Play: First three months

Most of this info comes from "The New Language of Toys"...

Birth to three months:
-first of all just breathe! these first 3 months can be exhausting.
-for the first 3-6 weeks the optimal focusing distance is 7 to 9 inches from his face and slightly to the right (babies look to the right more than 90% of the time).
-see if your baby is more interested in bright colors OR black/white contrast

Toys:
*Mobile-->visually stimulating, calming if over a changing table
*stuffed animal-->soft texture, stroke baby's arms, legs, face with animal, point out facial features.
*rattles-->they don't have the coordination to hold it at first, but you can use it as sound and sight stimulation; get a variety of rattles.
sound stimulation: The first month-child will react to sound by blinking eyes;
by the end of the 2nd month he will begin to search for the source of sound.
if doesn't respond, move it to the front, talk about the sound and then try it
again from the side.
sight stimulation: hold it in front of his eyes and move it slowly off to the side; watch him
track it with his eyes.
*texture toys-->describe the texture as your child touches it (soft, rough, bumpy)
Homemade toys:
*plate designs-->take a plain white paper plate and use a dark black marker to draw designs (swirls, target, lines) and faces on them. you can hold them up in front of the baby OR make a simple mobile using the plates.

Here's an example of what you could say:

"Look, I made you some new designs to look at. Can you see the black lines on this plate? They go swirl, swirl, swirl around and around. Where is the plate? Can you find it? Good! You are looking at the plate...."