Movement is essential in the first five years of our lives as it builds critical pathways in the brain. To help your child’s development, as well as support their mental and physical wellbeing, we’ve created a collection of fun activities you can do at home.

This is the way we…

To the tune of Here we go round the mulberry bush you can use this song to practice gentle movements with your baby. These could be things like This is the way we clap our hands, touch our nose, tickle our toes, find our knees, etc.

Using movement that go across the body helps build the midlines, e.g. opposite hand to opposite leg.

Develops body awareness, midlines, language, listening and touch.

This is the way we wash our… (in the bath)

Similar to the previous activity, this is also great to do in the bath. To the same tune of ‘Here we go round the mulberry bush’ you can use this song to gently pour water on relevant parts of the body. It could go something like this “This is the way we wash our feet, our back, our tummy, our arms etc. in the bathtub”.

Develops body awareness, midlines, language, listening and touch.

Tummy time enhancers

Tummy time is widely encouraged for developing the core strength needed to roll and crawl.

Not all babies enjoy this straight away so try to create a positive experience on the tummy by using visual distractions for them. This could be a mirror with safe edges, colourful material, their favourite face at their level (that’s your face), a soft book or use some zip-lock bags with water coloured with food dye. You can add small objects in the water that they can push around or touch e.g. glitter. Start with short bursts of tummy time and then build up.

Develops strength, control and balance.

Heads, shoulders, knees and toes

This well-known action song is great to sing to your baby and gently touch the related body parts as you go.

Why not also try it in te Reo Māori? There are lots of videos on YouTube you can use to help get the slightly different tune. Māhunga-head, pakihiwi-shoulders, puku-tummy, hope-hips, waewae-feet, taringa-ears, whatu-eyes, ihu-nose and waha-mouth.

Develops midlines, body awareness, language, touch and listening.

Sensory touch

Providing sensory experience helps build your little one’s knowledge of the world around them. Have a range of objects that provide different sensations and gently touch them to your baby’s hands, feet, head etc.

For variety, try things that are opposite e.g. warm, cold, rough, smooth, hard, soft, squishy, firm, rounded, edged, light and heavy. If you alternate the sides of the body, and then go again alternating from the top of the body to the bottom of the body, you will also be developing awareness of midlines.

Develops touch, body awareness and midlines.