Swishhhh', 'vroom vroom', 'Crashhh', 'Splashh', 'baa baa', 'moo moo', 'tick tock' and so on.

11) Use a lot of repetition. Look, there's the ball. Its a blue ball. Can u throw the ball? Give the ball to Daddy.

12) Repeat what she says or is meaning to say back to her in meaningful words without showing that you are correcting her.
13) DONT ask questions. Dont let her feel the discomfort of being asked to speak. Let it come naturally.
14) DON'T comment on the way she is expected to speak or say that she does not speak to all your friends. Children catch messages very fast.

15) Make sure its not too noisy when you are speaking to her. Anything that could distract her attention can be tuned off, like the television, phone etc.

Activities for a 16-20 month old: Make a game of naming the parts of her body. Teach her the sounds that animals make. She would also love activities like scribbling with colour pencils, banging drums, building a tower of cups, fitting, filling emptying etc.
You will find many more activites in my blog earlier posts in the category 'Children Activities'.
Your baby will talk eventually. So, do not stress or over pressurize him/her to talk. And in case you suspect that your child has a speech problem, schedule an appointment with a speech therapist as soon as possible if the above techniques dont work.

Is your child right handed or left handed?

Have you ever wondered whether your child's dominant side is the right side or the left side, i.e. which side of his brain controls his actions.
There is a reason why I have been debating on this issue. I have lately been wondering whether my two year old daughter 'Ru' is left handed or right handed. Lots of friends have previously asked me the question, "Is she left handed?" while interacting with her. I had never really thought about it seriously till now. I have started looking at whether she is really left handed or right handed.

We have always seen that she has a strong left hand. But, her right hand is also strong enough. Hence, I taught her to hold the pencil/crayon with the right hand and also to cut with the right hand.

I have been wondering if it was wrong to teach her to hold the pencil on the right hand (i.e. if she is left handed). I do not want to force it on her.

I am confused. I searched the net on left and righthandedness. Here are some tests to check out if your child is left handed or right handed.
Some more tests

Here is my analysis of her left or right handedness after doing the tests.

LEFT HAND
She picks up spoon, box, bag from the floor or chair with left hand.
She holds the bat in her left hand while playing to hit the ball.
She throws the ball with her left hand when playing catching the ball.

RIGHT HAND
She opens a jar with her right hand
Holds out her right hand to take a biscuit (but picks up a crumb from the floor with left).

BOTH HANDS
She can hold the spoon with both hands and eat.
She writes with the right (as taught by me but can also use her left hand)
She uses the right hand for cutting (as taught by me)
She combs hair holding the comb with both hands.
She picks up a glass of water with both hands (So unable to test which hand is stronger)

RIGHT/LEFT FOOT
She stamps with right foot.
She kicks sometimes with her right and sometimes with her left foot.
Climbing stairs with right foot first. Climbing down with left foot first.

RIGHT/LEFT EYE
Which eye is used by your subject to look through a tube? Left eye

My conclusion: Since she can use both hands, I think she is mixedhanded. I think a few more months down the line, it will be more clear whether she is right handed, lefthanded, mixedhanded or ambidextrous. Do share your views to help me sort out the issue.

Colouring Activities while building fine motor skills

Colouring or painting your little one's world is the best gift that Daddy and Mummy can give ones child. We are fortunate to live in a colourful world where the thought of leaves brings about the colour green, the sunflower yellow, the ocean a turqoise blue in our minds.
I have always wondered how it would have been to live a colourless life. I have been watching a few cartoons on Disney like MickeyMouse Club House, Pooh etc picking up on the same concept of colour education with interesting episodes and stories like wiping off colours from the rainbow, or a sudden magic that makes Noddy's town go colourless.
A baby slowly realizes the value of colours while he /she is growing up. We as parents can make them recognize the different colours so they can enjoy colours as well. Children by nature love colours. Hence, many to-be parents start getting the nurseries ready with a splash of colour while waiting for the new one's arrival.
To teach your little one the concept of colours you can use a variety of apporaches. You can show him/her colours in various forms of existence in day-to-day life. Another approach could be to let him/her play with colours. A few crayons can engage him/her, while he/she enjoys, dabbles and explores. It will also secretly help in building his fine motor skills.
With every stroke on the paper, an impression is made on the paper, not to forget the lasting impression of the impact of colour on your child's mind.


