Hi friends & happy Friday! In today’s newsletter I'm sharing tips for teaching your baby about body parts. It’s never too early to start practicing with them! Here’s a video of my baby starting to do this.

Typically, we’d expect baby to identify at least 2 body parts around 2 years old (according to CDC milestones) but that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t start teaching them sooner! It’s a fun activity to incorporate in your day!

Tips for Teaching Baby About Body Parts

✨Read Books about Body Parts✨
I prefer books with real pictures of kids (your baby likely will too!). But books that just talk about body parts & show characters will work fine as well, especially in the beginning. I have some suggestions under “Teaching Baby” in my storefront here. I also really love the books that come in the Lovevery play kits. You can see some of those in my video here.

✨Multi-sensory Teaching✨
Research shows that using multiple senses to teach kids is great for their learning. Here’s a quick example on how to do this when teaching body parts:

When reading about a part like “cheeks”, try saying “cheeks”, tap the visual of checks on the page, let baby see you tap your own cheeks, then tap your baby’s cheeks! All while repeating the word “cheeks” out loud each time. Eventually, you can help baby tap your cheeks and their own too while doing that. You can watch me doing this here.

✨Model & Repetition✨
Children learn things through repetition & exposure. Sometimes that feels boring to us, but it’s good for them. Try to regularly talk to and explain things to your baby using words you’d like them to learn.

For example, when brushing your or their teeth say “teeth” or “brushing teeth”, when tickling their tummy say “tummy” or “mama is ticking your tummy". Things like that! You want to use the words often and consistently!