Half a year has already gone by since the arrival of your little bundle of joy. They have literally taken up all the space around the house, in your heart, and all your time. As they explore their skills, test limits, and learn new ways to use their own bodies, it can be exciting for parents to watch the transition. Keep following some top activities for a 6 month old baby and help them improve and grow better.
Babies love activities that will help them use and improve their body’s and brain’s capabilities. They like activities that can teach and test them at various levels. Identifying the right activities for their age and capabilities can be a real challenge for some parents. If you want to know what activities you can do with your baby, read on.
In This Article
- What Activities Can You Expect From a 6 Month Old Baby?
- Top 5 Fun and Engaging Activities For a 6 Month Old Baby
What Activities Can You Expect From a 6 Month Old Baby?
When your baby crosses the 6-months mark, they are on the verge of accomplishing many physical milestones. Many babies will start rolling over both ways; can hold items and shake them with intention, especially noisy rattles. They can respond to their name, your voice, and your expressions.
As sensorial development continues, your baby will try to mouth everything and explore items with taste. It is important to be careful about what items you choose to give them or leave next to them around this stage.
Top 5 Fun And Engaging Activities For a 6 Month Old Baby
If you are not sure about what activities you can do with your baby, that can help them get better at their skills, yet be safe, here are 5 activities just for you.
1. Clapping
We all clap so easily. A baby will find this fascinating. Show your baby how to clap and watch them put in all the effort to do something we feel is very simple. The simple act of bringing both hands together to touch and then making noise on contact can be a big milestone for babies to cross.
What You Will Need?
Just yourself and your baby
Top Benefits of Clapping For 6 Month Baby
Here are a few benefits of clapping
| Skill Development | Benefits |
| Gross Motor Skills Development | Moving the hands will improve muscle movement and strengthen them. This is very important as it will increase the usage of their hands and their ability to do things. |
| Develops Hearings | When they put their hands together and it makes a noise, their sense of hearing will improve. They will focus all their attention on the sound that is coming from their own hands. They can understand if the noise their clapping produces is too low or high enough. |
| Improves Hand Coordination | Clapping requires your baby to bring their hands together with intention, in front of their eyes. It requires a lot of hand-eye coordination. Your baby will realize what their own hands can do. They will try to recreate that sound multiple times before they learn how to do it properly. |
Tips For Parents
- Alternate between soft claps and loud claps
- Hold your baby’s hands and make them clap too
- Sing to reassure your baby, when you try to teach them how to clap.
[Read : When Do Babies Start Clapping?]
2. Talking to Your Baby
More than sweet nothings, if you actually talk to your baby, they will also listen and learn from you. Yes, their brains can in fact make sense of what you tell them! You may not make any sense to your baby yet, but they will love to hear your voice and will keenly observe the way your mouth moves.
What You Will Need?
Just yourself and your baby in a good mood
Top Benefits of Talking to Your 6 Month Old Baby
Here are a few benefits of talking to your baby
| Skill Development | Benefits |
| Speech Development | Talking to your baby is the best way to teach them words, dialects, and tones, and babies will pick up well too. They learn the words and associate them with actions making it a little easy. |
| Start Understanding Words Early | When you repeat a few commonly used words, your baby will start recognizing the similarily. They will form an association based on every reaction and understand the words better even if you use them in a different scenario. |
Tips For Parents
- Use clear and small words
- Move your mouth well to show the formation of words
[Read : Motor And Cognitive Skills Development of a Baby]
3. Singing to Your Baby
You need not be a good singer, even bathroom singing talent will suffice. Your baby will find your singing interesting, entertaining, and captivating. Start singing and they will join you soon. Babies don’t understand tunes but they will love it.
What You Will Need?
- Yourself and your baby
- Some quiet place
Top Benefits of Singing to Your 6 Month Old Baby
Here are a few benefits of singing to your baby
| Skill Development | Benefits |
| Improves Hearing | Exposing your baby to different sounds and pitches will enable their ears to pick up the sounds. When you sing their favorite song in different tones, it could be funny, screechy, or animated, it will increase the baby’s awareness. They will learn to discriminate between the different tones. |
| Cognitive Development | Music has the tendency to reach the parts of the brain that speech or reading can’t. When you sing to your baby, it stimulates different areas of the brain that normal play or activities don’t. |
Tips For Parents
- Have a small list of songs and keep singing them over and over again to your baby. Hearing the same song repeatedly will help your baby commit it to memory.
- Have a selection of soothing and peppy beat numbers. Your baby will enjoy everything.
- Try singing to soothe your baby when they are sleepy or cranky.
[Read : Baby Hearing Development After Birth]
4. Bouncing on the Leg
Have you noticed how simply bouncing your crying baby on your leg can make them stop crying and start laughing with glee in just a matter of seconds? Babies love this up-and-down motion and find it very exciting. Take them on a horse ride on your legs!
What You Will Need?
Yourself, your baby, and a good chair or sofa to sit on
Top Benefits of Bouncing on the Leg For Your 6 Month Old Baby
Here are a few benefits of bouncing on the leg for your baby
| Skill Development | Benefits |
| Understand the Movement | This is one movement babies cannot do yet. They can turn and roll but not bounce, babies love the feeling of going up and down and will learn to bounce on their bottoms once they start sitting up. |
| Better Neck and Head Control | When your body bounces, it is natural for the head to bounce. The neck and muscles connecting it to the head get stronger. Babies learn to stop their heads from bobbing uncontrollably. |
Tips For Parents
- Do not bounce your baby too fast or hard as it can shake their head too much. The strong shaking of the head can displace their brain.
- Hold your baby tight and support their back with your fingers
- Keep a close watch on your baby and stop if they look uncomfortable or scared
- Sit on a chair or a sofa where you can bend your leg comfortably. Sitting on a bed without back support or a low surface can cause your back or leg aches.
5. Situps
No, we are not talking about the situps you do at the gym. We are referring to helping your baby do the situps.
What You Will Need?
You, your baby, and some space
Top Benefits of Situps For Your 6 Month Old Baby
Here are a few benefits of situps for your baby
| Skill Development | Benefits |
| Develops Core Strength | Just like for adults, situps can improve the core mobility and strength of babies too. The core muscles are used to bring up their body weight, thus making the muscles stronger. |
| Teaches to Sit | As you pull them up to a sitting position, babies learn how to sit up from lying down. It builds muscle memory, which they can later use when they are strong enough to sit up on their own. |
Tips For Parents
- Use a soft surface as babies tend to drop their heads fast when you lower them back to the lying position.
- Hold their arms and not wrists or hands when you want to pull them up to a sitting position
- Ensure they get at least a half an hour gap between eating and doing these sit-ups.
With consistent and patient support and guidance, babies can start learning to do many things at a very young age. They are unaware of what their bodies and mind are capable of doing. With helpful activities, parents can not only show them the possibilities but can add some fun elements too.
