Learning activities for 7 month old
10 Activities for 7-Month-Old Babies
2 years ago6 min read
Written byTassia Agatowski,Content Writer at Peanut
Last updated: Mar 17 2023
Looking for things to do with a 7-month-old baby? We’ve got you, mama. Our list of super-fun learning activities for 7-month-olds is ideal for this illuminating stage of development.
Bright-eyed and curious, your little one is ready to play, and you’ll need plenty of imagination, energy, and bubble mixture to keep up.
But before we share our favorite 7-month-old baby activities, let’s take a quick look at the milestones your munchkin might be hitting around this point.
In this article: 📝
- What should I expect at 7 months?
- What should I be teaching my 7-month-old?
What should I expect at 7 months?
It’s important to remember that every baby is different. 7-month-old developmental milestones should only ever be used as a rough guide for your own child’s development. Don’t worry if they’re not ticking all these boxes — they’ll get there.
Some of the things they may be doing at this age include:
- Rolling over in both directions
- Sitting up unaided
- Holding items and moving them from hand to hand
- Rocking backward and forward (often the first sign that crawling is next)
- Babbling away a whole bunch of gibberish, but threatening to imitate simple sounds like “mama,” “dada,” and “bye-bye” as they get to grips with consonants
What should I be teaching my 7-month-old?
There are plenty of activities you can use to teach your 7-month-old new skills. From nursery rhymes and foodie fun to bubble popping and outdoor exploration, here are some of our favorites to inspire you.
10 super-fun activities for 7-month-old babies
1. Bubbles (and lots of them!)
Playing with bubbles is one of the most popular 7-month-old baby activities.
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As well as helping develop your baby’s visual and tactile senses, it also encourages mobility.
Your baby will watch, giggle, and follow the bubbles as they float in different directions, improving their hand-eye coordination.
2. Nursery rhyme sing-along
A nursery rhyme sing-along isn’t just a fantastic way to bond with your baby.
Nursery rhymes also form an important part of cognitive development, helping your little one learn the alphabet, numbers, animals, and other day-to-day elements.
Singing nursery rhymes can also help your baby learn another language, even at this early age.
3. Outdoor exploration
As your little one is developing, enrich their experiences by exploring different outdoor areas.
Allow them to use all their senses (supervised, of course), playing with grass, sand, and mud.
Crunch leaves, pick up sticks, smell flowers, take a dip in the sea or paddle their feet in a lake. Simple, yet highly effective, these are some of the best outdoor activities for a 7-month-old baby.
4. Crawling games
At 7-months-old, many babies are steadily getting to grips with crawling around on all-fours.
This makes crawling games some of the best developmental activities for 7-month-olds.
Set up a baby obstacle course with pillows or toys to maneuver around or over or have them crawl towards you through fabric tunnels or blanket forts.
This can help build their strength, coordination, and encourage them to move around in different directions.
5. Clapping together
Since babies often show signs of bringing their hands close together from as early as 7 months, this is a great time to start clapping together.
Clapping along to the beat of a nursery rhyme or song is a great way to develop your 7-month-old’s observation and cognitive skills.
Slowly clap to the tune in front of your little one while they mimic you, clapping in their own adorable way.
Your baby will love listening to the fun songs, the sounds of the clapping, and anticipating the movements to the beat. When it comes to 7 month old baby games, clapping together is always a winner!
6.
Family picture gameAt this age, your little one is starting to recognize the faces they see on a regular basis.
You can help improve their visual perception skills by placing them on your lap and showing them brightly colored pictures of the key people in their life, pointing at them and saying their names.
Your baby will slowly start to associate each name with each face, helping them improve their ability to recognize facial features and understanding of names.
7. Food tasting
What can a 7-month-old eat? Well, with most babies eating solids alongside breast or formula milk by the age of 6 months, now’s the ideal time to encourage them to experience new foods.
Letting them taste different flavors is a fun and engaging way to enhance their diet and set them up for a lifetime of healthy eating.
Offer a selection of pureed foods, giving your little one a taste of each one in turn.
As you watch their reaction to certain flavors, you may even notice your little food critic reach for the bowl they enjoyed the most.
8. Noisy fun
Inside a small cardboard box, place several different objects and materials.
Shake the box, encouraging your little one to do the same, and listen to the different sounds each object makes.
