Finding activities to engage with your baby can be tricky when they are so little, but there’s actually a lot of easy ways you can spark their development from very early on! The team at Baby Sensory Canberra have put together a list below of 5 simple sensory activities that you can do at home and the benefit they have for your baby.

1. Feather activity: feathers are a wonderful way to stimulate happy play and giggles. It also helps to stimulate your baby’s senses, brings tactile awareness to the skin and enhances eye tracking skills. We recommend moving the feather from side to side to begin with to gain your baby’s interest. You can then run the feather up and down your baby’s legs, arms, feet or tummy!

2. Mirrors: Babies are fascinated by mirrors. From about 4 months old, your baby will smile at their own reflection. Place the mirror in front of your baby, so they can see their own face. Although they will not understand the image looking back at them is theirs until they are older (around 8 months). Pointing to their reflection and saying your baby’s name will help them gain self-awareness. This is also a great way to encourage tummy time, place your baby on their tummy and simply out a mirror in front of them!

3. Homemade shakers: Homemade shakers and rattles are a favourite baby toy and they're extremely easy to make! When your baby shakes a rattle, they help to strengthen the muscles in their arms, develop hand and eye control and discover a highly intellectual concept-cause and effect. For example, ‘When I shake this toy, I can make this noise!’. Simply fill an old water bottle or plastic jar with uncooked rice, pasta or even beads, secure the lid and listen to your baby making some music!

4. Pat Mat: The Pat Mat is unique to Baby Sensory! Using flat hands, your baby can pat the mat, blend the colours and move the objects around. This is great as it exerts pressure on the palms of the hands and stretches the muscles which prevents your baby’s fingers from closing! This leads on to greater flexibility of fingers and thumb- SO important for crawling! To make a pat mat, seal three edges of a laminating sheet with an iron (or hair straightener), fill with 1⁄4 of water and 1⁄2 of baby oil, place 3 drops of food colouring and add in pom poms, sequins and buttons!

5. Jelly play: Jelly maybe be messy and an unusual tactile medium for our babies to explore, but so much fun! Older babies can use their hands to explore the jelly and younger babies can use their feet to avoid any mouthing occuring. Benefits of messy play include, invites exploration and discovery and develops manipulative skills. This is great one to do in a bath or blow up pool to make the clean up a little easier! Visit @babysensorycanberra on Instagram to see some pics of our Jelly Party class!