Playing: 9 -12 Months

9 to 12 months Play


At this stage, your baby will be crawling top-speed and may begin to pull himself to standing before progressing to cruising (walking while holding onto furniture) and eventually walking unassisted.

Your baby will really love interactive toys - as he is beginning to understand cause and effect, he'll really enjoy toys that make things happen. Pressing buttons, making lights flash and music play will be favourites and he'll love to play with them over and over (and over!) again. There's no such thing as too much of a good thing at this age!

 

Best toys for your 9-12 month old baby


 

Interactive toys.

Your baby can now make things happen, which is very exciting for him. Toys that respond to your baby's actions will be popular eg muscial toys

 

Physical co-ordination toys.

Now that your baby is on the move, introduce toys that encourage him to use his body eg push and pull toys, stacking toys and dump trucks

 

 

Language development toys.

You can encourage his growing vocabulary by introducing toys and games that will help in the development of speech and language skills. Baby books are good (stick to cloth books at this age) because after reading to him, he can take a turn at 'reading' to you by mimic your speech patterns.

 

Role Playing Toys

Your baby has been watching you since the moment he could focus his eyes, so it's no wonder that at this age he'll start to enjoy games that involve role-playing. Not only does role-playing encourage imaginative play, it also allows him to discover how things work in his world. Suggestions for these are telephone, vacuum cleaner, and shopping cart or basket.

 

Find more related articles and links for baby toys

This article was written by Ella Walsh for Kidspot-New Zealand's parenting resource for newborns and baby. Sources include SA Government's Parenting and Child Health and Karitane.




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