Written by Sindhuja Prabhu
Babies seem to grow quickly. They are a tiny bundle of helplessness and suddenly they are independent little beings trying to move and grasp everything around them. They are eager to learn, explore and just try doing many things. It may seem cute but as a parent, you must facilitate this development in the right way. Here. in this article we list various facts you need to know about toys for 7 month old baby so that you can make the right choices when buying toys for them.
Babies love to play. They love toys and just about every object they can get hold of. Everything is new to them, and they will start playing with everything they find. Today, there are many toys available on the market. Manufacturers follow different concepts and principles in trying to educate babies. Choosing the right ones can be quite difficult at times.
In This Article
A 7-month-old is physically active and mentally alert. They will look around, observe and absorb. You need to stimulate their brain and aid in various developments. Toys can be a great help to teach concepts and develop skills. Close to 90 minutes of unassisted play in a day can make a big difference to their development.
You can start buying baby toys when your baby starts showing interest in the world around them. Initially, all they do is feed, sleep and poop. As they cross their 1st month, they start showing interest in their surroundings. You can start buying toys once your baby is close to 2 months of age.
Here are a few factors to keep in mind when you go toy shopping for your 7-month-old baby.
Check if the toy is safe for a 7 month old baby. The toys should not have any toxic substance that can rub off or come off when touched or licked. They should not have any small parts that your baby can remove or ingest. Such situations can become dangerous very quickly.
Your baby is stronger and can move things now. Identify toys that are slightly heavy so that they are sturdy enough to play with. At the same time ensure that they are not too heavy.
Your baby will start moving soon. If the toys move, it encourages the baby to move along.
If you are unsure about which type of toys will suit your 7 month old baby, here are some interesting and helpful options.
Babies love to stack and build at this stage. They love to create structures with their own hands. Building blocks have multiple advantages for babies of this age. Apart from helping with fine motor and cognitive skills, they also improve your munchkin’s cognitive skills and problem-solving abilities.
Skill Development | Benefits |
Creativity | Trying to make sense of the blocks in their hands will bring out the creativity in them. Creative thinking is a very important cognitive development that contributes to perception and problem-solving. |
Improves Focus | Fixing one block on top of the other without toppling them down requires a lot of focus and control over their hands and fingers. Focus is very important to do any task as they grow up. |
[Read : Motor and Cognitive Skills Development Of A Baby]
A lot of noise and bright lights can be very attractive for a baby. They help build your baby’s attention span and cognitive capabilities.
Skill Development | Benefits |
Keep Them Occupied | A hysterical or cranky child is bound to get distracted when there is too much light or noise. These toys will help create a distraction when nothing else works with your baby. |
Improves Tracking | If the toy is moving, your baby will learn to track it visually by following the lights and focussing on the sound. |
Books and puzzles are a great way to aid cognitive development. They can make the brain think, learn and understand constantly. At this stage books and puzzles not only help in brain development but also improve fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
Skill Development | Benefits |
Cognitive Development | Looking at pictures and trying to solve puzzles will stimulate the brain. It encourages them to think from different angles. |
Problem Solving | Developing the ability to solve a problem or find a solution is an important cognitive development that will help them as they grow up. |
Learning by doing is a very impactful manner of learning concepts and ideas. Children will learn better and explore more when they do activities. Activity toys help in developing the sensory-motor skills in babies and improve their problem-solving skills.
Skill Development | Benefits |
Improves Concentration | Performing an activity requires immense concentration and focus. Developing this at an early age will help the baby do the same as they grow up and face bigger challenges. |
Effective Learning | Doing an activity over and over again will help them learn the steps, motion or concept well. |
Those colorful rolling balls can entertain and keep your baby occupied and entertained. Your munchkin will love rolling and running after the ball. Playing with balls is a great way of helping babies develop their gross motor skills as well as their hand-eye coordination.
Skill Development | Benefits |
Motor Skills Development | Babies will learn to hold and roll the ball in different directions which can help improve motor skills. |
Spatial Awareness | It is a complex skill which helps us understand how far an object is from us and make us move towards it. Playing with a ball will help babies develop this skill at an early age. |
[Read : Baby’s Gross Motor Skill Development]
Babies start understanding shapes at this stage. They will see, touch, and explore to differentiate between various shapes. Shape sorter toys are a great way to help a baby work on their gross motor skills and fine motor skills. These toys also improve problem-solving skills in babies.
