Turn Things Around
Parent places a pacifier or small object in baby's hand backwards, encouraging baby to rotate it to use it correctly. The agent guides the parent to observe hand manipulation, object rotation, and hand-to-hand transfers -- building fine motor control and early problem-solving.
Opens a guided voice session in TogetherTime.
What you'll need
Baby seated comfortably with support. Have a pacifier and one or two small graspable toys within reach. Baby should be alert and in a good mood.
How it works
- 1~35s
Place the pacifier in your child's hand with the back side facing their mouth, so they would need to turn it around to use it. Watch what your child does. Does they open their hand to take it? Does they try to bring it to their mouth? Does they make any attempt to rotate or flip it? Tell me what happens.
Watch for: Baby grasps the object and attempts to manipulate or rotate it in hand.
- 2~30s
Now let's try something else. Give your child a small toy in one hand. Then offer a second toy to the same hand. Watch to see if your child switches the first toy to their other hand to free up the first hand for the new toy. This hand-to-hand transfer is a really important fine motor milestone. What does your child do?
Watch for: Baby transfers an object from one hand to the other.
- 3~30s
For our last little challenge, offer your child a slightly different shaped object, maybe a small ring or a cube. Watch how they grabs it. Does your child use their whole hand to grasp it, or do you see individual fingers wrapping around it? Also notice if they explores the object by turning it over or feeling different sides. Tell me what you see.
Watch for: Baby uses fingers to grasp and explore objects rather than just a whole-hand palmar grasp.