This is a drawing made by Ru where she enjoyed repeating the names of the colours while playing with crayons on 21st Feb 2009 while her dad sat in the balcony drawing with his own set of colours.
Here are her few initial efforts with crayons while she watched the difference in colours with every change of crayon.

The second drawing done immediately after shows her level of progression while she got engrossed trying to experiment a bit more with the same colours.

Besides, you could try reading books on colours like Brown bear, brown bear, buy cds on colour (bought one recently) or show the colours on her dress each new day.

How to Improve Fine Motor Skills of a Toddler

Writing is an ability which is developed only once a toddler is able to enhance his fine motor skills. Fine motor skills can be defined as coordination of small muscle movements which occur e.g., in the fingers, usually in coordination with the eyes.
The abilities which involve the use of hands, develop over time, starting with primitive gestures such as grabbing at objects to more precise activities that involve precise hand-eye coordination. Fine motor skills are skills that involve a refined use of the small muscles controlling the hand, fingers, and thumb. The development of these skills allows one to be able to complete tasks such as writing, drawing, and buttoning.

Here is list of things I have found useful in building on the fine motor skills of my daughter. Hoping that a regular variety of activities from this list can help her improve her fine motor skills for the future.

1. Colouring - Coloring books can be a good skill-builder. They help with teaching kids how to control a crayon or colored pencil I found that typical colouring books with big pictures for the child to colour was a bit too daunting for a beginner to colour. Toddlers hardly have the concentration time and patience to sit and colour one whole colouring page. They need to first develop the strength to hold a crayon or colour pencil properly. There's a Kumon workbook called 'Let's color' for 2 year olds that builds on the drawing skills literally from scratch. "Colouring inside the lines" is what you should ask your child to do but if they want to colour as per their free will, leave them to enjoy the colouring once in a while.

I took this before my daughter drew all the nice black hair on it. ;)

2. Cutting with Scissors help with coordination. I have found the Kumon workbook for that as well: "My First Book of Cutting." quite impressive. here, the doggy's whiskers need some cutting. My daughter kept saying 'Doggy cut doggy cut while i did this activity with her, while i kept reminding her to open and close the scissor. I've bought a plastic scissor for her safety that can cut paper. One can always DIY the cutting part with one's own materials. Kumon's books make it much more interesting with attractive pictures that my daughter simply adores. The dolls pics were given by Shichida method today itself to introduce cutting where my daughter goes once a week.

3. Pasting - The ability of taking out stickers with one's hand and then pasting on the paper and then moving on to pasting at the right place is quite important. While lots of stickers books are available in the market, I have liked the Kumon workbook, Let's Sticker and Paste particularly because it builds on to from the beginning skill of ability to take out a sticker and just place it anywhere in a particular design. Ruhani has been in Shichida for a long while now and stickers were introduced long back. So, she is quite confident at it now though it will take her time to understand where to place the sticker correctly as the book progresses.

4. Use a thick, triangular pencil that helps her grip. You can also find triangular grips that fit over conventional pencils.

5. Sewing card - I found a wonderful toy that teaches sewing in Toys R Us while helping little fingers gain control of the thread and putting it in the right hole.

6. Make a Necklace by threading beads - We gave her large wooden beads (from a craft store) and a shoelace to string the beads on, to help with fine-motor coordination.

7. Tweezers- Another small-motor techinique: have the children use tweezers to pick up small objects (small beads, thin puzzle pieces). We used large tweezers that came with an insect-study kit.* *

8. Tongs and pompoms. A bowl of coloured pompoms and a tong can keep your child happily engaged while she gains strength to use the tong properly.

9. Punching Paper- Let your little one have some fun making holes through a punch. A punch from a stationary store for children (i got mine from Kinokunia) , coloured strips of paper and a bowl is needed for this activity.
Various designs like flowers, letters, stars or animals for punching paper used for craft work are available in the market.
A punch uses the thumb and the forefinger and can engross your child with the colourful designs that are taken out. One can use the punched coloured paper designs by gluing them with a gluestick onto a card.

10. Dressing up Teddy (Snaps, Small Buttons, Big buttons, Zips, Shoe laces, velcro, belt)

11. Opening Bags/Dresses with chains.

12. Plastic pipe (Nuts and bolts) for wrist turning (screw and unscrew) : Give empty bottles with screw on lids (make sure the plastic is safe and also the lid size is big enough) in the bathtub for them to open and close rather than the popular bathtoys. Opening the bottles, adding water into it and then pouring it out can be real fun.

