You and more importantly, your “face” is your baby’s first interactive toy. Below are few ways to engage your baby using this simple tool you already possess. Have fun !!
• A great way to strengthen eye muscle is to stand in front of your baby and move your face side to side or up and down and talk. Baby will follow you with eyes. Key here is to keep your movement slow.
• Make funny faces with funny sounds. This not only helps your child develop visual senses, but also, builds a healthy bond between you both, thus turning him into an emotionally stable person in his later years.
• Balloon Face: Newborns prefer to look at simple, face like stimuli with features arranged naturally (upright) rather than unnaturally (upside down or sideways). This activity works best when a stimulus is in the periphery of their visual field.
Take a balloon (preferably red), draw squared features on it with a black marker or sketch pen. Two squares for eyes and one for mouth. Keep on slowly moving it from left to right. Allow the baby to follow it. Repeat it, till the time baby enjoys. The moment you find him getting bored, immediately stop it and do it the next day. This activity provides the desired visual stimulus to the child.
• Stare your baby’s eyes during breastfeeding. Talk to him, this not only stimulates the visual neurons but also develops closeness and strengthens the bond too.
• Torch Play : Show torch light on your face or on a nearby wall. Keep it at one place for some time, let your baby focus, then move very slowly.
• By 2 months, infant recognises faces to a large extent. So, this is the best time to show pictures of parents, siblings (8 by 10 size), and say the relation loudly , keeping the picture stationary.
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