Sound Garden
Parent plays different gentle sounds for baby — crinkling paper, tapping a glass, humming, shaking a jar of rice — and the agent coaches the parent to observe baby's reactions to different timbres, volumes, and rhythms. This activity explores early aesthetic sensitivity through auditory experience.
Opens a guided voice session in TogetherTime.
What you'll need
Baby should be awake and calm. Parent needs 3-4 items that make distinct gentle sounds (crinkly paper, glass and spoon, container with rice, keys, etc.). Quiet environment so sounds are clear.
How it works
- 1~25s
Start with one sound — something gentle like crinkling paper near your child's ear, about a foot away. Do it for a few seconds, then stop. Watch your child's face and body. Does they turn toward the sound? Go still? Widen their eyes? Change expression at all? Now try a second sound — something different, like tapping a glass. Tell me what your child did for each one.
Watch for: Baby shows differentiated responses to distinct sound stimuli, indicating aesthetic sensitivity to sound qualities.
- 2~30s
Now let's see if your child has a favourite! Go through each of your sound-makers one at a time — give each one about five seconds, then pause before the next. After you've done all of them, go back to the one that seemed to get the biggest reaction and play it again. you, which sound got the strongest response? What did your child do?
Watch for: Baby shows a preference for certain sounds over others, indicating early aesthetic judgement.
- 3~20s
Last experiment! Let's see if your child can find where a sound is coming from. Make a gentle sound to your child's left side, just out of their direct view. Pause. Then make the same sound on the right side. Does your child turn their head toward the sound? Which direction did they look?
Watch for: Baby orients toward a sound source, demonstrating sound localisation ability.