13. Wet Pouring - Pitcher to pitcher for wrist turning. Things needed are a tray, 2 pitchers, one with coloured water, 1 small sponge to wipe.
14. Dry Pouring - Pitcher to narrow neck bottle for wrist turning - Use kidney beans or rice. I did two activities with this. (1) Askng her to count while she picked up and dropped kidney beans one by one into the bowl to understand how much counting she has learnt. Was surprised to see the counting go on till 13. Great going for a 21 month old, aint it? :D

(2) Pouring from bowl to cup and from cup to bowl. Regular practice will help reduce the number of kidney beans falling out.

15. Sandpaper numerals: Make your own DIY sandpaper numerals and ask your child to trace the numbers. You will be amazed how fast they will learn the numbers or alphabets.
16. Knobbed cylinders: This is a montessori tool that you will find in montessori schools or can purchase online.
17. Stacking cubes from largest to smallest and so on.
18. Quadrilateral prisms/horizontal stairs
19. Carrying a table with the help of 2 adults will help build coordiantion and judgement.
20. Draw outlines of shapes from cut out cardboard shapes placed on paper

21. Water plants with a watering can
22. Putting pegs on clothes line: Make a mini clothesline and let your child hang all her doll's clothes on it and add pegs on to it.
23 Putting cloth pegs on the edge of a bowl. Also, teach your child to press to open the peg and put in the center of the bowl and vice versa. You may also teach the colours while mentioning the pegs.
24. Roll a mat

25. Pencil sharpener: Let them sharpen a pencil and watch how the pencil gets sharpened, and make a craft of the disposed stuff.
26. Play Doh: Get some playdoh and show your child how to make various shapes, letters, numbers or roll them into snakes. Hiding buttons in playdoh for your child to take out can strengthen hand muscles. Our daughter funnily doesnt like playdoh and is in fact funnily scared of it coz it changes shape. :D

27. Wooden Puzzles which have handles for picking up the pieces.

28. Self feeding with spoon
29. Winding a clock
30. Bathing with a mug
31. Piggybank: Make a piggybank by cutting a slit in a box. Ask your child to push play or real coins into it.
32. Squirt guns: Use small squirt guns for your child to use in the bathtub or outside. You may want to ask your baby to only aim at the bathtub walls or he/she will lose the squirt gun.
33. Finger Rhymes: Do finger plays and action rhymes with your child such as the Eentsy Weentsy Spider, Two Little Blackbirds, Where is Thumbkin, etc.

34. Involve your baby in loads of household activity from folding washcloths, make believe sweeping the kitchen floor with a small broom and dust pan, or spreading butter on toast.

35. While cooking, or baking, make them stir the batter for you.
36. Encourage them to make cards for their friends that involves cutting, pasting etc.
37. Popping the bubbles in a bubble wrap is something we all have enjoyed. Let your child enjoy it too.
38. Practice writing letters in a pan filled with a thin layer of salt or cornmeal. You can also make letters, numbers, and shapes out of Wikki Stix or draw on a Magnadoodle.
39. Use stencils for your baby to trace letters.
40. Water droppers can be used to make water color paintings or just to transfer water between small containers.
41. Locking and unlocking of doors.
42. Scrunching up 1 sheet of newspaper in one hand. This is a super strength builder.
43. Shaking dice by cupping the hands together, forming an empty air space between the palms.
44. Using a screwdriver

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The list of similar activities can go on...Just put on your thinking caps. You can find many other interesting options. Any more ideas...please add to the list. Hope this was of help to all mums and dads with a toddler like mine.

Activities to Beat Boredom...

A common problem I keep hearing from parents and friends is that their children are getting bored with nothing to do. An energetic toddler can also make things worse by pulling the house down, the way he/she wants it.

There are plenty of simple activities that you and your child can enjoy doing at your own home.

Today, I thought of describing one such activity that we as a family enjoyed together one evening. Its a good means to keep your lives happily engaged without getting bored or making your child sit for hours glued to the television.

Just pick up sheets of paper and crayons/paints and a place where your toddler will be safe to spread out his sheets of paper and fly on his/her wings of imagination....and you never know...there within your own home could be the next budding 'Picaso'.

