Teddy is getting to the age where new interests and skills seem to be popping up every day! He is becoming more coordinated, moving more intentionally, and is much more interested in changes to his environment. With these new skills, I have been observing him closely to see where his interests lie and how I can provide opportunities for him to explore these interests.
His most recent interest seems to be batting at all the things! While just a couple of weeks ago, all his movement was based in his legs, he seems to be moving more and more toward constructive use of his hands. I noticed this interest in a few ways:
- when excited his arms would start to swing wildly, where before he was only kicking his feet
- reaching more frequently to his visual mobiles
- batting at my hair while nursing
In response to these observations, I decided to start offering some toys for him to bat at more intentionally. This has been some fun and easy changes, including:
- Offering his bell mobile closer to his hands
- Introducing hanging toys on a play gym
- Introducing the primary colors mobile (pictured here) - this is a new one for our family. Unfortunately, the shop that made the mobile has gone out of business, so I'm working on sourcing it again. I will share if I find it!
Teddy has had so much fun with these few items and loves this mobile in particular. It moves in such a unique way and makes the most beautiful noise when the disks bump together. It has been by far his favorite thing to batt at that I have introduced.
If you are going to introduce batting toys, here are some things to keep in mind:
- make sure your child can be successful, don't hang something too far out of reach
- supervise to make sure your child won't be able to become entrapped in whatever you have hanging
- use elastic (this mobile has a strip in it's design) with these toys so that if your baby grabs it there is some give and take
Does your baby like to bat at toys?
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