8 months old: Play ideas
Playing and learning ideas ideal for your 8 month old
Your 8 month old may well now be showing developments in these areas:
Physical
Be able to crawl backwards and forwards —and even have something in their hand at the same time
Cognitive
Start to connect two behaviours together
Social and emotional
Start to smile back at others
You may have also noticed that your baby is beginning to understand that objects don't disappear when they're out of view and you may notice an increase in their fine motor skills meaning your baby can pick up tiny objects now.
Games and toys that will help them learn even more
Noisy toys
You and your baby can explore a toy’s features together—help your little one flip pages, or turn keys.
Your baby is building their receptive language, so keep sharing new words with them and reinforce words by saying the names of the colours, shapes and animals that you see. "Do you hear the bell?" "Let's make the bird move." "What do you think the lion says?"
Helping them to stand
Point out different shapes and colours on the toy and features near the bottom of the toy that they can reach.
Encourage your baby to push or crawl after a toy. Can they pull themselves up and stand holding onto it?
Toys to build and sort
It’s fun and teaches your baby when you show them how to build and fill and empty toys and tell them what you’re doing, “I’m putting the green block in. It's square." When you’ve taken all the things out, tell your baby “It’s empty.”
Let your little one experiment with shape sorters. If they’re finding it hard help them pick the “round one” and say, "Try this in the round hole.” This may take a while for them to master.
Once they make the connection between the round shape and round hole, then introduce a different shape, "Now let's try the square ones." Don’t forget to be patient, this won’t all happen in a day.
Dials, levers and buttons
Show your baby how the toy works, then encourage them to copy: "I pressed the button … now it's your turn!" This all helps encourage concentration and improve fine motor skills.