10 Reasons That Rattles Are The Best Toys for Babies
1) They teach cause and effect
As soon as rattles are shaken, simultaneous sounds will be produced, thus giving instant acoustic feedback to babies. Then babies will understand the relationship between their actions (shaking rattles) and the sounds they hear. Because rattles are considerably easy to operate, they are the ideal toys to help babies realize that they can have an influence on surroundings through their behaviors.
2) They attract babies’ attention
Drawing babies’ attention is the very first step to interact with them. Baby rattles with intriguing and fascinating sounds will help you a lot. You will be surprised by the excitement and curiosity on your babies’ faces when you wave baby rattles with various of beats and rhythms.
3) They enhance grasping skills
The way babies grasp objects changes stage by stage as they grow up. In the beginning, they catch hold of objects with their whole hands. By the following year, they can pick up small objects such as Cheerios and beads with just their thumbs and index fingers. The most comfortable toys specially intended for babies are rattles because they are held with the whole hands. An infant’s incipient attempts at grasping will contribute to strengthen his hand and fingers so that he can later master more complex grasping skills.
4) They promote motor abilities
Since rattles and rattle sounds are magnetic for babies, you can promote their motor milestones like crawling, reaching, or even pulling to stand (just to name a few) by putting rattles out of the reach of babies and galvanize them into reaching for rattle toys.
5) They foster hand–eye coordination
At first, babies only know to clap the desired objects. If you shake baby rattles in front of babies, they will look at and listen to and then reach for the toys. During the process, babies’ hand-eye coordination can be improved. As long as babies keep practicing, they can ultimately reach for what they want with increasingly accurate movements.
6) They increase cognitive abilities
Baby rattles are helpful to develop a sense of object permanence. For example, you can hide rattles and ask babies to seek for them. In addition to the hide-and-seek game, it is also a good choice to require babies to execute one-step instructions. For instance, you can say “give me the rattle” or other simple directions. Last but not least, you can promote babies’ mimetic ability as well by shaking rattles and asking them to imitate your action.
7) They help develop independence
Rattles are one of the first toys that help to develop babies’ independence ability because they are easy to manipulate even without parents’ supervision.
8) They provide tactile stimulation
Baby rattles with a variety of textures and shapes can provide diverse tactile stimulation for babies, in this way babies can discriminate varying objects by their sense of touch.
9) They provide auditory (hearing) stimulation
Baby rattles can expose babies to many kinds of sounds because various tones, volumes, and rhythms will be produced if rattles are shaken and pounded in different ways.
10) They encourage exploration
Baby rattles can be used to arouse babies’ curiosity to explore more about what they can do with the rattles.
3 Keys to Selecting Perfect Baby Rattles for your Babies
Now that baby rattles are ideal toys for babies, there are dazzling rattles on the market to meet the needs. If you have no idea about how to purchase a satisfactory baby rattle, some tips for selecting perfect baby rattles are as follow.
1) Make sure they are safe.
Safety should be the top priority when parents buy baby rattles in case babies get hurt. Firstly, make sure that baby rattles are more than 2 inches in diameter so that they can not be swallowed by babies. What’s more, to ensure babies’ health, baby rattles should also be non-toxic. Secondly, you had better choose baby rattles without sharp edges, otherwise your babies may get scratched. Thirdly, second-hand baby rattles should not be provided for your babies because frayed toys may have incisive edges and are easily to be broken, which probably pose a risk of injury. Finally, light baby rattles are preferable for babies because heavy ones are likely to hurt babies if they hit their heads with baby rattles.
2) Make sure they are age-appropriate.
Different toys are suitable for babies of different ages, and the right toys are helpful for their development. So parents should think about whether they are suitable for their babies when purchasing baby rattles. At age 3-6 months, babies are fond of toys that can be grasped and make sounds when being pinched. At age 6-9 months, with the improvement of babies’ finger flexibility, baby rattles with buttons that control music and lights can be used to train their fine motor skills. At age 9-12 months, babies are teething and like to put toys in their mouths, so toy materials should be durable enough so that they will not be chewed up into pieces easily and present a choking hazard.
3) Make sure they are stimulating and fun
Baby rattles have to be stimulating and fun enough to attract babies so that they can come into play. You can choose baby rattles featuring various colors, textures, sounds, shapes as well as functions including soothing babies’ teething pain. In a word, choose baby rattles that are in line with kids’ psychological hobbies and ability levels and meet their needs so as to increase their motivation to play with the toys.
In a word, baby rattles can not only entertain babies but also play a great role in promoting their physical and mental development. Babies’ sense can be trained when they touch, listen to and look at baby rattles. Baby rattles not only enrich children’s perceptual knowledge while developing their sensory and motor abilities, but also help consolidate their cognition of objects they get in life. When babies are not widely exposed to real life, they can come to know the world through baby rattles.
Hope what mentioned above helps you find ideal baby rattles.