Activities for children from 4 to 12 months

These activities are designed to help the development of your child aged 4-12 months, and align with stage 1b of the Developmental Journal Babies Visual Impairment (DJVI).

Safety first

Supported sitting

What you'll need

Floor mat, sound toys, blanket

Activity

Once your child has developed good head control and can sit with a little bit of support on your knee, you can start introducing activities to help develop their core.

Whilst sitting your child on your knee facing you, hold them around their hips and try:

• Rocking them gently from side to side
• Rocking them back and forth
• Gradually increasing the size of the rock as their trunk control improves

These movements teach your child about their body and surroundings. You can help your child feel secure in different positions by making it enjoyable. For example, by starting to introduce a variety of calming and exciting body movements, such as:

• Rocking
• Swaying
• Lifting your child up and down
• Trying different speeds

To make it more fun you can include nursery rhymes or music whilst doing these activities, and over time your child will start to associate their movements with certain sounds.

Rolling and exploring

What you'll need

Mats, sound or light up toys, furniture, blanket 

Activity

Rolling is a key part of physical development and the early foundations for your child's mobility. Rolling starts to open up their world as a little explorer and helps them to experience new textures, surfaces and objects close to them.

At first, you may need to hold your child on their side or support them with a pillow. Wherever possible, make the area fun and interesting, as this will encourage your child to roll. Here are a few tips you may find helpful:

• Try using the experience of rolling as part of your child's daily routine when changing or dressing.
• A fun way to introduce rolling is to use a blanket on a soft surface and, with a partner, gently raise one side to roll your child for a few centimetres, or from side to side.
• To encourage your child to roll, place them on their side and encourage them to follow your voice or a toy that makes a noise.
• Lay your child beside different surfaces such as furniture sides, so they can feel different textures.
• Lay beside your child and talk or sing to them, so they can reach and feel for you.
• Use light up or sound-emitting toys, or foil blankets beside your child.

Try to encourage your child to roll from their side on to their back. You can then progress to rolling from their back to their side and eventually onto their tummy. You can show them what you want them to do by gently rolling them, to let your child learn the pattern of movement.

Feeling things close to me

What you'll need

Blanket, a range of fabrics

Tips

• When introducing your child to a new texture or object take your time, be calm and use a happy, light and encouraging tone of voice.
• You may find you often move your child’s hand and place it towards a new object, that’s only natural. But it’s important to remember that this could startle your child. Instead, try placing your hand under theirs and explore objects together. This gives your child confidence and provides fun and empowering shared experiences.

The Guiding Hands approach 

• Try placing your hands on your child’s upper arms, elbows, lower arms, or wrists to guide them to any item you would like them to touch. Once you’ve located the item together, maintain gentle contact to show them that you’re there. For support, try placing your hands under your child’s hand while you touch the texture together. Talk about your shared experience; making this a calm but fun activity!
• By exploring new textures in this way, your child can stop and pull their hand away if they’re not comfortable. Re-introduce the texture again next time you play. Remember, it takes many opportunities to become familiar and comfortable with new textures, tastes, and situations.
• Take a look at our advice on the Guiding Hands approach.

Activity

• Find some different materials, such as a foil blanket or soft fluffy material. Drape them over the edge of your sofa or a similar surface. Lay your child on their blanket on the floor nearby, with their legs pointing towards the hanging materials. Your child can try touching and exploring the different fabrics with their feet.
• Through this activity, your child can touch new textures, learn about their bodies and develop their ability to explore. At first, start with just one texture and use this material for short but repeated periods.

Using my senses to understand where I am

What you'll need

No additional resources needed.

Tips

When you’re caring for your child with a vision impairment, you may find that they often use their hearing together with their sense of touch to find, learn about and recognise objects. Helping your child to develop their listening skills will help them to understand the objects in their immediate surroundings and learn in a different way.

Activity

• Let your child spend time in different rooms of the house so that they get used to the changing sounds around them. For example, the bath taps running for bath time, the washing machine in the kitchen combined with the smell of food cooking.
• In a carpeted room the sounds will be more muted than in an area where most surfaces are hard. Exposing your child to multiple sound sources helps them to build an awareness of their surroundings, as well as encouraging listening skills linked to specific items. For example, the washing machine spinning or your cat meowing. 
• Actively engaging in listening activities encourages your child to form an understanding of the world around them through sound.
• Sounds clues can help your child to create a map of the house and link areas together, supporting their orientation skills for later independence.