We plan to do this more often, provided the wind is blowing in the right direction.


We had brought big sheets of paper so that our 21 month old could colour on it with no restrictions on space.

She preferred adding some more colour after Daddy's drawing was done. Let the grass be red and the sun be green, don't criticize, just keep ENCOURAGING!


Let your child learn to express through colours...

Activities for your 13-24 month old

Here are some activities that your toddler will enjoy to his heart's content:
Flashcards for visual stimulation & word recognition
Make flashcards on various categories like fruits, vegetables, animals, colours, shapes, things you see in the bedroom, cartoon characters, phonics, A-Z (in small letters), adjectives, opposites, insects, professions etc. You could find pictures through charts for children or also download them online.


Make the flashcards with pictures on one side and the words on the other side, so that your child is able to see just the pictures while you read out the words distinctly at super lightening speed, moving the card near you to the card infront, till the set is over. Don't get tempted to make him understand each picture one by one.

For example: This flashcard shows a carrot. You can write 'Carrot' at the back of the flashcard for you to read it aloud while flashing to baby.



The right brain meant for creativity is said to get activated with fast visual stimulation. Do not repeat flashcards in one session. Make your flashcard sessions short and enjoyable.

I started my child on flashcards when she was 7 months old. Some parents even start at 3 months or so. This technique is said to have worked.


Language skills
Expose your child to languages from all over the world. It could be a French song, an Arabic verse, a Bharatnatyam dance, a poem written by Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali, a speech in English, or any other medium of expression. The more she listens, the more her language abilities will develop.


Watch our daughter sitting straight to catch a better view of the dance performance on the occasion of Rabindra Jayanti celebration in KL.




Walking the walk
This is the time when your child will start getting restless. Now, his/her eager eyes are set to explore the wonderful things in his/her surroundings that had always been beyond his/her reach.

Dont keep him confined to his space. Set him free on the ground. Let him explore, touch objects, pull up to stand/walk, push, pull, roll and see how things work. Always keep him/her under proper supervision.

Its a good idea to show your enthusiasm and reciprocate the wonder that he finds in things while telling him/her what it is.

However, its also a time to teach your child a bit of discipline. So, a proper balance needs to be maintained, by giving him his space where he can do anything without hearing a 'No'. A child friendly environment can help you and save your child from hearing too many 'No's'.


Linking Memory
Show your child a series of flashcards which have no connection but are joined by a sentence. There should be no logic in the sentence. You could start with 6 cards and go on increasing the number.


Colour her Life
Its never too early to try giving your toddler a crayon and see how she reacts. Make sure its a non-toxic one and never leave her alone during the exercise. Most children start usually by biting on to the crayon. Slowly they will understand that funny lines can be drawn when the crayon is used on paper. Draw infront of her to create interest and give her a crayon and paper too to try on her own.
Never over-pressurize her during any activity. The key to creativity is having fun. A happy heart flutters with creativity. As soon as you see the slightest frustration, or tiredness, stop the activity and continue at a later time.

Stimulating Activities for your 9 to 12 month old

Where Is??
Sit down with your baby and look at pictures together. Find a picture of someone in your family. Talk about the picture by naming the person in it. Say the name again and ask the baby to point to the person in the picture.

Now cover up the picture with your hand and ask your baby to find the person. Continue playing with another picture. Your baby might surprise you by how much he understands.



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Where's the Baby?
Find several pictures of a baby and hide them in different places. Choose places that are familiar to your baby - in the toy box or under a plate, etc. Say," Lets go find the baby."

Ask different questions, "Is it in the sink?" "Is it on the chair?" Finally ask the question, "Is it in the toy box??"When your baby finds the picture, praise him and clap your hands. You can play this game with pictures of family members and friends. _________________________________________________

Wash the Toy
Wet washcloths are wonderful fun things for babies. The texture feels good all over his body and especially on his face. Play peekaboo with a washcloth when giving him a bath.

Tuck a small toy in washcloth and let your baby put his fingers in the folds to find the toy. Give your baby the washcloths and let him wash your face.
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Hope you enjoy playing the games with your child. :)

Stimulating Activities for your 6 to 9 month old

Where is the Sound?
Auditory awareness is something that comes with age and experience. Playing games to heighten your baby's hearing awareness will help to wire her brain. Take a wind up musical toy and put it out of ur baby's sight. Wind it up and ask her, "Where is the music?" When she turns to the sound, praise her generously.

