Infants - Cause and Effect

Infants enjoy dropping things.

Use the following games as learning experiences for your infants.

Babies like to throw things out of the high chair or over the side of the crib. They watch the objects fall and
listen to the sound it makes when it hits the floor. Your baby is exploring cause and effect relationships.

LISTEN TO THE SOUND
Your baby should be sitting in a high chair.

Take a large basket or a pot and put it on the floor next to the highchair.

Fill a separate container with several small objects and place the container in front of your baby.

Take something from the container and drop it into the basket.

Ask your baby to copy you..

If he doesn’t understand, put one of the objects in his hand and help him drop it..

When it drops, say words like “bumpity bump” or “ding dong.”

Give the baby objects that fall with different sounds. For example: a rattle, a wooden spoon, a ball, and a washcloth. Talk about the different sounds. “Oh, that was so soft.” “That rattle sounded noisy.”

BOUNCING
Another reason that babies like to throw things out of the high chair is to see what happens to the object.

Does it bounce like a ball or does it stay still? Actually, she is learning about the laws of gravity.

Give her a wadded up piece of paper to throw on the floor. Next, give her a tennis ball or small rubber ball to do the same.

Talk about the differences. “Oh look, that ball bounced. Oh look, the paper didn’t bounce. Here is a block. I wonder if it will bounce.”

When your baby throws food on the floor, she is probably wanting to see if it will bounce!