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Babies spend their first five months or so on their belly and back, working on strengthening different muscle groups to prepare for important milestones such as sitting, crawling, and eventually walking. Then around 6 months, everything changes! All of your baby’s hard work has paid off. Your baby’s neck control is better and her trunk is more stable. She’s able to play on her tummy while using her arms to interact with objects. Soon, she’ll learn how to sit upright, first with help, and then on her own for longer periods of time. This frees up the use of baby’s hands, which she can then use to interact with toys. Game. Changer.

This opens up a whole new world of sights, sensory experiences, and play activities for your little one. Wake windows are also starting to increase by this age, as most babies are now taking three naps a day. This allows for more active play time in between naps, which means more opportunities for language, social engagement, and cognitive development!

Best Ways to Play with your 6-Month-Old

So what do you do with a six month-old? Activities that involve reaching, transferring objects from one hand to another, and grasping objects are a great place to start. Visual skills have improved by now and your baby has developed better hand-eye coordination. At six months, babies are refining the concept of cause and effect, so baby is always looking for ways to make new things happen in her environment. Babies at this stage are also more interactive, so they love social games such as peek-a-boo, songs with hand movements, and mirror play.

Here are five of my favorite ways to play with a six month-old:

Stacking block towers: Stack several blocks (we like these soft ones for no ouchies!), modeling “up” each time you stack a block. Encourage baby to reach toward the tower and knock it down. Model “boom” and “crash” when the tower falls down!
Bring on the music! Babies love music and at 6 months, they can start making music of their own! Maracas that baby can grasp, pass back and forth between hands, and shake to the music are a fun first introduction to musical instruments. Keep your language simple and say “shake, shake, shake” as you play. These bongo drums can be used during tummy time or while sitting upright and make drum sounds. Model simple action words like “bang,” “tap” and “boom” while you play. This is not only working on cause and effect, but also on early imitation skills - remember, gross motor imitation comes before vocal imitation!
Fill and spill: Filling baskets and other soft containers with baby-safe toys is a great way to encourage independent exploration and work on early container play. Babies love to put objects in, take them out, and dump containers! Model simple function words like “in,” “out,” “dump” as baby explores the toys. Some favorite fill and spill type toys also encourage functional play, such as Melissa and Doug’s toolbox, soft purse, and grocery bag. Show your baby how to “drill” the wood, talk on the soft phone, and “munch” on the carrot. Other fill and spill toys have soft animals that make animal sounds when you squeeze them, like our favorite hungry pelican! These are great for working on sound imitation - model the animal sounds for baby and remember to pause to see if baby will make an attempt!
Beep beep! Toy cars, both big and small, are a great way to introduce things that go. This colorful car is a excellent for new sitters and will be played with for years to come! There is so much that you can do with it and it grows with your child. Baby can sit supported in the car and practice cause and effect by beeping the horn (model “beep beep!”), turning the steering wheel, and moving along to the music. Model waving “bye bye” as your baby “drives” away. Soft cars that have a pull-back function are engaging and enticing once baby starts trying to crawl. Model function words such as “go” and “stop” while you play!
Shared book reading: Now’s the age that you can really start diving into board books. Read face-to-face with baby so that she can see your facial expressions and begin to turn the pages. Babies have short attention spans, so use books with textures, sounds, big flaps, and buttons to increase engagement. Give simple directions such as “push” or “touch” and remember to pause for several sections so that baby can begin to respond. See my favorite books for 6 month-olds here!

6-Month-Old Milestones

Shouts and vocalizes to get attention
Starts to babble a variety of sounds (ba, ma, ga, da)
Smiles and laughs socially
Begins to interact with objects functionally
Responds vocally when you talk and sing
Stops for “no” or when name is called
Tries to imitate raspberries/some sounds
Tries to imitate movements like pushing a tower/banging a drum
Attends to pictures/books for short intervals
Sits for short periods of time while supported
Begins to sit without support
(Source: Rossetti, L. (2006). Rossetti Infant-Toddler Language Scale: A Measure of Communication and Interaction. Linguisystems.)

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Repetition During Playtime

Babies need lots of repeated exposures and repetitions to learn. Continue practicing these play skills and concepts over and over again and begin watching baby’s wheels turn as she starts making connections. As always, remember that there is a RANGE of normal and that milestones are general! Playing WITH your little one is important, but independent exploration is too!

That’s why we created The Playbooks, to help you find that balance and make sure baby is meeting their milestones on time!