Your baby can practice their motor skills by grabbing the objects and placing them in the cardboard box, and this fun activity can also help develop your little one’s sense of hearing.
9. Hand puppets
Puppets are engaging toys that help support your baby’s language skills and communication as well as their social and emotional development.
Providing safe, imaginative play, puppets can help babies learn and understand the world around them.
When playing this game with your little one, sit behind an object so only the puppet is visible to your baby.
Move the puppet and make sounds so your baby thinks it is moving on its own, and sneak and peek to see their gleeful reaction.
10. Light and shadow play
One of the best things to do with a 7-month-old when they can’t sleep is to play around with light and shadows.
While it may sound simple, there are few things more enthralling to babies than watching the shadows dance across the wall.
All you need is a flashlight and some toys, household objects, or your hands to create a night-time shadow show to soothe your little one!
Find more toys for a 7-month-old baby here.
Did we miss any? Share your favorites with the mamas on Peanut!
👶 Read next: Activities for 8-Month-Old Babies
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Top 10 Sensory Activities for 7 month old baby » Sensory Lifestyle
7 min read
As an Occupational Therapist and a Mom I have put together top activities for your 7 month old baby. These activities will focus on strengthening their cognitive (mind) and motor (movement) skills.
V (Gogh) once said, “I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.”. Today is the day! After a long drive we arrive at a secret location I cannot disclose. Mom ferries me to the back of the house where I spot the gang already engaged. But, then… it catches my eyes.. shinning among the crew.A BIIIGGGG tarp on the floor with paper and jugs of color. Its as though the curvature of spacetime is pulling me towards it.. not before long I’m yanked by another force, mommy force! The force is strong in this one.. Then like magic I’m pronto stripped down to bare essentials. Yikes! Ok ok, its fine.. because the jugs of color are finally in front of me.
There’s some mystery around these jugs of color.. V said, “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”.. So here goes. I stick my hand into the purple jug. It feels cold, slimy and sticky. When I remove my hand its still there! “Oh no!”, I try to take it off by rubbing it all over my leg. “Oh good, it’s coming off”. Once it’s off I have this urge to try it again and again. I think this is painting. I must confess it feels great! Now I know what Picasso meant when he said “Give me a museum and I’ll fill it.”… give me color and paper and I’ll fill it 🙂
Until next month…— Lots of smiles, Josh
Development
What to expect from your 7 month old
By 7 months your baby is becoming more independent and moving about.
Here are a few things that you may see your 7 month old do:
- Moving about: Your baby has probably figured out a way to move around. They may creep, scoot, roll from place to place or crawl. They may also do a combination of all four.
- You may also notice your baby rise up on hands and knees and rock back and forth.
- Your baby can now sit unassisted.
- While sitting they can reach and pick up toys.
- Leg strength is increasing as they can hold themselves up while supported.
- Communication: Your baby should be making a lot of different sounds from babbling, blowing bubbles or raspberries or constants such as ma ma, da da, etc.
- You may also see lots of facial expressions from your little one.
Activities for your 7 month old baby
During this month as your baby is trying to explore their environment, try to find plenty of opportunities to continue encouraging your baby’s mobility, creativity, and curiosity. Hopefully the below ideas will provide you with a good place to start.
1. Messy Play: Baby safe paint
| Skills Developed | Targeted Senses |
|---|---|
| Body awareness & hand eye coordination | Tactile sense |
How to Play
This is such a fun game to do with your little one. You can do this activity either outside or inside. Either way is best to put some kind of a splash mat under them to limit the mess. I also recommend keeping your baby in their diaper to let them explore the paint freely without you freaking out about their clothes getting dirty. This is completely up to you though.
Once the prep is done simply sit them on to the mat with the paint in front of them and let them explore. They may approach it head on and jump into exploring the paint or they may be slow to explore. Either is fine. If they are slow to explore just provide some encouragement by showing them it’s ok to play in the paint.
Edible Paint Recipe:
Ingredients
- 2 cups of corn starch
- 1 cup of cold water
- 4 cups of boiling water
- Food coloring
What to do
- Mix corn starch with the cold water.
- Slowly mix in the boiling water. Keep stirring until you reach custard like consistency. If the consistency doesn’t become custard like, add some more corn starch to thicken it up.
- Separate into individual containers and add food coloring.
