Developmental Play
A Preview to the World

Every parent hopes and dreams, or rather fears and agonizes about their child’s health and development. Initially, it equates to the infant’s vitality within the womb. After birth, it becomes a war against disease. And then, we watch.

Development is defined as the “progression from a simpler or lower to a more advanced, mature, or complex form or stage”.1 This progression is assessed as “normal” often by function. This being the case, physical therapists are often called upon to assess and promote normal function by what we call developmental play. On the outside, it looks a lot like play, but we stage and grade information into the nervous system at the proper developmental level. For the normally developing child, one needs no more than an open mind and love for that child to promote normal development at home. Below are some examples:

Play with Patterns

Newborns do not have good vision, but recent studies have found they can see shades of a few colors, and they prefer contrast.2 Look for pictures and designs with simple and contrasting patterns. Get the baby to initially look at it to develop visual and mental focus for very short periods of time. Attempt to spend some quiet time together to do this. Too many over stimulating things, like the television amongst discussion from family and friends, may quickly become over stimulating to your baby.  Adding patterns and toys to the mix may be stressful to your infant and make for an unreceptive and cranky baby.  At around two to three months, the nervous system is less easily startled and you can start introducing different forms and more colorful toys with movement, textures and sounds as the eyes will become more focused and coordinated.

Face Play

Due to limited initial vision, babies are attracted to patterns and forms, rather than details. Nothing is more fun to a growing infant than it’s parent’s face, so invest in some face-to-face interaction on a daily basis. Initially place your face and body close to your child’s when you speak, so that they can feel your voice intonations and smell your scent. Besides your face, simple contrasting patterns are nice to present at eye level when you want to catch your infant’s attention. Have them follow the pattern or come at them from various angles. Verbally describe what they are and make big facial expressions with a change in your voice to demonstrate proper feelings such as happiness or sadness. Eventually you will notice your infant mimicking facial motions and understanding what is about to happen.

Hug Me Baby

Bonding involves sight, but touch seals the information. Babies get an appreciation for emotion, trust and security through touch. Without it, babies have been found to not be as healthy and fail in their ability to thrive. Around two months of age, introduce various textures into your hugs or when you dress and bathe your baby to introduce variety in the world around them. They will need this to react to different surfaces as they dress, crawl and walk.

Follow me

Once head control is established and the baby can sit supported, turn the baby forward in his/her carrier or place them in sight of your daily chores. Invest time in presenting an environment that is interesting but not over stimulating. Normal everyday things around the house are very interesting to babies so be safe with what they watch you “play “. Encourage older babies to play with pots and pans and younger babies to mimic your movements occasionally from their seat.

Floor time

Supporting infants in various positions, like on their side to play, will encourage the whole body to get strong and not allow for deformation of the head bones. When babies show evidence of trying to lift their head, let them play several moments a day, with supervision, on their belly.  Although quite frustrating at first, this is important in promoting good posture and upper body strength at the shoulders and flexibility at the hips, which will affect physical development later on.

At about three months, you should notice an interest in getting toys out of their reach.  Trying to do this will create movement patterns that strengthen muscles that allow independent mobility such as a roll, and crawl. Always getting them the toy will keep them quiet. However, one too many fat bellied, weak babies end up in physical therapy merely because they have never needed a reason to move.  These children have quite a low frustration level because they have rarely been challenged to be patient and independent.

So remember, babies absorb and learn from the world around them. Make sure the games you provide do not merely distract and negate the necessary exploration and free spirit that differentiates work from play. New moms can be smart and save some time and money. You do not need to spend money on hours of stimulating your infant or have access to four-star rated toys to buy some creative one on one time. Besides, babies prefer free access to the best developmental toys of all, their parents.

Editorial provided by Lisa Holland, physical therapist and registered therapeutic yoga instructor, of Belly Guru, LLC in Charlotte, NC.

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