Do you ever play brain games to keep your brain sharp? Well here is a brain game for your little one. This activity is going to encourage your child to problem solve!
Directions
- Grab a pair of mittens and put them on your little one’s hands while they are playing!
- Watch and see what your little one does. Does baby try to take off the mittens? Do they try to continue playing with the mittens on? Or does baby sit there and do nothing?
- Monitor to make sure your child doesn’t become overly frustrated. If they become frustrated by the mittens, try helping your little one out by pulling one mitten off slowly so that baby can watch how you did that.
- Sit back and watch to see what your little one will do with just one mitten on. Will baby try to take the other mitten off? Will they play with their toys one handed? Or are they still sitting there staring at their mitten?
- Encourage baby to pull off the last minute if they haven’t. Repeat the activity and see if your little one does anything different this time.
Riley's experience
When I put the mittens on during her play, she sat there staring at the mittens. After a couple minutes, she decided to try playing. She attempted to pick up a few items, but didn’t continue playing in the same way she was before I put her mittens on. She was more interested in the mittens on her hand. The mittens I placed on her hands were connected by string and she found that interesting the play with. She used her foot to try to pull at the string. Once her toes became tangled in the string, she became frustrated. I showed her how to pull off one mitten and went back to observing. Riley was interested in the mitten that was off her hand and compared it to the mitten that was still on her hand. She played with the one mitten for a few minutes before I encouraged her to pull the other mitten off. After a little bit of convincing, she pulled the mitten off. She then crawled over to me with the mittens and wanted me to put them back on her. She wasn’t sure how to get the mittens off when she had both of them on, but if I pulled off a mitten, she quickly pulled off the other. I alternated hands that I left in the mitten so that she could work on pulling off the mitten with both hands.
Age Range
This is a great activity to try with babies 6 to 12 months!
Benefits
- Fine motor skills: Riley is working her hands and finger muscles as she tries to pull off the mittens.
- Language development: Riley is exposed to contextual vocabulary. She is hearing words such as soft, mittens, hand, pull, etc.
- Problem solving (cognitive development): Riley has to problem solve how to get the mittens off to continue playing or figure out how to play with the mittens on.