2. Bubbles
| Skills Developed | Targeted Senses |
|---|---|
| Visual tracking & hand eye coordination | Visual & tactile senses |
How to Play
This is a great way to stimulate your baby’s visual and tactile senses as well as encourage movement.
Simply blow the bubbles towards your baby. Your baby’s eyes will follow them as they float and fly in all directions. This is also a fun tactile experience that can get them laughing or surprise them as the bubbles pop on their arms, legs or even face. As they turn to look at the bubbles they may be encouraged to try to catch them and move towards them.
3. Driving with your baby
| Skills Developed | Targeted Senses |
|---|---|
| Body awareness, strength building of the core and neck muscles | Visual, auditory & vestibular senses |
How to Play
Here is a fun interactive song for your baby.
Sit your baby on your lap either facing you or away from you. Hold them at their hips as you sing the following song:
A Smooth Road To London Town
A smooth road to London town
A smooth road to London town
The road goes up and the road goes down
A smooth road to London town
But … by and by we come to a dell
There the roads are not so swell
A bumpy road, a bumpy road, a bumpy road to London town
A smooth road to London town
A smooth road to London town
The road goes up and the road goes down
A smooth road to London town
But… by and by we come to a wood
And there the roads are not so good
A rough road, a rough road, a rough road to London town.
Make sure when you sing:
- Smooth road: you slowly sway your baby side to side
- Bumpy road: you bounce them gently on your lap
- Rough road: bounce them a little harder. Ensure you watch for your baby’s comfort level and don’t bounce them too hard.
You can also gently guide them to fall off your lap and land on the floor.
If you haven’t heard this song before here is a link to a you tube video of the song by the Pasadena Public Library https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRX6reh5BnU
4. Beach ball fun
| Skills Developed | Targeted Senses |
|---|---|
| Body awareness and strength (upper body and core) | Vestibular and proprioceptive senses |
How to Play
All you need is a large enough ball so your baby can lay on top of it without being able to touch the ground. I like the smaller sized beach balls.
There are lots of things you can do with this ball. The usual things include your baby grasping it and then throwing or letting it go. You can also let your baby roll on top of the ball. To complete this, place your baby’s tummy on the top of the ball while supporting them at their hips. Then slowly move them forward until their hands touch the floor.
This is great to build some upper body strength as they put pressure through the joints in their hands, elbows and shoulders. They will also be strengthening their core muscles as they keep their heads up while rolling on the ball.
5. Fishing
| Skills Developed | Targeted Senses |
|---|---|
| Hand eye coordination, grasping & reaching skills | Tactile & proprioceptive (inside the mouth) senses |
How to Play
This is a fun game of fishing out objects that can be explored through the use of their hands and mouth. To get started, place a few inches of water into a container. It’s usually better to use containers that are wider rather then taller. This will make sure that your baby is able to easily reach into it. Then place some chewy toys in it. Most popular objects to put in are a variety of chewy rings.
Have fun as your baby splashes through the water and fishes out the rings that they can then explore with their hands and mouth.
6. Gym session
| Skills Developed | Targeted Senses |
|---|---|
| Upper body strength | Proprioceptive sense |
How to Play
As your little ones start to transition from tummy time it might be time to start them on baby pushups. You heard me right. Baby push ups! This will strengthen that upper body to help with crawling. How to get your baby to do a push up? Well, while your baby is on their tummy, move their favorite toy above their head or kneel in front of them and make funny sounds. You want to try to get them to look up and lift up their chest off their floor. Your baby may even impress you by doing a plank.
7. Crawling games
| Skills Developed | Targeted Senses |
|---|---|
| Moving around (Scooting, creeping or crawling) | Tactile & proprioceptive senses |
How to Play
After your baby has completed their gym session it’s time to get them moving around.
Get down on all fours and get moving with your baby. To encourage your baby’s movement you can try to get them moving towards their favorite toys, get them moving towards you or through tunnels.
Let them explore their environment as their try to move from one place to the next.
8. Tactile play through textures
Tactile games are so much fun and very beneficial for sensory processing. This activity will also be totally enjoyed by your 7 month old baby.
They help build a foundation for many developmental milestones such as fine and gross motor skills. They also support visual perceptual (interpretation of what we are seeing) and visual motor skills (hand eye coordination) development.
How to Play
During this activity I encourage you to let your baby explore different textures through the use their whole body.
