I simply love baby play gyms. It is one of the interactive toy which not only ‘safely’ engages baby for quite some time but also at the same time exercises so many senses thereby providing the perfect stimulating and enriching experiences. But of course, all this comes next to “You and your Face” which always remains the first useful and interactive toy for your little one.
A baby play gym is a soft mat with two arches that support stuff toys which dangle overhead. Some have lights, music, baby-safe mirrors, kick-activated piano and/or a variety of textured materials, while others provide a simple, safe space for baby to lay, look, and play.
It has immense benefits, right from cognition to visual and sensory to motor. Briefly exploring each of them…
1. Cognition
Baby gyms allow your baby to learn the basics of cause and effect. Between about 6 weeks and 4 months, babies engage in something Piaget called “primary circular reactions”. This means they learn to repeat an action that they initially did by chance (such as “accidentally” batting at a toy). Then between about 4-8 months babies begin to intentionally initiate these actions and repeat them because they find them fun! These actions are called “secondary circular reactions”. Some examples include grabbing, pulling on, or kicking a toy in order to make it light up or make sounds. This skill is important because it is the beginning of logic and the understanding of cause and effect. Baby gyms facilitate this development of the understanding of cause and effect by providing dangling toys and even kick- or pull-activated toys that respond to their actions, encouraging them to interact with them again and again.
2. Vision
Babies are born pretty near sighted, which means objects far away are blurry. They can perceive objects the most clearly when they are about 8-12 inches from their face, and baby gyms are set up perfectly to accommodate for a newborn’s developing visual skills.
3. Benefits in grasping and reaching skills
When babies are born, their grasping and reaching skills are dominated by reflexes, which means they automatically react in a certain way when stimulated and don’t really have any control over it. For example, newborns reflexively grasp anything that is pressed into their palm. This means newborns can grasp rattles or rings hanging in a baby gym as they learn to hold objects, develop a visual understanding of what they are holding, and build an understanding of cause and effect as they wiggle and shake toys.
4. Gross motor benefits
Gross motor development may be the most obvious baby gym benefit of them all. Of course, baby play gyms encourage babies to use and develop the muscles in their arms, legs, tummy, back, and neck. They allow babies space to play on their back, left side, right side, and even their tummy!
5. Benefits in self-awareness
Many baby play gyms are now equipped with a small, non-breakable mirror so that babies can spend time looking at themselves in the mirror. Babies tend to notice themselves in the mirror around 3-5 months of age (staring at it, reaching at it). They may first smile at themselves in the mirror between about 5-8 months and then they may playfully respond to their mirror image by laughing, patting, or making faces in the mirror around 6-9 months. All of these skills are important for the development of self-awareness, and baby gyms provide babies the opportunity to practice these skills.
6. Benefits in sensory stimulation and awareness
Baby gyms often feature a variety of textures, sounds, and colors in order to stimulate babies’ senses while engaging with the gym. Once your baby begins mouthing objects, you can hang teething toys from the arches so he or she can reach for them (on back or tummy) and bring them to the mouth for oral stimulation and exploration.
Also the music or rattles hanging in a baby gym can help babies develop the ability to search for sounds with their eyes between about 2-3.5 months, and later on to look directly toward where the sound is coming from .
WHEN TO USE
Right form the 0 month ! You can for sure use it from 0 month till the time your little one wants to play with it (in any which way).
HOW TO CHOOSE
Thought the markets are flooded with various options, various brands, various prices but the only important thing to look for is the “colors”. Newborns can’t identify colors. What engages them is the high contrast, like the one caused by black and white. So, it will be a wise choice to go for black/white/ red colored gyms. Though I am not saying that the green, yellow, red and blue ones are useless, but they will not suffice the visual stimulation part. And also, if the baby is not able to see the dangling multicoloured objects ( in his first few months because of lack of color identification), then the whole set up will fail to excite and engage him.
Lastly, read your baby’s cues and remove from play gym if demonstrating signs of being overstimulated or just getting bored.
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