Babies, during their early developmental stages, tend to learn mostly by playing as they get to explore the world around them. And playmats or play gyms are an ultimate necessity in these times, as not only keep them entertained but also play a super important role in enhancing their learning skills and accelerating their development.
In general, a play mat designed for a baby comprises contrasting colors, textures, and even shapes to keep the baby happily occupied and encourage him/her to move, play, and learn. Also, some modern baby playmats incorporate sound gadgets and toys, too.
Hence, baby playmats or play gyms play a key role in the toddler’s development by offering various benefits. Below, we’re going to explain to you why a baby playmat is super important and extremely helpful for your child’s development.
Developmental Benefits Of Using Playmats For Babies
Play mats for babies are incredibly versatile and help the baby grow cognitively besides improving their visual perception and reaching and grasping skills. In addition, such mats offer gross motor benefits, boost self-awareness, and also help in sensory stimulation. Here we’ve explained to you all the developmental benefits of using playmats for babies.
1. Improvement Of The Cognitive Functions
These are the brain-based skills that help an individual to carry out routine life tasks from the simplest to complex. As for babies, it can be considered the first step to functional learning. Especially, when the child is between 4-6 months old, he/she engages in primary circular reactions meaning whatever they do accidentally or find amusing, they’ll start to repeat that function just for the sake of a fun activity.
Some of these examples include kicking a toy, pulling on something, etc. In this way, playmats support your child’s learning and help in basic skill development. Hence, these mats effectively expand cognitive functions during infancy by encouraging the child to indulge in playing and similar helpful activities.
2. Assists In Visual Perception
Babies when born are near-sighted which means distant objects appear blurry to them. Also, babies can’t differentiate much between colors and are unable to comprehend contrasting color combinations. Baby playmats prove exceptionally worthwhile at this time as they can help to develop the newborn’s visual perception skills.
These mats Dubai feature colorful styles, and are often imprinted with shapes, characters or patterns. Besides, they are often fitted with toys as well that have brightly-contrasting color combinations. So these colors when seen by a child help them understand the color’s in-depth perception within a few months. And having that said, it adds another point to our list of why baby playmats are super important.
3. Helps In The Development Of Reaching And Grasping Skills
The reaching and grasping skills of newborns are mostly dominated by reflexes, thus their actions are automatic meaning they don’t have any control over them. Hence, at such an age, your child will grab any and everything in his/her palm. Baby playmats will help your newborn learn how to hold on to things like rings, rattles, etc.
Additionally, it will also provide them with a basic understanding of what they’re holding in their hands, thus letting you teach them to avoid touching or grabbing any sharp objects that can cause them harm. Also, this visual understanding of objects will become clear-cut with the passage of time.
4. Helpful For Motor Function
Playmats are designed keeping in view the age of your child so as to improve their learning and understanding skills accordingly. And, the minimum age recommended for using playmats is one year meaning a child of this age can easily comprehend playmats. These beneficial mats play a key role in the development of a gross motor function.
This task is accomplished when the baby plays on the mat such that the muscles in the neck, back, tummy, legs, and arms are stimulated and developed over time. This period of child’s play is mostly categorized by tummy time which is a time when toddlers spend most of their time crawling, thus using the muscles of the back, legs, arms, etc. Hence, baby playmats really benefit motor function development.
5. Understanding Of One’s Self
Babies play for hours on these mats, until they get tired. Most playmats are equipped with a small mirror that is unbreakable and can’t be shattered easily. Babies when they spend time looking at themselves unknowingly make a way for the development of self-awareness.
As soon as the infants start noticing themselves, they will begin by smiling at the reflection. Soon, they will start laughing, making faces, or patting the mirror. In this way, it will help them have an understanding of their own self meaning they can easily recognize themselves with age.
6. Stimulation Of Senses
The best means of playing and interacting with newborns is sensory stimulation, especially during their first year. Nowadays, these play mats are available in various vibrant colors, incorporate sounds, and astonishing textures to help stimulate the child’s senses while playing atop them.
Once the toddler starts grabbing objects, you can hang some teething toys for which the child can reach so as to help with the oral stimulation. Besides the stimulation of senses, baby play mats will also ease the toddler’s awareness of sensory stimuli like auditory and visual.
Final Thoughts
The play mat is one of the best toys or accessories that you can own for your child. They provide a hazard-free and soft play area for toddlers and babies to explore the world around them besides helping in their development. These mats are versatile and also portable so they can be carried along from one place to another easily. Adding to this, they are safe, easy to clean, and maintain.