Object inquiry skills
An infant explores two similar toys with opportunities to notice differences between the toys.
[Begin the activity when the infant is sitting comfortably. Hold on your lap an infant who cannot securely sit alone.]
[Give the infant one hard cylinder-shaped rattle.]
Let’s play with these rattles. Here is one rattle for you. Here is one rattle for me.
[If the infant does not grasp the rattle, hold the rattle near the infant so he/she can touch it. You may wish to lightly touch the infant’s hand with the rattle.
Pause for the infant to respond by touching or manipulating the rattle, looking at you, and/ or vocalizing. Acknowledge the infant’s response. Example: “You are looking at the rattle.”]
[Describe the infant’s exploration of the rattle. Examples: “You are putting the rattle to your mouth.” “You are feeling the rattle with your fingers.”
Point to and describe rattle characteristics the infant seems to be exploring. Examples: “We can feel little bumps on our rattle.” “We can shake our rattle and make a sound.”]
Here is a different rattle.
[Hold the soft, ball-shaped rattle near the infant’s chest. Encourage the infant to touch or take the rattle. The infant may drop the hard rattle in order to grasp the soft rattle, or reach for the soft rattle with his/her other hand.
Point to and describe 1–2 characteristics of the rattle the infant seems to be exploring. Examples: “This rattle is very soft. You can squeeze it with your hands.” “We can hear a little bell when you shake the rattle. We cannot see the bell.”
Describe the infant’s actions with the rattle(s).
Offer an opportunity for the infant to explore two different rattles positioned near each other. The infant already may be holding two different rattles, or you may be able to hold one rattle within the infant’s reach while the infant is holding a different rattle.
Point to and describe a difference between the rattles. Encourage the infant to feel the differences. Examples: “This rattle is soft. You can squeeze this rattle. Our other rattle is hard.” “This rattle has bumps. This rattle is smooth.”]
[Describe the infant’s exploration of the rattles. Emphasize differences the infant may have noticed. Show rattle features you describe. Example: “You played with two rattles. One rattle was soft. One rattle was hard. The rattles made a sound when you shook them.”]
Infants are likely to explore the rattles by looking, touching, moving, and mouthing. Repeated, active exploration helps infants develop an understanding of an object.
Tailor your description of rattles to the infant’s exploration. Your description of rattle characteristics will be more meaningful to the infant if you describe and point to features that the infant is exploring rather than offer a planned presentation of rattle characteristics. Differences you describe should be in response to the infant’s interests.
Infants will not be familiar with many or most of the words you use to describe rattle characteristics. Young children learn words through repeated exposure to a word. It is very important to point to a rattle feature you are describing (and the infant is exploring). You may wish to mention a rattle’s color, but keep in mind that at this age, infants are not expected to know colors.
If an infant’s focus on the rattles is interrupted by something and the infant does not shift attention back to the rattles within a few seconds, invite a continuation of rattle play by talking to the infant and giving the rattles a little shake.
A walking infant may grasp a rattle(s) and carry it away. Stay with the walking infant and continue the activity when the infant stops or sits. If an infant throws the round rattle, it may be he/she views the rattle as a ball.
Extra support
Enrichment
Object inquiry skills
An infant plays with toys that differ in size.
Be Prepared: The toy truck should be large enough to hold two toys, as shown. The activity description assumes the two toys are soft bears of different sizes.
Invite an infant to join you in playing with two bears and a truck. Begin the activity with the bears in the dump box of the truck and invite the infant to take the two bears from the truck. Emphasize the words big and little as you and the infant play with the bears.
Through a playful interaction with the infant, also introduce the idea the bears go in and out of the truck. Encourage an infant to put the bears in the dump box of the toy truck. Some infants may enjoy making a truck sound.
Observe the infant’s reaction to the play materials and focus on what is most interesting to him/her. Allow the infant to lead the play. Infants may show interest in different aspects of items, such as hugging or manipulating the bear toys, moving the bears in and out of the truck, manipulating the dump box on the truck, turning the wheels of the toy truck, and/or pushing the toy truck, with or without the bears.
Describe the infant’s actions. Use simple sentences as you emphasize key words in, out, big, and little. Example: ”You put big bear in the truck!”
Infants may respond to the terms “mommy” or “daddy” to represent the larger bear. “Little” and “baby” may be used to describe the smaller bear. It is not important for an infant to say the words big and little, but hearing the terms while seeing the differences can help the infant begin to understand this distinction.
Be prepared to extend the activity to include other interested mobile infants by having similar toys close at hand. You may shift your attention to a second child when the activity ends. You can simply state “Bree is here to play. Let’s look at her toys.”
Extra support
Enrichment
Object inquiry skills
Infants explore different types of rings and balls, including ways to arrange the objects.
Be Prepared: Collect rings from stacking ring toys and small balls that have observable differences, such as an O-ball, which has bumps or ridges an infant can feel. Place all the toys into a cloth bag. If possible, prepare for each infant one bag that contains one ball and one ring.
Sit on the floor next to 2–3 infants and present the bag(s). Peek into the bag as if it contains a surprise. Give each infant an opportunity to remove 1–2 toy(s) from the bag. Seeing familiar play materials appear in a novel manner may foster curiosity. Use facial expressions and voice inflections to communicate your pleasure in the infants’ explorations. Example: ”Charles, you got a ball from our bag!”
Make sure each infant has one ring and one ball without taking any toys away from an infant. Talk about characteristics of the balls and the rings. Remember that at this age infants are not expected to learn color names.
The assortment of balls and rings offers multiple opportunities to explore. Infants may roll a ball, peek through the hole in a ring, put a ball on top of a ring, or put a toy into the bag. Although infants are not expected to sort items, some infants may form groups of balls and/or rings.
Support each infant’s interest in the play materials by pointing and describing each item. Example: “You have a big ring. Here is a little ring.” Talk about the way each infant is exploring the materials.
Some infants may participate for several minutes and some infants will leave the activity sooner. Some infants may explore the objects by mouthing them. The interest and enthusiasm you demonstrate during the activity will foster exploration and participation. Use clearly spoken words to talk about each infant’s interests. Think of yourself as the announcer of the various strategies the infants explore. Over time, infants will begin to associate words with the balls and rings.
Extra support
Enrichment
Materials needed: Sets of similar but not identical toys, as described below. Board books displayed on a shelf and books in baskets in several areas of the room are important. Plan to have at least three books per child in your group.
For non-mobile infants, provide several balls with different textures and describe how the balls feel as you sit and play with an infant(s).
For early mobile infants, display play materials that are similar but different, such as two balls and two animal figures made of different materials in different areas of the room. Infants may wish to play again with the Option 3 items.
Place several items of different shapes and textures into a basket for crawling and walking infants to explore. Contrasting item possibilities include a washcloth, a square of a light silky fabric, and a square of denim or corduroy. Encourage mobile infants to cover soft bears with the cloth squares.
Materials needed: rattles; soft and rigid animals and people figures; bag with matching objects; such as two small animal figures, two small blocks, two spoons, and/or two small socks
You may find time to again present the Option 1 rattles to an infant who is seated in a high chair before or after a meal or snack. Toddlers will enjoy exploring a variety of soft and hard objects in a basket. Provide soft and rigid animals and people figures. Talk with toddlers about the similarities and differences. Preschool-age children may enjoy reaching into a bag and finding two matching objects using the sense of touch only. Items for the bag could include two small animal figures, two small blocks, two spoons, and/or two small socks.
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