Research indicates that the early formative years reveal more mysteries related brain development. There are many tools available that enhance the learning power of young babies and stimulate the brain. These tools are also known to do wonders by delighting babies visually, soothing them audibly and challenging them interactively. These tools are specially designed for myriad infant activities to develop motor and sensory skills.

The following are some of the activities that help to optimize and stimulate the intellectual growth of infants.

Talk to your baby
Talk as much as possible to your baby. This will help her grasp words and learn something new.

Take your baby on field trips
Take your baby to the park, grocery store, shopping mall and other fields. Let her explore new sights, smells and sensations. Every outing with you will enrich her and help her stimulate her sensory skills.

Music and simple toys
Sing lullabies and rhymes to her to make her feel relaxed and calm down. You can also play some soothing music on the radio or CD. Watch your baby’s reaction and expression to all the kinds of music you play.

Read to her
Reading has no age or special skills. You can read good stories and fairy tales to her. There are many infant story books available in the bookstores and library. Let her explore new pictures, shapes and colors in the book.

Discover toys
Babies adore toys and love playing with them. Give them some sturdy, smooth and harmless toys to play with. Let them play as they desire to. This will help in stimulating their imaginations and creativity.

Everything in moderation works best for your baby. So, give her time to grow physically, mentally and spiritually. Let them stand on play on their bellies, walk on their knees and then see dreams of reaching the horizon with their talents and new discoveries.

The complete cycle starting from her belly to her dream involves various activities that help her grow and develop in various fields of growth. The best stage to learn something is infancy. Whatever good or bad they learn is through their experience and teachings during these formative years. There are many early childhood infant activities that improve physical, motor, emotional, cognitive and sensory growth of infants.

Following is a list of infant learning activities :

Use Multi-Sensory Learning
When your baby shows some interest in any particular object; try to help her learn about that object using sensory systems. If your baby adores flowers, make her learn the smell, feel the touch and hear the gentle sound that flower makes. Babies enjoy this kind of learning and will respond more easily because during infancy sensory systems are very strong.

Respond to Your BabyIt is very important to respond to your baby. Listen to what your baby says and help her learn through sensory skills. If your baby is looking at his or her belly, tell him/her that ‘this is your belly’. Your baby will develop some sensory information and will develop an elaborate idea of belly.

Researches have also indicated that there is a strong relation between parents’ responsiveness and their children’s IQ.

Categorizing
Categorizing activities help infants learn faster. You can categorize different objects based on the difference in color, shapes, sounds, texture and form. Categorize your infants toys based on colors and shapes. Make your infant learn by visualizing different colors and touching different shapes of the categorized objects. Make Learning Videos for Your Child

you can make learning videos for your baby. Videos can help them learn new words, new objects and recognize different sounds more easily and effectively.

Play Matching Games with your Infant
pick up any one object from the house like a tennis ball. Then ask your baby to search for some other similar object. You can also ask your baby to get some object of the similar color or shape.

Play and Explore from Different Postures
Help your baby learn different body parts and postures. Give them some toys to explore while they play on their stomach, back and seated.

Infant Language Activities Done With Blocks
Give some educational blocks to your babies. Let them feel different shapes and visualize different colors. They can also learn to produce different objects by matching the shapes and colors.

Play Games with Balls
Roll balls back and forth seating on the floor. You can also play on an inclined floor while asking your child to catch the balls you throw on an incline.

Ring-o-Ring Roses
Children enjoy playing this game. Gather few children of similar age and make them sit in a circle. Ask one of them to run around the circle and throw a handkerchief on the back of a child when the rhyme gets over.

Animal Sounds
Try to make sounds of different animals and let your baby learn animal sounds.

Baby Animal Photos
Collect pictures of animals and their babies. Ask your child to match animals with their babies.

Rings and Rattles
Give your baby some rings and rattles and let him or her enjoy the music of different rattles.

The early years of a child is restricted to the paper tearing, chalk, chalkboard, clay, crayons, dolls, flowers, finger paint and various other forms of artistry produced with energy and enthusiasm.

Below is the list of various infant art activities that help to improve the motor skills of infants.

Floor Art
Take a large piece of paper and tape it on the floor. Ask your baby to scribble down on that piece of paper with paints or chalks.

Paper Play
This art activity will excite and delight your baby. Spread old pieces of papers in the room and help your baby make various form of paper art like hats, mats, boat, pen holder, doll and nay more.

Water PlayBabies love playing with water. Fill a tub with water and put some fascinating toys and objects for babies to play with. Then set your baby free in the water tub and watch him or her enjoy with water.

Dirt and Mud Play
Babies love to stay dirty. Take them in a field where there is lot of mud. Let them play with mud while making houses, dolls, toys and many more interesting things while mixing some water in the mud.

Fun with Flowers
Pick some flowers from your garden and give it to your baby. Help him or her learn different colors and smell of each flower

Following are some of the infant activities for sensory development :

• Hold your babies in your arms and sing lullabies and rhymes to them.

• Rock, sway, and swing your babies to develop a feeling of movement and balance.

• Respond to your babies sound and talk to them.

• Indulge yourself in some of the infant play activities.

• Make them learn different objects existing in nature through various learning activities.

• Be responsive and attentive to infants. They need more of attention and observation.

• Be consistent in terms of feeding and making them sleep. This will help them learn what to expect at what time.

• Give them plenty of toys that make noise and melodious tunes.

• Hang up pictures of your family members so that they try to recognize them.

• Give them a clean space to crawl and exercise their muscles for future developmental challenges.

• Read books and make him learn the meanings of different words and themes of different stories.

• Wash all the toys and objects that give your babies as they are habituated of putting everything in their mouth.

Most of the parents probably do many of these infant developmental activities for sensory stimulation. Following is the list of some ideas that will help you provide vital sensory stimulation for your dear baby.

Offer Unrestricted Motion
Don’t restrict any physical movement of your baby. Let your baby be comfortable with the motion and movement of his or her legs, feet, hands, head and other body parts. It is quite amazing and fascinating to see a baby rock and roll in various different motions. Each child learns from different surroundings and possesses different skills, so let them learn the way they are comfortable.

Give Plenty of Floor Time
Today, many parents avoid keeping their babies on floor. But that’s the most effective way of supporting both physical and mental growth of infants. Babies who spend most of their time on clean and smooth surfaces without any physical boundary or restrictive carriers develop strong motor and sensory skills along with good physical growth. In free space they give movement to their muscles and prepare them for future challenges. Whereas babies who spend their time on infant seats and other restrictive carriers, are often deprived of free space to exercise their muscles and experience slow growth.

Get Down on the Floor Spend more time on the floor with your baby. You can watch all the efforts your baby makes to move his legs and hands. You can also sing lullabies and rhymes to him or her. They don’t talk to you in words but are definitely interacting with you through emotions and their body movements.

Respond to your Infant’s Sounds
Babies talk in sounds and emotions. Try to understand what your baby is trying to say and respond to all the sounds he or she makes.

Support Your Infant’s Achievements
Every parent enjoys watching their baby’s grow. Babies need attention, love, observation and responsiveness. Support their growth at every stage and make them learn that they have to live in the competitive world where they can fulfill their requirements and dreams. Be responsive to them and make them realize that you are there with them.