Skill Development | Benefits |
Identify Shapes | Handling multiple shapes and trying to sort them helps in identifying and learning the differences between different shapes and forms. |
Learn To Match | Trying to put the right shape into the right slot will teach the baby to match and identify similarities. This is an important aspect of problem-solving capacity. |
Babies love to stack. They find it both challenging and fun to stack similar items together, in a particular order. Stacking and plugging toys greatly helps babies develop their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
Skill Development | Benefits |
Improves Concentration | Stacking the pieces one on top of the other requires the baby to concentrate on a single task and ignore all other distractions. |
Learn Balance | Learning the delicate art of balancing one piece on top of the other without toppling the structure |
While some babies love the water and just enjoy it without any toys, some need a little reinforcement in the form of apt bath toys. Bathing toys contribute greatly towards the cognitive and emotional development of babies. Also helps in
Skill Development | Benefits |
Improves Sense Of Feel/Touch | Babies love to touch and feel new textures. They will learn to differentiate between solid and liquid textures. |
Improves Posture | Moving water can disturb a baby’s balance when they are sitting. Playing in the water will help them improve this water as they will use their muscles and body weight to stay upright in the water. |
[Read : Baby’s Sense of Touch Development]
Soft toys can make the perfect playmate for some babies. They are cuddly and make a baby feel safe and secure. These toys can help babies in their social and emotional development
Skill Development | Benefits |
Fine Motor Skills | Babies will hold, crush and cuddle their soft toys. This requires them to use their fingers to hold, squeeze and grip the toy well. It will strengthen their fragile fingers. |
Sensorial Development | Touching and feeling the soft material and other toys with different textures will help develop your baby’s sense of touch. |
Babies love to see what their actions can lead to. They will try various actions to see how all it can affect the toys in hand. These toys are a great way to get your baby with their hand-eye coordination.
Skill Development | Benefits |
Understand Connection | Understanding that certain actions lead to certain reactions helps the brain connect one event to another. This is a very important aspect of cognitive development that will help them in practical life as well as at school as they grow up. |
Develop Ability to Predict | Once they understand the connection between the cause and effect of a particular action, they can predict when or what the outcome can be and play accordingly. |
Babies love toys with wheels. They love the movement and keep constantly trying the push and pull movements. Push and pull toys play a vital role in developing a baby’s cognitive skills
Skill Development | Benefits |
Improves Mobility | Pushing and pulling the toys will encourage the baby to move in various directions, putting all their muscles to use. |
Helps Understand Motion | Babies will understand the difference between the pushing and pulling motions. They will associate the action with the word and understand when you ask them to perform the action. |
Role play is an impactful way of understanding and reinforcing what babies learn from their environment. Mimicking their environment will help us understand their perception. Role-playing toys contribute to a baby’s language and communication skills while also helping them with their social and emotional development.
Skill Development | Benefits |
Teaches Empathy | Role-playing develops empathy, which is an important component of emotional development. |
Improves Imagination | They will come up with their own games with imaginary roles. Imagination leads to many discoveries and innovations. |
[Read : Speech And Language Developmental Milestones]
Babies like to mimic adults and will try to use household items as a part of their play. Household items are an excellent part of free play for babies and hep in their cognitive development, understanding capabilities, and also fuel their imagination
Skill Development | Benefits |
Creative Use of Items | They come up with unique ways to use regular household items which hones their creativity. |
Learn to Mimic | They observe and try to mimic how adults and everyone uses the items and will even try to recreate scenarios. |
Babies love toys. You can give them absolutely anything and they are bound to play with it and learn from it. Providing them with the age-appropriate toy can make a big difference in their overall development and help them become more independent and secure individuals.
Sindhuja, a mother of two, is an obsessive mom with a keen interest in psychology, especially child psychology. Her quest for knowledge and way with words led her to become a passionate content writer. She transformed her love for writing into a full-fledged career which incidentally also turned up being the perfect stress buster for the last 5 years.Read more.
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