Repeat this game in different parts of the room. If your baby is crawling, you can hide the music under a pillow or elsewhere so she can crawl to the music.

Take her out. Let her listen to the rustling leaves, the chatter of children, the chirping birds, or the noisy waves.

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Whoops
Sit your baby on the floor or in a chair facing you. Take a towel and put over your face. Say the words "PEEKABOO" as you take the towel off and show your face to your baby. This game usually brings forth loads of laughter and the more you do it, the funnier it becomes.

Try putting the towel on ur baby 's head and pull it off. Try putting the towel on his head and see if he will pull it off. Remember to say "peekaboo" each time you take off the towel.

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Peas and Carrots
Babies enjoy eating with their fingers. In fact, its an important step in developing small motor skills. When babies can pick up food and put it in their mouth, they have a strong feeling of power and control that makes them feel wonderful.

Put some cooked peas and carrots on the table in front of ur baby. Sing the following song to the tune of "Frere Jacques":

Peas and carrots, peas and carrots
Here there are, here there are
Put them in your mouth,
Put them in your mouth,
Yum yum yum yum yum yum

Guide the little fingers to the peas and carrots and then to her mouth. She will probably want to feed you too!
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Gurgle Gurgle Squish
This is a good game to play outside with a baby pool or a large container of water. Put some sponge in the water and show your baby how to squeeze water out of the sponge. Squeeze the water on your hands, your arms and other parts of ur body.

Now give your baby some plastic cups and show her how to squeeze the water into the cups. This games will occupy your baby for a long time and its great for developing small motor skills. Play the game by saying silly words as you squeeze. Here are a few ideas:
Swish, Gurgle, Squish, Oo Oo Oo
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Lets Climb
There is no avoiding it! Your baby will begin to climb on everything in sight. Why not help her along and develop her large motor muscles?

Take cushions and pillows and pile them on the floor. Put your baby in front of the pillows and she will have a wonderful time. Take a favourite toy and put it on top of one of the pillows. This will entice her even more.

That's our daughter climbing on a pillow when she was 7 months old.


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Stimulate Your 3 to 6 Month Old Newborn

Who is that baby?
Sit in front of a mirror with ur baby in your lap. Say, "who is that baby?" Wave your baby's hands and say "Hi Baby!"Say, "Where is the baby's foot?" Wave ur baby's foot and say, "Hi Foot."Continue asking questions and moving different parts of your baby's body. Shake heads, wave bye-bye, clap hands etc.
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Where's my baby?
This is a game that strengthens the back and neck. Lie on ur back and put ur baby on your tummy. With your hands firmly around his chest, raise him in the air and up to your face.

Say the following and do the actions: Where's my baby? There he is. (lift him up to ur face) Where's my baby? (bring him back to ur tummy) There he is. (Bring him back to ur face) Where's my baby? (bring him back down on ur tummy) Up high, high, high! (bring ur baby up high over ur face)
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Talking TogetherAt this age babies often make lots of sounds. Mimic the sounds ur baby makes. those simple sounds will later turn into words. Take the words that your baby makes, such as "ba ba" or "ma ma" and turn them into sentences. "Ba Ba says the sheep", "Ma ma loves you".

Penelope Leach, a child development expert, says, "Your child may say hundreds of different sounds throughout the day but if u clap and applaud wen he says, 'ma ma' or 'da da', he will keep repeating those sounds because it makes you happy.

"The more you repeat your baby's sounds, the more he will be encouraged to make more sounds. This is truly the beginning of a conversation.
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Roll OlympicsHelping your baby roll over from his tummy to his back will develop chest and arm muscles. This is a fun game to play while encouraging your baby to roll over. Put your baby on his tummy on a soft and flat surface. Carpeted floors and the middle of beds are good for this game.

Hold a teddy bear in front of his face and do antics with the bear. You might say the following poem as u make the teddy move around:

Teddy bear, teddy bear turn around.(turn teddy around)
Teddy Bear Teddy Bear Touch the ground!(make teddy fall down)

When u know that your baby is watching the teddy, move it to the side so that your baby's eyes moves and hopefully his body will follow it!
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Activities to stimulate your newborn

Want to spend time with your newborn and play with him, but wondering what to do? Here are a few games from Jackie Silberg's book, 125 Brain Games for Babies, that will help you play with your newborn to 1 year old child.

