A–Z Glossary

Object permanence

The developing understanding that an object continues to exist even when it is temporarily out of sight.

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Development leaps in babies explained

Development leaps in babies explained

What is a developmental leap? In everyday parenting language, a developmental leap is a noticeable period of progress in which a baby begins integrating abilities that were previously emerging separately. For example, an infant may first improve trunk control, then combine that stability with reaching, grasping, visual attention, and problem-solving to obtain a toy. The […]

Object Permanence and Early Thinking

Object Permanence and Early Thinking

What Object Permanence Means Object permanence refers to the understanding that an object or person continues to exist when it cannot currently be seen, heard, or touched. For an infant, this is a major shift from responding primarily to immediate sensory information toward maintaining an internal representation of something that is absent from the current […]

Activities to encourage baby milestones

Activities to encourage baby milestones

Start With Responsive Interaction The foundation of infant learning is a responsive relationship: the caregiver notices the baby’s signals and responds in a timely, warm, and predictable way. Hold your baby close, make eye contact when they are receptive, and imitate their facial expressions or vocalizations. When the baby coos, pause and answer as though […]

Play ideas to support development stages

Play ideas to support development stages

Why play matters across development Play is not separate from learning in infancy; it is a primary context in which learning occurs. Through repeated, motivating experiences, babies practise postural control, visual attention, grasping, vocalisation, anticipation, and social engagement. The American Academy of Pediatrics describes play as supporting several interacting domains, including cognitive development, language, social-emotional […]

Key transitions in baby development

Key transitions in baby development

From reflexes to regulation One of the earliest developmental transitions is the shift from reflex-dominated newborn behavior toward more organized regulation. In the first weeks, many movements are driven by primitive reflexes, flexor tone, startle responses, rooting, sucking, and brief alert periods. Over time, cortical control, sensory processing, and caregiver co-regulation help the baby spend […]

Stranger anxiety in babies explained

Stranger anxiety in babies explained

What stranger anxiety is Stranger anxiety is an infant’s wary, avoidant, or distressed response to unfamiliar people. It may look like crying when someone new enters the room, turning away from a visiting relative, clinging tightly to a parent, refusing to be held by a babysitter, or watching a stranger with a still, serious expression. […]

Object fascination in babies

Object fascination in babies

Why objects are so compelling For a baby, an object is not just a thing; it is a compact experiment. A rattle may be bright, graspable, noisy, cool against the gums, and different when shaken, dropped, or rolled. This combination of sensory feedback makes objects powerful tools for learning. Infants are drawn to contrast, movement, […]

Best activities for babies 0 to 12 months

Best activities for babies 0 to 12 months

Principles for choosing infant activities Babies do not need expensive equipment or a tightly scheduled curriculum. They benefit from a predictable environment, warm social contact, and opportunities to initiate movement and interaction. Choose activities that match the baby’s current state: an alert baby may enjoy face-to-face play, while a fatigued baby may need quiet holding […]

Language development activities baby

Language development activities baby

How babies begin to communicate During the first year, language development is a gradual progression from regulation and social attention to increasingly intentional communication. Newborns listen to the prosody, or rhythm and intonation, of speech and may quiet or orient toward a familiar voice. Over the following months, babies often become more alert to faces, […]

Exploration activities for babies

Exploration activities for babies

Why exploration matters in infancy Babies are active learners from the beginning. Exploration helps them link perception and action: a sound prompts a head turn, a visually interesting object holds attention, or a hand contacts a toy and produces movement or noise. Over time, these experiences contribute to sensorimotor learning, the foundation on which later […]

Problem solving play baby

Problem solving play baby

What problem solving looks like in infancy Infant problem solving is usually sensorimotor: babies use looking, reaching, kicking, mouthing, grasping, turning, dropping, and vocalizing to learn how actions change their surroundings. Rather than reasoning verbally, they build practical knowledge through repeated encounters. A young baby may discover that a kick makes a hanging object move. […]

Peekaboo Games for Object Permanence

Peekaboo Games for Object Permanence

What Object Permanence Means in Infancy Object permanence is the developing understanding that a person or object remains present even when it cannot currently be seen. A young infant may attend mainly to what is immediately visible. With maturation and repeated experiences, the baby increasingly expects a hidden toy, caregiver, or sound source to continue […]

Best baby toys for development

Best baby toys for development

What makes a toy developmentally useful? A developmentally useful toy creates an opportunity for the baby to act, observe a result, and try again. A soft rattle may encourage visual tracking and grasping; a cloth book may invite reaching, mouthing, and shared attention; a stable container may support transferring objects from one hand to another. […]