My first spoon

What you'll need

Spoon, bowl or plate, non-slip mat, a large bib

Tips

• Teaching your child to use a spoon can be time-consuming, messy and tricky but is an important life skill. When beginning to wean your baby, give them a small, safe spoon to explore. Let your child hold the spoon and give simple language prompts to show your child what is going to happen next.
• Using high contrast for children with a reduced vision is vital. For example, use plain bowls and plates with a spoon in a contrasting colour. These colours will maximise your child’s visual access and make locating the spoon or bowl easier.
• Ensure that your working area is cleared and free from clutter, then place the bowl and spoon on a well-contrasted, non-slip mat on the highchair tray.

Activity

• Your child may want to explore with their hands. Let your child get used to being confident with new textures and try to refrain from wiping hands as soon as they get dirty. Allow the mess by preparing the area before you start. Plastic floor covers that can be wiped easily helps remove any pressure to rush in the early stages. Stay calm and encourage your child’s exploration.
• Tactile exploration is vitally important for your child. his early stage of playing with the foods you offer is a vital part of later learning and development.
• Both  you and your child need to have a spoon ready to start the meal. Tell your child when the spoon is approaching their mouth. For example, tap the bowl two times and scrape the edge of the bowl as you load the spoon. Use verbal prompts to support this, but do not over complicate language; keep it fun and simple.
• For very young children, you can scoop some food onto a spoon and put it to their mouth; they may need hand over hand support with this at first. 
• Make sure that the cutlery you use is always put back in the same place; this will be helpful for your child to find the spoon again if they let go. Ensuring cutlery is well contrasted against the table or plate will support your child in locating it. 
• Remember, practice makes perfect and acquiring new skills takes time. When introducing a new skill, start small! To start, encourage your child to feed themselves a couple of mouthfuls. Allow them to use and play with their new cutlery throughout the meal and then increase this over time. This ensures they are still practising the skill whilst enjoying their food and are not overly hungry!

Me and my body

What you'll need

Bells, tactile gloves, tactile socks, balloons, feathers

Tips

Nursery rhymes and action songs can help your child to learn and understand body awareness, physical movement and tactile feedback. They also provide great opportunities for social interaction, to develop language and communication skills.

Over time, your child may become familiar with the repetitive songs and begin to learn the words and guess the actions.

Try to keep games varied and activities short and start when your child is awake and alert. Begin some songs when your child is lying down and others when they’re on your lap. Before you start, it might also be a good idea to let your child know what you’re going to do. For example, by saying ‘Where are your feet/toes?’ as you touch them, or by placing your child’s hand on top of yours and guiding their hand to the body part. 

If using textures, gently place the item near your child’s hands or feet and give them time to explore. Wherever possible, encourage your child to explore the items using both hands. You can gently touch the texture to the back of your child’s hand or use hand-under-hand to guide your child to the item.

Remember to provide your child with time to process the visual, tactile, and auditory information before starting the song.

Activity

• Tie bells on your child’s hands and feet so they want to move their arms and legs to hear the jingling noise.
• Use a feather to play tickling games on your child’s hands and feet.
• Lay your child on their back, support their legs and gently bend and extend their knees away from their chest. This movement is like riding a bike. You may want to progress to lightly place your hands on the soles of your child’s feet and gently push and release each foot alternately. If your child is enjoying this activity, try to rotate each leg alternately in both directions and then move both legs together. 
• Place a bottle of warm milk or water on your child’s tummy or chest and support your child to find it, saying "Where is it? It’s on your tummy!"
• You can complete the actions on your child’s body as you sing nursery rhymes such as:

1. Round and round the garden
2. Incy Wincy spider
3. Twinkle, twinkle

Repeat often to build your child’s familiarity and encourage their anticipation.

Learning to sit independently

What you'll need

Mats, sound or light up toys, furniture, blanket

Tips

Take time with your child to explore the world around them. The things they feel and smell can help support routines, familiarity and make them feel secure.

Activity

Developing control of their core when sitting will introduce a whole new world of activities for your child. You can help support your child's sitting by:

• Sitting them upright with full support between your legs or using a sitting aid.
• Encourage them to use their hands and arms as props when sitting; this may be against you or a toy.
• Over time, your child will require less support for sitting and should be able to explore around them.
• Use mats, toys and objects that make noises when knocked, shaken or grabbed, such as a foil blanket, rattle, or a ball containing a bell. 

Place toys and objects that light up or make a noise in front or to the side of your sitting child. This may help to encourage your child to extend their reach and promotes their understanding of the space around them.

Nursery rhymes with forwards, backwards, and side to side motions will help develop your child's balance and fall reflexes. When rocking from side to side, guide your child's hands out to touch the floor on the side they are leaning towards.