Easy Things To Do With Your Newborn To Optimize Development

As a pediatrician, mom, and infant developmental expert for Enfamil NeuroPro, I love discussing newborn development. During the newborn visit, I often get parents in my office wondering how to engage with their newborn. So, I’ll be sharing some easy things that you can do with your baby to optimize their development in different areas!

What Are the Main Domains of Development?

First, it’s essential to understand the development domains and how/when to foster them. These are the four main domains of child development:¹

1. Social/Emotional

The social/emotional domain includes a child’s ability to understand and use their emotions, connect with and learn about other human beings, and develop empathy.^1,2

2. Language/Communication

This domain includes a child’s ability to learn communication skills (nonspoken) and language (spoken). This includes creating the sounds for speech, understanding language, communicating with verbal and nonverbal cues, and eventually putting words together.^1,2,3

3. Cognitive Development

This domain includes a child’s intellectual ability and creativity development. They develop this domain by being shown things in their environment and connecting their experiences with movement, language, and other domains.^1,4,5 In cognition, first comes vision (in the first two months), followed by reaching out and putting things in their mouth (oral exploration), followed by learning about their environment.⁶

4. Motor/Physical Development

This domain includes a child’s ability to use gross motor skills or large muscles (tummy time, sitting, crawling, walking) and fine motor skills or smaller muscles (fingers for grabbing things).^2,7 Fine motor skills are often overlooked but are very important later in life. These include things like grasping, releasing, pinching, and using their hands and fingers.^8,9

In my opinion, the cognitive and social/emotional domains are the foundation for the other development areas. You can’t teach language or motor skills if you aren’t connected with your baby (social/emotional) or teach them how everything in their environment affects one another (cognition).

What Should You Do Month-to-Month To Foster Development?

Here are some easy things you can do to foster your baby’s development from the newborn stage through the 2-month-old stage:

Newborn

When your child is a newborn, don’t focus so much on “play” for their development. This time is “survival mode,” where your only job is to learn about your baby and your new role as a parent. Learn about their hunger cues (smacking their lips, sucking their hands, etc.) and sleepy cues (looking dazed, pulling their ears, yawning, etc.).^10,11,12 You can begin to do tummy time with baby by laying them on your chest when you’re awake.¹³ But again, when you bring baby home, the goal is to settle into your new role. If anything, the social/emotional domain is being heavily fostered as you bond and connect with baby in your own way.¹⁴

Two Weeks

Continue to enhance that social/emotional bond by showing them love and affection in your way: skin-to-skin, cuddles, kisses, etc.¹⁵ Remember, this physical and emotional connection isn’t immediate for some parents.¹⁴ If you feel disconnected as your baby grows, speak to your doctor.

Also, start doing tummy time if you haven’t already done so. This is something that will be done when they’re awake.¹³ It’s a great activity to keep their head round and help develop their neck and shoulder muscles.^13,16 If they don’t love it, work them up to more floor time and/or lay down on the ground with them. Tummy time will help them develop their motor skills.¹³ To assist with tummy time, you can use black-and-white contrast images that you lay in front of baby. These stimulate baay’s eyes, help connect neurons in their brain (supporting cognition), and can help them do tummy time for longer.¹⁷

One Month

As your baby looks around more, introduce a rattle to help them track with their eyes. Start midline and move the rattle to the side of their visual field. If they don’t move their eyes toward it, shake the rattle a little to get their attention. This eye-gazing will help develop their cognitive skills — learning to interact (move their eyes) with an object in their environment (the rattle).^18,19

If you haven’t already, start reading to your baby. This is a great way to lay the foundation of language and communication. Hearing your voice, your cadence, and the love in your voice will also help with social and emotional bonding.^20,21 Babies and young infants respond better to and learn language with a high-pitched, sing-songy voice, so don’t be shy about getting a little musical!^20,22

Two Months

For language development, mimic their sounds and coos. When they coo, coo back. If they smile, smile back. This reciprocity is part of preverbal communication and is important in language/communication development.^23,24 Continue doing tummy time to foster those motor skills.¹³ And continue reading to your baby to foster those language skills.²⁰

Continue To Bond With Your Baby To Foster That Important Social/Emotional Bond

Playing with our kiddos, especially before they can smile, can sometimes be challenging. Remember, they are sleeping more than they are awake. So, when they are awake, set goals for which activities you want to do. The key to newborn and early child development is to understand that engagement doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. And above all else, don’t stress about their development! They will thrive with your love, guidance, and ability to teach them about the world.