Play and Brain Development
What is Play (0-12 months?)
Play is vital for developing your baby’s brain.
Babies learn about themselves, their world around
them and their relationships with important people
in their lives through play. When we think of play,
we might imagine that this involves some sort of
imaginary game. However for your baby play
involves ordinary everyday moments that allow
them to experience the world, themselves and
their relationships through their senses.
Most babies are born with the senses of touch,
smell, taste, vision, hearing, movement and
balance. Information from the different senses is
the way your baby’s brain connects to the outside
world. The information is processed by their
brains and affects everything they do now and in
the future e.g. how they explore, move, learn,
interact with others, control their emotional
responses, attention and arousal. The way we
take in and make use of the information from our
senses is called sensory processing.
From birth onwards parents help their baby
experience the world through their support.
Through being carried, moved and held, a baby
gets signals through his senses that help him
learn about balance, momentum, space and
movement, muscles tensing and relaxing.
PRG No. 81
Your baby needs these experiences before he
can physically move, roll, crawl and walk on his
own.
By involving your baby in everyday activities,
allowing them to safely explore their world,
rocking them or swinging them, you are
contributing to the development of their spatial
awareness i.e. their awareness of objects in the
space around them and also their body’s position
in space.
Why is this necessary? Children who have well
developed spatial awareness are able to feed
themselves as they are able to judge the distance
from the plate to their mouths; they are skilled at
abstract thinking and maths; they are skilled at
reading as they are able to see the patterns and
spaces between the different letters; they may be
skilled at team sports as they are aware of the
precise positions of other players on the field.
Babies gain information about objects in their
world through their senses. This is why babies
put objects in their mouths for the first 18 months
– in this way they are able to sense the taste,
texture and weight of the object.
Play and Brain Development (cont’d)
What can parents do?

Simply holding your baby - you are helping to wire your baby’s brain circuits that will
help your child achieve at school in the fields of maths, science and language Your
baby’s favourite toy is your face and body.

Hold your baby close to your face and talk to them, all the while watching to see if
your baby is not getting too tired or overstimulated. Stop if your baby indicates that
they are tired and overstimulated. They will do this by, for example, looking away,
arching their backs or crying.

Allow your baby time to lie on their back while being able to freely move their arms
and legs

Provide you baby with supervised tummy time

Model play behaviours to your child by picking up and rattling a rattle for example
and then place the rattle where your baby can begin to try to copy your behaviour

Allow your baby to safely explore their world. In this way you will encourage them to
develop their cognitive (learning) skills, emotional and physical skills through
exercising their muscles.