My First Rattle

Materials You Need: Baby rattle; A soft surface or baby seat.

What You Can Do Together: Babies love songs as they are a fun way to introduce themselves to the world of sounds and language. By doing this activity, you will help your baby to begin to identify sounds from the environment.

Before starting, prepare the place where they will play. Remove any distraction that may affect the game. To start, you must have your baby's rattle on hand.

Now lay your baby on a soft surface or in her baby seat. Hold the rattle in front of your little one and shake it gently. Be careful to shake it very hard to avoid the frightening sound.

While shaking the rattle, sing a nursery rhyme, or you can try the following:

     Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-O!

     And on that farm, he had some ducks, E-I-E-O!

     With a quack quack here, and a quack quack there,

     Here a quack, there a quack everywhere a quack-quack!

     Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-O!

You can use this rhyme by including different animals, e.g. dogs, cats etc. Ensure your baby is looking at the rattle and see if it has caught her attention. If so, move the rattle to the side and sing the song again, so your baby can turn her head towards the rattle.

Follow the movement of the rattle around different parts of the room and watch your baby follow the sound with her head. Be careful not to rattle in places that endanger the baby's neck by turning the head.

If you perceive that your baby is very interested and ready, you can give her the rattle to take in her hand and experiment with it. You can keep singing nursery rhymes while your baby is playing with the rattle.

What Your Child is Learning: The baby's brain develops and grows thanks to the information it receives from the environment. Exposing her to various sounds will help her identify, distinguish, and locate sounds, and also move her neck and head.