Best way is to lay down a variety of different textured fabrics or toys around them and let them explore. It can also encourage extra mobility to get hold of different textures or objects.
9. Nursery Rhymes sing- a- long
Singing nursery rhymes has many benefits. The most important benefit that has been reported by many experts is language development. The rhythm of the songs and the rhymes helps to prepare your baby’s brain for language and communication.
“Song is a special type of speech. Lullabies, songs and rhymes of every culture carry the ‘signature’ melodies and inflections of a mother tongue, preparing a child’s ear, voice and brain for language.” Blythe, The Genius of Natural Childhood. (link)
| Skills Developed | Targeted Senses |
|---|---|
| Visual tracking & language skills | Auditory & visual senses |
How to Play
Pick up some of your favorite nursery rhymes and get singing to your baby. You can choose from some of the favorites such as: Itsy-bitsy spider, I’m a little tea pot, Humpty dumpty, The wheels on the bus etc.
If you are having a hard time coming up with ideas just do a google search and you’ll get endless options.
10. Explore the outdoors
You will notice that I am a huge advocate of outside play and exploration. It is a great way to enrich your baby’s experiences and give them opportunities to use ALL of their senses. It is also a great activity for your 7 month old baby.
As your little one has become more mobile their exploration also differs. So make sure you give them the opportunity to move around on the grass or play around in the sand.
Let them touch and play with flowers, leaves, grass or sand. Just remember to supervise closely so they don’t stick anything unsafe in their mouth.
Summary
So there you have it. My top 10 Sensory Activities for your 7 month old that you can do today to help their development.
These are just a few activities that are bound to spark other ideas. Just remember that every new sensory experience is helping your child’s growth and development.
Remember: Each baby develops at their own pace. If your child is not ready or not interested in these months’ activities, just try them again in a few weeks.
~ Urszula
Disclaimer: The activities in this blog are intended for sensory play. They are not a replacement for treatment of children with Sensory Processing Disorder, are not medical advice and should not be used in place of the care of a medical doctor or other qualified healthcare professional. These activities should be facilitated and supervised by an adult. All activities are to be performed at your own risk and in no event shall Sensory Lifestyle be liable for any damages.
Rainbow Mashed Potatoes Recipe
Month 8: Top 10 Sensory Activities for your 8 month old baby
What is Sensory Processing?
Educational games with a child of 7-8 months
Containers
Boxes, bowls, plastic jars and bottles can be found in any apartment.
Show your child how to put small items (spoons, toys, pieces of cloth) into a box and pour them onto the floor. Place the toys in a resealable container and shake to make a rattle. Put one jar in another, close in size.
Important!
This simple game teaches the child to correlate the sizes and shapes of objects, develops spatial thinking.
Tray and cereals
Pour a cup of semolina, buckwheat or any other cereal onto the tray. Show your child how to draw patterns with your finger. Give a couple of small cups, teach how to pour cereal from cup to cup. Cereals can be replaced with curly pasta or beans. Bury a toy in a bowl of cereal, and the child will dig it out with pleasure.
Important!
Such games develop fine motor skills and coordination.
Bag and any items inside
Give your child a bag filled with baby-safe items. The baby will be happy to pull out a notebook, a toy, a glass and other small things. Name the items being pulled out using the words "inside" and "outside".
Important!
The game develops vocabulary and spatial thinking.
Scotch tape, colored duct tape, band-aid
Scotch tape, multi-colored duct tape, band-aid are great materials for play. The child will be happy to stick sticky pieces from place to place. Show how to lay out a flower or a house from multi-colored pieces. Let your child experiment. Be sure to take a picture of the first application of the young creator.
All children like water games. Place a few floating objects and a few heavier objects in a bowl of water. Kids will be happy to catch them. A 7-8 month old baby can already be given a wooden spoon or a small scoop. Show how they can scoop up and pour water.
Important!
This game is a great exercise for the skills you need to eat on your own.
Clothespins
Clothespins are the perfect first toy for your little one. Pick up soft clothespins made of bright plastic, assemble a “snowflake” or any design from them, teach your child to press the “ears” (press it several times with a pen).
Show how to hang clothespins on a ribbon or the edge of a bucket. Now you have time to calmly drink a cup of tea or hang up the laundry: the baby is busy.
Important!
The game develops fine motor skills, finger strength and spatial thinking.