FROM BIRTH TO 3 MONTHS

The Blowing Game
This game helps an infant become aware of the different parts of the body. Blow gently on your baby's palm. As u blow, say the following words in a singsong chant: Here are (the baby's name) palms. Then kiss ur baby's palm. Blow on other parts of the body. Most babies like gentle blowing on their elbows, fingers, neck, cheek and toes but not on their nose.

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Where Did it Go??
Hold a brightly coloured scarf in front of your baby. Slowly move it around and talk about how bright it is. ("its yellow/red/blue/whatever.") When u are sure that your baby is looking at the scarf, slowly move it to one side. Keep moving it back and forth to encourage her to follow it with her eyes. Play this game often. U r helping ur baby's brain capacity grow!_____________________________________________________

Bicycle
Put ur bb on his back and move his legs like he is riding a bicycle. NEVER FORCE UR BB LEGS. If she resists, try something else..Sing songs. Try to make up a simple song. Here's an idea that can be sung to the tune of Row Row Ur Boat.
Ride, ride ride ur bike,
Up and down the street.
Happily, happily, happily happily
This is such a treat.
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Diaper Songs
Singing to ur baby while u change a diaper is a lovely way to communicate and bond with ur little one. Smile while u are singing. Sing any song u know or sing the following to the tune of "London Bridge":
Change a diaper, jus like dis,
Jus like this, jus like this.
Change a diaper,
Jus like this, Clean clean baby!
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Share your experiences after playing these games.

Stimulate Your Newborn Baby...

Your precious little bundle of joy is born. You are delighted to see her tiny body. You sit by the crib admiring her fingers and toes. Your newborn is eager to learn more about the world around her. She watches your face, especially mom's and tries to recognize the voice she had been hearing so long.

Talk to her while calling her name. Ensure eye-to-eye contact. Touch her.

See if there is any reaction. Soon, she will understand and start responding. Your face and voice will soon give comfort to your baby and she will feel the warmth of happiness and love with you near her.

Make interesting sounds and see if she is turning her head to look at that direction.

The baby is born with a billion nerve cells, all of which are not connected. It is important to stimulate the brain for the connections to form or they will just grow old and die.

The best way to kickstart your baby's development is to breastfeed your baby. Research has shown that not only does it bring forth a healthy start for your baby but also improves your baby's IQ levels.

Babies are born with reflexes. If you gently touch or stroke a baby's cheek, she will turn her head towards the cheek you have touched and the mouth to that side, ready to eat. This is called the rooting reflex. By the time they're 3 weeks old, babies will turn toward the breast or bottle not just out of a reflex, but because they've learned that it's a source of food.

Babies spend their first few months of life sleeping most of the time.

Gradually their sleeping hours will reduce and they will start becoming more playful and alert, and watchful of their environment. It is important to know these wakeful times when the baby is ready to play.

You may want to introduce a few toys that appeal to his senses of touch, sound, and sight like

• rattles
• textured toys
• musical toys
• unbreakable crib mirrors
• play gyms - This was Daddy's first gift to our baby :)

Contrasting colours stimulate a baby's vision. Try toys and mobiles with contrasting colours and patterns.

Encourage your newborn to learn and play.

Put on soothing music, and hold your baby, gently swaying to the tune.

Sing a soft, sweet lullaby to your baby, no matter how bad your voice is. Your baby will not judge you. The familiarity of the sound and the words will bring a soothing effect and help her become calm during fussy times or will help her drift to sleep. You can also put on some soft music when you dont feel like singing.

Smile and soon your baby will start smiling at you. That's the loveliest moment when they first start smiling.

Stick out your tongue, blink, make expressions and see if she imitates you or not.

Take an attractive toy and move it round her eyes. take it Up and Down, and sideways and make a shape and watch her eyeballs follow the toy.

To reduce the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) babies are advised to sleep on their backs and to be put on their tummies as soon as they are awake under parental supervision.

Talk to your baby as much as you can and soon she will start cooing back to you.

Babies love a particular high pitch and frequency that comes naturally to most parents. They love a repetition of a few syllables like 'Mama' and 'Papa' which are easier for them to understand.

How do/did you play with your newborn baby? Share your experiences too... Would love hearing from you.