The good news is that it’s very easy for you to help your baby understand the physical and social world around her. And you don’t need the latest toys and games. Simple toys such as a mobile hung over the crib, a rattle, or a plush toy give her the opportunity to explore objects and to learn their different properties. This helps her to attain a sense of control over her world by being able to impose an order upon it. As your baby matures and her motor coordination improves, she will begin to coordinate what she sees with what she touches and hears. These co ordinations all take time and repetition to learn, but they are very important attainments. Eventually your baby will be able to construct a mental image of an object, such as a ball, and will, for example, be able to point to it in a book when you say its name. This is another example of how language, motor coordination and sensory discrimination work together give your baby a sense of a stable, trustworthy world.
Because the world is so new to your baby, the only way she can learn about it is through her own interaction with objects. That is why it is so important to resist the temptation to give your baby high-tech toys; it is a little bit like asking your baby to run before she can walk. There will be plenty of time for your infant to engage with high tech toys when she is older. The important thing is for her to learn about the real world before learning about the virtual one.
Frederich Froebel, the inventor of the kindergarten, put it well when he said, “Children need to learn the language of things before they learn the language of words.” If we keep the world of the infant simple, yet rich in basic toys and abundant language, we provide the best environment for healthy mental development.