- As a pediatric occupational therapist,
parents often ask me why their six month old baby
isn't holding toys.
And the reason they're not yet holding toys
is often because the parents are placing them
in positions which don't actually let the baby
use their hands in the first place
and they are also giving them toys which are not suitable
for a baby under six months of age.
So in this video, we're going to cover
the positions that help your baby use their hands
and also what toys and the features to look for in toys
to promote your baby's fine motor development.
But before we do,
make sure you click on that free PDF document
in the description box below
which covers the developmental milestones
you can be expecting for your little one
in their first year of life.
This'll give you an invaluable peace of mind
as you'll know when to be expecting skills
and when to be concerned.
Now let's talk about the positions
which will encourage your baby's hand development.
So the very first position is encouraging your baby
to play when lying on their back.
So you can do this three different ways.
The first way is you can place them underneath the play gym
where your baby will, at three months,
reach out and hit those toys.
And then at four or five and six months,
reach out and try and grab the toys
that are hanging from the play gym.
Or you could place your baby directly on the floor,
lying on their back,
and you would be leaning over the top of them
and holding a toy in the middle of their body.
Initially, you might just be shaking it,
so your baby starts to look at that toy.
And then at three months,
you would hold it in the middle of their body,
and you would shake it
and expect the baby to be reaching out
and kind of hitting that toy.
And then at four or five and six months,
hold it in the middle, close to their body
so they can reach it,
and you'll see your baby, reach out, grab the toy
and bring it to them and start to play with it and mouth it.
And the last position,
which is personally my favorite
is placing your baby on their back
when they're resting on your thigh.
So you're sitting in the chair
and you're resting them on your thigh,
this position is great
because your thigh actually pushes their shoulders forward,
which means that it's gonna be easier
for their hands to come in the middle of their body
and start to interact and play with toys
rather than just fall to the side,
which happens in the first few months.
Now, again, when they're lying on your thigh,
what you would do is hold the toy directly above them
in the middle of their body and you would shake it,
and at three months your baby will be reaching out
and grabbing that toy,
and then at four or five and six months,
they'll be grabbing it and bringing it to their body
and starting to interact with it.
Now it's important to know that
a baby under six months of age
is not able to grab a toy which has held vertically
because they approach toys at this age
with their palm facing down.
So you need to turn that toy,
if it's a straight toy like this,
to turn it onto its side
so that when your baby reaches for that toy,
they're going to actually be able to grab it.
And the second position is to encourage your baby
to play when they're in side lying.
So what this is is basically
when your baby is lying on the ground,
you would roll them onto their side
so that they have both their hands
out in front of their body,
and you would place a toy directly in their line of sight.
The great thing about this position
is it encourages your baby's hands to come together,
which means it's going to be easier for them
to play and interact with toys.
Now to prevent your baby from rolling back onto their back,
you might wanna place a rolled up towel behind their back,
and remember, you also need to watch your baby
when they're in this position
'cause they might accidentally roll onto their tummy
and then not be able to get off.
And the third position you can do with your little one
is place them in supported sitting and give them a toy.
So when they're under four months of age,
you would be doing that by placing your little one
in a bouncer,
and when they're in the bouncer,
they initially have a mobile in front of them.
So there'll be watching those toys on that mobile
and at three months
they'll be starting to reach out and hit that toy.
And at four months I would tend to take that mobile away
and give them a toy when they're in the bouncer.
So you'd place it on their chest
and that way they'd be able to interact
and play with that toy.
Now, when they are four months of age,
they might be showing you that they're keen
to kind of sit out with your help,
so when they're sitting on your lap,
instead of leaning completely back,
they will start to kind of pull their body upright,
so that they can sit.
When your baby is showing you that they're interested in
sitting up with your help,
you can actually help them into sitting
by holding them at their torso
when they're sitting in your lap.
And what you could do
is you could actually give them some toys to play with.
So at this age, I like to give them a bowl of toys
because the edge of the bowl will stop the toys rolling away
and we'll make it easier for your baby to actually
grab the toys in the first place.
Now that you know the positions
which will encourage your baby's fine motor skills,
let's talk about the second factor
that can actually hinder your baby's development
of being able to use their hands,
and that is the toys that you're giving them.
So when you're looking at toys to give your baby
when they're under six months of age,
the very first thing you wanna look for is
to make sure it is light weight.
So it needs to be lightweight for two reasons.
The first reason is it needs to be lightweight enough
that your baby can actually lift it.
So this one is actually quite a heavy toy
compared to the o-ball.
It's extremely lightweight and it's really easy to lift.
The other reason you want the toys to be lightweight
is because your baby in her first few months
or at four months in five months is still working
on their ability to hold toys.
And they will accidentally drop them all the time.
And it is highly likely
that they're going to drop those toys on their face
and on their body.
So we want it to be lightweight,
so it's not actually gonna cause our baby harm
when it drops from their hand.
The second feature is you want the toy
to be something that your baby can pick up
using multiple different grasps.
If it is a toy that has multiple holes in it,
like the o-ball,
then it's going to be really easy for your baby to grasp.
And they're going to have success at grasping that toy,
no matter what grip they use.
So they can start using these toys at three months of age
and they'll still be able to hold it
and then at four or five and six months of age.
Fabric toys like these are also great
because there's lots of different ways
for your baby to hold this toy.
They might be able to hold this side of the toy
or they can hold the other side, it doesn't matter.
So as long as it's kind of large enough
that they can use multiple different grasps to hold it,
it will work fine for a baby under six months of age.
Toys which are also circular in nature
are really good for the babies under six months of age
because again, no matter what type of grasp baby uses,
they're going to be able to hold it
and it also encourages your baby to work
on that transfer skill
and also toys that have a thin handle are really great
because they can fit in your baby's hand
and they can hold and interact with that toy.
And of course, if you can find toys
that have rattles inside them
or make lots of noise or light up,
then your baby is going to really enjoy them,
or if they're toys that are extremely bright in color.
Now, obviously when you're buying toys for your little one,
you need to make sure it's made from non-toxic material
because your baby
is going to be placing it all in their mouth
because that is how they explore,
up until really 12 months of age.
Toys which aren't so great at this age are string toys
because it's really hard for your baby to grasp that,
it isn't until six months
that they start to use that raking motion,
but before then,
they're not going to be able to grasp this toy.
You will also see that these kinds of toys are very heavy,
so they're not appropriate
because it's going to hurt your baby
when it accidentally falls on their face and their body.
Also small toys like blocks are not appropriate at this age
because your baby's going to be mouthing
absolutely everything.
But more importantly,
they actually aren't going to be able to grab that
because they don't have that finer grip
that's required to grab those smaller toys.
So those are the positions and the features of toys
which will help your baby's fine motor skills develop.
Have lots of fun playing
and hopefully I'll see you next week
where I share more parenting tips and tricks.
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