Childs Play for Quick Development
It is never too early to start developing a relationship with your new baby and one of the best ways is to play with the newborn. During the first four months you can enhance their physical and emotional well being in enjoyable ways.
Long before your infant can talk it will be listening to the sounds around it. Speak softly and call your child by name so it will begin to understand the reference sound is for them. Modulate your tone of voice to give a wide range of sounds and if you do use the standard "baby talk", make sure to also speak normally to your child so they do not develop believing that is the way of real speech. Listen to the sounds your baby makes and give it time to respond to what you say.
Smiling is a good social skill to learn, so praise your child when they smile and return the happy expression. Make eye contact with your baby. Let it practice exercising the neck muscles and eye coordination by moving your head slowly back and forth to get your child to follow your motions. Another fun game that develops the head muscles is by laying your child on its belly on the floor and place colorful objects around it. move them around slowly so the baby can practice following them. This will develop stronger neck muscles so it will be able to hold its head up more quickly by itself.
You can work the limb muscles as well by working the baby's legs in a bicycling motion and help it straighten its arms when laying on its belly. While these simple games in the first four months may not be major league activities, they will help jump start your child's development for the time when it is old enough to join in more complex games.
