Developmental Play for 0-6 Months

Developmental play is using intentional play and positioning to help your baby learn and to facilitate development and progression of gross motor skills. Babies are rapidly developing and meeting milestones throughout the first year. Due to this rapid development, play is going to look different at different stages. Let's break it down.

Play will look different every day. Babies won't tolerate every activity every day and that’s okay. Additionally, some days they will tolerate more activity overall than others. That’s all OKAY! Aim for 20- 30 minutes of developmental play per day. This does not have to be absolute. Don’t get worked up if it is a “bad day” and you don’t hit that target.

0-3 months

The focus of this stage is to interact and build a strong bond with your baby. Babies interact well with faces and contrast color items at this age. Use this as an advantage by positioning yourself in front of your baby when playing to increase interaction and focus.

On Their Back

Gently bring your baby's hands together towards the center of their body, like in a clapping motion. This will help them to develop the skill of bringing their hands to midline. This is important to allow them to then bring hands to mouth for self soothing and eventually self feeding.
Gently stretch their arms out to the side and overhead and move their legs gently through a bicycle motion. Infants are naturally in a flexed position. This means their elbows hips and knees are bent.
Gently stretching their limbs is a preventive way to reduce the risk of muscle tightness but also promote overall movement and increase their awareness of their own bodies. Additionally, moving their legs in the bicycle motion can help with reciprocal movement of the legs which is very important in a few months when they begin crawling.
Position yourself in front of your baby. Once they are focused on you, slowly move side to side to work on helping your baby focus and begin developing their visual tracking skills. You can also try it with a contrast toy or rattle.You can also move up and down to work a different set of visual tracking skills.
Place in an activity gym with a toy overhanging to work on batting and kicking at toys. This helps to develop strength in both the arms and legs as well as develop the skills necessary for reaching.

Tummy Time

Change it up! Make tummy time interesting by varying the position slightly. Try it on the floor, on an activity mat, elevated on a boppy and laying on your chest.
Break it down to small increments of 2-3 minutes completed several times throughout the day.

Sidelying

Your baby will need your help to get into and maintain this position at this age. They haven yet developed the strength to maintain this position
Gently roll them onto their side. Place a hand on the top hip to help balance. Use your leg or a towel roll along their back to help them stay in this position a little easier.
As they age, they will tolerate this position more with less and less help from you. Don’t forget to alternate and place them on each side to minimize the risk of developing asymmetries.
Placing your baby on their sides helps to develop several skills including; bringing their hands to midline, strengthening their core, working on balance and other skills necessary for rolling.

3-6 months

Babies begin exploring and interacting more during this age. They will also start gaining some independence by rolling and starting to sit by the end of this stage.

Tummy Time

Place toys or objects of interest in front of your baby to encourage reaching and weight shifting.
Use toys or items of different textures to encourage exploration.
By 6 months, they should be able to tolerate a total of 1 hour a day in tummy time.
Around 5-6 months, you can start placing your baby on their hands and knees. Use a toy of interest to keep their attention. Place it on the ground slightly in front of them. They will need a lot of support to maintain this position initially. This will help develop the muscles and promote weight bearing needed for crawling on their hands and knees.

Rolling

Place a hand on their hip and gently roll them towards their sides, then to their stomach. This will help your baby start to develop the strength and balance for rolling. Once on their bellies, they will need you to help reposition their bottom arm, that typically got “caught” during the roll.
Make sure to go to each side to promote symmetry.

Sitting

Place your baby in a sitting position with their legs in a circle sit position.
Place a toy in front of your baby to work on reaching. You can progress this by placing a baby walker in front of them or using toys on a wall to work on an upright position to strengthen their back muscles and their arms to progress towards sitting independently.
As your baby is able to sit with less support, start to position toys just out of their reach so they have to lean and shift their weight to get the toy. This helps with body awareness and balance and will help advance them with floor level transitions.

Other Ideas

Play peekaboo to help promote social interaction
Use cause and effect toys. These are toys that make sounds or move when your baby plays with them.
Use a baby mirror as a toy. This will help with social and motor skills.

Developmental play is a great way to work on your baby's development. It can be overwhelming and difficult to know where to start and what to do. Hopefully this guide will help. As a reminder, you do not need to do all the activities everyday or even at all. They are just ideas. Figure out what works for your baby!

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Kimmy Krupack PT, DPT is a Doctor of Physical Therapy currently practicing at Chit Chat Pediatric Therapy in Vidalia, Georgia. In the past, she has worked in the NICU, Pediatric Acute Setting as well as Hospital based pediatric outpatient clinics. Her passion is working with developmental delay and torticollis, but she treats a variety of conditions. You can connect with Kimmy on Instagram @chitchatpediatrictherapy or @kimmy.peds.pt