Like all parents, you probably spent the first few months of your baby’s life holding, rocking, and hugging them. However, as time passes and your little one grows, you might realize that they’ll need so much more than just your touch. Because of this, you might need to invest in an activity gym.
Some of the best baby gyms out there will encourage important development stages, while at the same time, your baby will spend hours of endless fun exploring different things. If this is something you want to ensure, here is a list of the top five developmental benefits of purchasing an activity gym:
1. It’ll Encourage The Development of Motor Skills + Improvement of Hand-Eye Coordination
The first twelve months of your child’s life is when they’ll develop a wide range of new skills and if you opt for purchasing an activity play mat, you’ll be able to boost and encourage that development. How? Well, the mat will feature various hanging objects that your little one will try to grab. Also, they usually have different textures and colors on the mat, hence, your baby will be able to experience new things while they’re on the mat.
It’s worth mentioning that a lot of these mats will feature hanging elements, hence, if you want to ensure that your baby tries and reach them, you could, for example, replace one of them with their favorite toy, beanie, rattle, or whatever else your little one prefers. As your child is trying to grab and reach the objects, they’ll kick, turn, and move around, all of which will contribute to the development of motor skills and the improvement of hand-eye coordination.
2. Their Senses Will Be Stimulated at All Time
The best baby activity gym will have contrasting colors, which will easily and quickly attract the attention of your child. Besides lively colors, there should also be various patterns that’ll help improve your baby’s vision. Keep in mind, that black and white patterns might be suitable for younger kids, mostly because they’re the first colors and patterns that a baby can see, however, bright and lively colors will also be sufficient.
Additionally, they’ll improve their hearing mostly by listening to all the sounds produced by the rattles you hanged, or by squeezing, pulling, and kicking the elements, toys, fabrics, and attachments on the mat. Sensory stimulation is incredibly important for small babies and when they play around the different fabrics and when they touch different surfaces, they’ll be able to develop their senses quicker.
3. They’ll Be Occupied For Hours Every Day
When I first brought my baby home, it was relatively easy to take care of him, mostly because his only needs were to be changed, bathed, fed, and cuddled. But, three months later, I realized that he will need a lot more to be entertained. If you opt for purchasing a baby activity mat, your baby will be occupied for hours every day, while at the same time, they’ll improve and develop all the important skills they need.
Besides this, you’ll have a little bit more time to finish things around the house, however, if you want to, you could also choose to interact with your baby – which is something that is extremely important as well. During the time that you interact with your little one, you’ll encourage communication and social skills, but more importantly, you’ll spend some quality and really fun time with your child every day.
4. Their Cognitive Skills Will Develop
Besides helping with the development of the aforementioned skills, it’ll also help with developing their cognitive abilities and skills, mostly by boosting knowledge about different surfaces, patterns, shapes, sounds, and colors – all of which are crucial to your baby’s developing brain. Keep in mind, that there are various mats available on the market, all of which will feature different things, hence, before you choose the first one that comes in your search results, read more info on how to choose the right one for your baby.
5. It’ll Encourage Your Little One to Move
During the two- and three-month period, your baby will no longer spend most of their day sleeping and eating, instead, they’ll sleep less and move around a lot more. Of course, even infants need to move and try out different things, and by choosing to buy an activity mat, they’ll have a safe area where they can roll, move, kick, turn, and scoot – which are all activities that can provide exercise to your baby.
Other Benefits That You Should Be Aware of
1. It’s Easy to Use And Transport
One of the things that we must mention is that these mats are incredibly portable and easy to use, which basically means that you can take them with you wherever you go, including on vacations. Additionally, since they’re lightweight and compact, you’ll be able to store them anywhere, hence, even when your baby doesn’t need the play mat anymore, you’ll be capable of keeping them in your home without losing too much space.
2. A Wide Range of Options Available on The Market
Lastly, we must mention that there is a wide array of options available on the market, which basically means that you’ll definitely find something that’ll suit the needs your little one has. You must keep in mind that there are also mats based on the age of your baby, hence when browsing through the options available on the market, you should pay attention to the age displayed on the box or website so that you can opt for something that’ll suit your baby’s needs.
Conclusion
An activity play mat has been used by millions of parents all over the world, mostly because of all the development benefits it can provide babies with. And, as you were able to see from our list above, it can help your baby grow and develop faster, while at the same time, they’ll have a lot of fun.
Since you now know all of the benefits your baby could gain from using an activity play mat, you really shouldn’t waste any more of your time. Instead, you might want to start browsing different online stores to find a mat that’ll suit your baby’s needs and requirements.
