How to: Play with your newborn

A child's brain grows at the fastest pace over the first three months. Early experiences with adults shape how their brains develop and lay the foundation for a good start in life, and is indicative of future success in school.

Playing with your baby is one way to interact. Play is natural for children and it is how they learn. Think of playing a simple game of Peek a Boo and how your baby engages with you and shows pleasure in recognizing you over and over again.

Play gives opportunities for children to learn and develop new skills.

When they play, children use all their senses (hearing, seeing, tasting, touching, smelling) gathering information about their world. They organise and reorganise this information into their first images of themselves, others, and their world.

Babies and young children will develop new skills for talking and thinking, moving and doing, feeling and learning about themselves and getting along with others, through good interaction and caring, fun and play.