Start Them Young: STEM Activities For Infants

Babies are natural explorers. I always say it’s never too early to expose your babies to the world of Science and exploration. Sensory play is critical for their developing brains. It can also be deeply rewarding for you to watch quietly as your baby discovers what makes the world go round.

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Try the easy DIY weekly/ monthly ideas that we will be sharing on KSP. Many of the ideas use household items to stimulate your baby’s senses and engage their need for exploration and get them started on their STEM Journey

This week /month we shall start off with the Science of Sound.

Studies show that, up to about 6 months of age, babies can recognize all the sounds that make up all the languages in the world. The world apparently sounds very different to infants than it does to adults.

Exposing them to various sounds can stimulate their brain and help them distinguish various sounds. They can learn about where the sound is coming from and what happens when you increase or decrease the sound.

The Sound of Velcro

To some adults, the sound of Velcro coming apart may be annoying. But for babies, it can work like magic when you need to calm them down or just get them engaged in self-play. This is a no mess activity making it a great choice for days when you just can’t clean up another spill.

All you need is Velcro and other materials like a soft toy, shoelace and socks. Actually, you can use anything you can stick Velcro to. Let them learn how it sticks together and can be pulled. They will soon figure out what sticks and what doesn’t, which sound of sticking and unsticking they like and which sound they don’t enjoy.

Activity 1

You can also make a little activity board for them. Here’s what you’ll need to create a DIY Velcro board of your own:

Adhesive Velcro Dots and Strips
Scissors
A Tray, Pan, Cutting Board, or any other base such as Cardboard.
Small Objects like Toys, Socks, Shoelace etc from around the house

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Steps

1: Stick the rough side of Velcro to the base of the board

2: Stick the Velcro dots to hard surface objects. The soft object can be left as is.

Your Sticky Station is ready to be explored; not just for the sound but also for the texture exploration.

How you introduce this station to your baby is completely up to you. I would start with just putting the board in front of the infant and letting the baby touch the open Velcro and explore that way. Then stick one object at a time and unstick it, let the baby hear the sound and touch it. And watch and hear the mystery unfold.

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Activity 2

The Sound Of Bottles

Have you ever put your mouth at the bottle opening and made a sound to hear the deep voice back? Babies love that. This is where they learn the cause and effect of sound production. Once they realize that by putting their little mouths to the bottle opening and making a sound into it produces an echo like sound, they love it.

Here is what you need.

Literally any empty bottle (water bottle, soft drink bottle etc.) the bigger the bottle, the more fun they will have.

Tip: try different types of bottle like plastic bottle, glass bottle, wide mouth bottle, narrow mouth bottle, empty jars that you keep your pickles in.

First show them. Hold the bottle to your mouth and speak into it. Speak baby’s name, make sounds. Once you have their attention give them another bottle and let them play and explore. They may not know to put the bottle opening to their mouth at first and that’s ok. Let them figure it out. You keep showing them with your own bottle. Once they figure it out, there is no stopping them.

Here is another sensory tip

Take several bottles and fill them with various objects such as coloured water, grains, marbles, oil and glitter etc. Make sure you tighten the lid securely. Shake the bottles to make various sounds. This sensory play not only stimulates their hearing but also their visual senses.

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So try these out and enjoy watching your little one experiencing these various sounds and textures while having loads of fun.