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Kick, and something happens

⏱️ 5 min📦 things you have🏠 indoor🤲 on their back🧠 Cognitive🤸 Motor

At around four months, the idea that one thing makes another thing happen may start to sharpen. Nothing about it needs teaching: a sheet of crinkly paper under two kicking feet does the whole job, because the noise arrives exactly when the legs move and stops exactly when they stop. Some evenings the paper gets ignored completely, and that is a full session too.

🧺 You need

  • a sheet of crinkly paper, or a flattened paper carrier bag

🛡️ Paper and a baby's face do not mix: the sheet stays under their feet and lower legs, never up over the chest or the head, and it leaves with you when the game ends rather than staying on the floor beside them. Damp paper tears into pieces small enough to swallow, so swap a soggy sheet for a fresh one and stay within arm's reach for the whole of it. Firm floor only — never a bed, a sofa or a changing table, because at this age a first roll can arrive with no warning at all.

Source: AAP — Cognitive Development in Infants: 4 to 7 Months

🩺 Vuila shares play ideas, not medical advice — for questions about your child's development, talk to your pediatrician.

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Kick, and something happens

Bare feet, and the paper already touching

Take their socks off, lay baby on their back on firm floor, and spread the crinkly paper flat under their bare feet and lower legs, well clear of their chest and face. Tuck it right up against the soles so it is already touching — then the smallest shift is enough and nothing has to be reached for. Crinkle one corner softly in your own hand first so the first noise is not a surprise, and a single sheet of parcel paper is a quieter game than a whole carrier bag if quieter is what today needs.