By the time your child is 8 months old, parents and caregivers find themselves in a new situation: All of a sudden, baby is awake and alert for longer stretches of time. As a result, he needs an ever-increasing amount of attention and stimulation — especially because he isn’t yet independent enough to entertain himself for very long.
So it’s understandable if you’re starting to actively seek out ideas for fun, engaging activities to incorporate into your 8-month-old’s routine — specifically, ones that might help foster your little one’s growth and development.
What skills is your child developing at 8 months?
Pediatricians use milestones like mimicking sounds and sitting without support as guidelines to track baby’s progress in four categories crucial to development: social and emotional, language and communication, cognition, and gross and fine motor skills.
While these guidelines can be helpful, they shouldn’t be considered a strict schedule — all babies grow on slightly different timelines. Missing one — or even a few — of these markers can be perfectly normal, but always voice any concerns you have about your child’s development to your pediatrician during well visits.
In general, though, here’s what you can expect to see your baby accomplishing around the 8-month mark:
Social and emotional skills
- Knows familiar faces and begins to know if someone is a stranger
- Likes to play with others, especially parents and caregivers
- Enjoys looking at self in the mirror
Language and communication skills
- Responds to sounds by making sounds
- May try to repeat sounds
- Babbles with long strings of sounds
- Responds to “no” and his own name
- Combines consonant and vowel sounds together when babbling
Cognitive skills
- Transfers objects from one hand to the other
- Bangs toys on surfaces
- Holds small objects between pads of thumb and index finger
Gross and fine motor skills
- Rolls over easily in both directions (front to back, back to front)
- May sit without support
- May bounce when feet are supported on a firm surface
- Rocks back and forth in attempt to crawl
Best activities for an 8-month-old baby
So what can you do to encourage your baby as he explores those skills — and more? The following activities are great ways to play with your 8-month-old and help him reach the milestones above.
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Build a tower
Don’t expect your little one to build a towering structure right off the bat, but watching you stack blocks — and subsequently watching them fall down — teaches your child about cause and effect. What’s more, even just handling blocks and bringing them up to his mouth and across his body helps teach tactile skills (just make sure blocks are large enough not to be a potential choking hazard).
To make this activity even more engaging, use brightly colored blocks or blocks with letters and numbers on them and narrate observations about the colors and characters to further your child’s language skills.
Create sensory bags
For a fun, stimulating and not-at-all-messy arts and crafts activity, tightly seal different objects — think squishy toys, non-toxic paints or cooked pasta noodles — in plastic baggies (use duct or masking tape to reinforce them securely shut). Tape the bags down on baby’s high chair tray or even on the wall. Show your little one how to poke and prod the bags to mush the objects around or swirl the colors together.
Through this fun sensory activity, baby will learn all about textures, plus expand hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. As always, be sure to stand by and supervise closely while he plays.
Turn everyday objects into a rattle or shaker toy
Around this age, you’ll probably notice your baby banging his toys onto various surfaces. He isn’t trying to break them — it’s his way of exploring cause and effect, or seeing what might happen when he takes various actions.
To encourage this type of exploration, turn various everyday objects into shakers. For example, you might put rice inside a plastic water bottle or make an hourglass timer out of two soda bottles and sand (always seal any do-it-yourself shakers tightly before offering them to your child). It’s a full sensory experience, since baby can see and hear what’s happening as the materials move about the various containers.
Dedicate one kitchen cabinet to your baby
Babyproofing cabinets and drawers is a rite of passage for new parents — and that’s because babies love to explore these areas, opening and shutting doors and pulling out any objects inside. Opening and shutting cabinets is a great way to teach your little one all about cause and effect, as well as object permanence. But it’s not the safest method of exploration, unless you specifically dedicate a cabinet to baby’s curiosity.
Empty out a safe cabinet or drawer and replace the contents with baby-safe items — think plastic food storage containers, empty water bottles, picture books, bibs or baby utensils — and let your little one explore to his heart’s content. Just make sure the cabinet is located in a safe part of the house (for example, not near the stove or in an area where you might easily trip over your child while he’s playing).
Tissue box play
It’s no secret that babies love taking tissues out of a tissue box — and this simple action teaches your child all about cause and effect, plus hones his fine motor skills. But as much as you want to entertain your child, it can be frustrating to see all your tissues end up on the floor. Instead, fill an empty tissue box with baby-safe items that your child can reach in and pull out (think small washcloths or colorful scarves).
Regardless of the activities you choose, the most important thing is simply to make time for play. Luckily, though, you don’t need lots of expensive toys or gear in order to engage your baby. While parental and caregiver reinforcement and interaction is an important component of play, babies play through almost every action they take.
So rest assured: While the above activities are great ways to make playtime more stimulating and, ultimately more enriching for baby, research shows that even the simplest actions — talking, singing and reading, in particular — are some of the most important things parents can do with children of any age.