Play ideas for your 7 month old

Your 7 month old may well now be showing developments in these areas:

Physical
Rocking on hands and knees when on tummy 

Cognitive
Starting to understand what ‘in’ and ‘out’ mean

Social and emotional
Starting to recognise people’s names like ‘mum’, ‘dad’ and names of things like ‘cup’

They will now have full colour vision and show effort to move to things that are brightly coloured and will be attempting to reach for things. You may also notice your little one cupping their hand around toys pushing them into their hand with their thumb.

Games and toys that will help them learn even more:

Back and forth games

Simple games that involve going back and forth can really encourage their skills to develop, something simple like rolling a ball or a toy between you but make sure you set up pillow bumpers so the toy doesn’t roll too far. Talking through what’s happening as you play helps them to understand more words such as "back and forth," "your turn, my turn."

Encourage crawling by picking a target and help your baby roll the toy to the chosen spot and bring it back. As the toy rolls away, your baby may move towards it to start the game again.

To help your baby learn to find things by listening you can show them a noisy toy and put it behind your back and shake it to make the familiar sound your baby will recognise. It can encourage your little one to try and move to find where the noise is coming from.

Sorting shapes

Shape sorter toys have been popular with little ones and they are a great way to start teaching your baby about ‘in and out’ or ‘on or off’. Help your little one to put a hand or a shape inside the shape sorter toy … often this will make the sorter make a noise or lights will start flashing which your baby will love and want to do over and over again.

When starting with shape sorters, keep it simple, introduce one shape first and help your baby get the hang of sorting that shape before you introduce more. Keep introducing new words but telling your baby what the shape is called when they pick it up. 

Reaction/action toys

Talk your little one through what they’re doing such as, “you made the music play!” to help them understand what they do and what happens as a result.

 Help to introduce your baby to colours by pointing to each colour while clearly saying the colour name. The more words they hear, the more they’ll become familiar with.

Use descriptive language as your baby makes things happen: "Hear the roar of the lion?” “Look what happens when you bang the drum!"

Get on the move

Encourage your baby to move to make toys move either by pushing it, rolling it back and forth, crawling through it or using it to pull up to a stand.