Colander
Colander and thin cocktail straws easily transform into a cute hedgehog. Insert the first few straws, then the baby will cope on its own.
Important!
The game develops the accuracy of movements and the eye, because getting into a small hole is not so easy.
Toilet paper rolls
Toilet paper rolls are taped together to make a toy tunnel. Children love to throw small objects from one side of the pipe and watch them appear from the other side. Simply attach the tunnel obliquely to any wall or chair leg and show how the clothespin or spoon disappears at the top end and reappears from below.
Stringing on a rope
Any object with a hole is suitable for playing (plastic cups with handles, pyramid rings, etc.
). The resulting "necklace" can be tried on for mom.
Comment on all your actions, name objects, talk to your child. Mom is the best source of information for the crumbs. And no ultra-modern learning aids can replace a fun and useful game with mom!
See what you can eat after the games
A child from 6 to 7 months, what to do with him
At the age of six months, new features in the behavior of the child appear. He begins to react differently to familiar and unfamiliar people. Seeing strangers or relatives who rarely visit, the baby is alert and looks at them with caution. He stops smiling, and at the attempts of a stranger to pick him up, he can get upset and cry. But after a while, when the child gets used to the presence of strangers, he will look at them kindly and can take a toy from the hands of the guests.
This behavior is due to the fact that the child does not know what to expect from strangers, because he does not have experience with them.
Motor skills improve at this age. Many children try to move forward on their stomach, sit steadily, hold the toy with both hands.
The child begins to pick up small objects from the floor, as he “controls” his fingers better.
The baby recognizes familiar objects, carefully examines them and tries to make a sound (shakes the rattle, listens and shakes it again). Children like rustling paper (foil, wrapping paper). Remember that babies at this age put things in their mouths, so keep an eye on your child when they play with paper.
A six-month-old baby loves to communicate with adults and actively shows his desire. The baby's babbling becomes much more expressive and can mean a request or a question.
When feeding, place your baby in a high chair and place biscuit pieces or a dryer on the table.
The child will take pieces of food and put them in his mouth. Thus, it improves finger movements and hand coordination.
Prepare the jelly and place it on the table in front of the child. He will try to pick up slippery bits of jelly and put them in his mouth.
Observe your child's reaction to different smells. Make several balls of gauze or bandage, put a clove of garlic in one of them, a piece of onion in the other, a clove in the third, moisten the fourth with cologne. Bring them alternately to the baby's nose on one side, and then on the other, and see how he reacts to smells. By the child's facial expressions, active movements of the legs or turning the head in the opposite direction, you can determine which smells are unpleasant for him.
Teach your baby to clap. Take the child’s hands and clap them together while singing the song “Okay, okay, where have you been? By Grandma...".
Teach your child to raise their hands up and put them on their head, while you can read a rhyme about birds.
Saying the words "the birds flew, sat on the head ..." take the baby's hands, lift them up and touch the head.
Encourage your child to explore and make a decision by offering toys or doing things with them. When the baby is holding toys in both hands, offer him a third toy. First, the child will try to take the offered toy without letting go of the ones he is holding. But over time, the baby will understand: in order to take this toy, you need to free your hands.
Take a toy from your child and cover it halfway with a diaper or handkerchief. First, the baby will take the toy by the visible edge, and then learn to pull the scarf off the toy.
Offer your child different games with sounds. Do not forget that educational toys for children of this age are almost all surrounding objects. Fill several metal jars with cereals or small toys. Shake each jar in turn so that the baby can see how you do it. After a while, he will shake the jars himself to extract the sound.
Take some plastic or metal molds and show your child how to hit them together. Then do it together.
Give your baby the bye-bye gesture. When someone leaves the house, wave your hand and say "bye bye". Very soon, the baby will begin to wave goodbye.
Repeat after the child the sounds you hear in his babbling. Change your intonation and facial expression when making sounds. Looking at the expression on your face, the baby will be happy or surprised and, perhaps, will begin to repeat new sounds after you.
Talk to your child in simple phrases and in an expressive voice. When you dress, bathe, or feed your baby, always verbalize what you are doing. For example, when dressing a child, say: “Give me a pen. Where is your leg? Soon he will begin to raise his arm or leg in response to your request.
Remember to look your child in the eyes and smile from time to time. When you pick up your baby, give him a toy, rock in a hammock, or sit on the floor with him, draw his attention to your face.
