If your baby gets frustrated, such as when they are unable to open the door in a toy, model how it can be done. Then, hand the toy back to them to explore and try it for themselves. Avoid intervening too soon if your baby encounters a problem or difficulty.
When infants are presented with a new task, they typically transition from inattention to passive exploration (mouthing, touching and holding objects) to goal-directed, persistent behaviour in which they actively explore the features of objects, for example by turning, banging, shaking or pushing buttons in purposeful ways to achieve effects. At approximately six months, most infants display this purposeful manipulation of objects. By nine months, infants can select the most appropriate actions for “solving” a specific task, for example, by choosing to push buttons rather than banging to create sound effects on a toy telephone.
Adults who can model persistence and create environments for infants to persist facilitate their development of persistence. Spending time to play with infants, and encouraging infants by showing them how a task can be accomplished and letting them try it for themselves, is thus helpful in building persistence. Leonard, J. A., Lee, Y., & Schulz, L. E. (2017). Infants make more attempts to achieve a goal when they see adults persist. Science, 357(6357), 1290–1294. Worley, L., & Goble, C. (2016). Enhancing the Quality of Toddler Care: Supporting Curiosity, Persistence, and Learning in the Classroom. YC Young Children, 71(4), 32-37. Retrieved March 6, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/ycyoungchildren.71.4.32
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