Provide a variety of safe objects and toys of different sizes, shapes, colours and textures for your baby to look at and explore. Babies may also enjoy cloth or plastic books with different textures, flaps and puppets. New Jersey Council for Young Children. (2013). New Jersey Birth to Three Early Learning Standards. Retrieved from https://www.nj.gov/education/ece/guide/standards/birth/standards.pdf Guyton, G. (2011). Using toys to support infant-toddler learning and development. NAEYC: Young Children, p.51.
During play and exploration, children should be in a place with minimal distraction. Infants' learning during the early stages of development may not be beneficial if it creates overstimulation. In an experiment, a researcher conditioned infants to turn their heads to the sound of a buzzer. The training for the task began either at birth, 31 or 44 days. He discovered that infants took many more trials and days to learn the task if they learned from birth than the infants who learned later. Infants need stimulation. However, if stimulation is too great, it could distract infants and young children from other tasks and replace other, more crucial activities to their development, such as social interaction.
Toys of contrasting colours fascinate babies and stimulate their developing vision. As they grow, babies use toys to explore object permanence and cause-and effect-relationships.
A safe environment for your baby to move around in and explore objects using their senses, will help your baby build cognitive skills.