Play games that help your baby practise tracking objects with his/her eyes. Try moving a colourful object slowly about 25 to 30 cm in front of your baby’s eyes. See if your little one can follow this object with his/her eyes as you move it left, right, up, and down, and in a slow circle.
Babies at this age are in the sensorimotor stage, where they explore the world with their senses. Exploring objects allows babies to learn about their characteristics.
Their vision is improving during this time, and they can see objects further away. They can also see colours, though they prefer objects with strong colour contrast, such as black, white, and red. With this visual ability, they can explore using their senses and develop motor skills.
Babies who observe objects while simultaneously rotating them are receiving rich perceptual-motor feedback from multiple perspectives.This contributes to their perception that the object is three dimensional. Similarly, babies who alternately mouth and look at objects can integrate tactile and visual information about their properties. Such exploratory experiences allow for object categorisation and hand-eye coordination. Those experiences also lay the foundation for subsequent cognitive and language development.
Babies' very first playmates and toys are their parents and other caregivers. So, interacting and playing with your baby often will help facilitate their healthy development.
Providing sufficient opportunities for babies to explore and discover has a long-term impact on their current and later cognitive development. A longitudinal study of 130 babies age 5 to 19 months old found that those who develop more efficient ways to explore objects were more likely to display higher cognitive development and intelligence at three years old.