Your ten-month-old is a sensory explorer—they need to touch, taste, shake, and bang everything they encounter.
These activities build advanced sensory discrimination, develop tool use through sensory play, and support the self-regulation skills that come from satisfying sensory experiences.
Your ten-month-old uses sensory exploration as a tool for understanding. They don't just touch everything — they compare, contrast, and categorize. Soft versus hard, smooth versus rough, heavy versus light. This sensory sorting is the foundation of cognitive categorization.
Offer collections of objects that vary along one dimension: smooth and rough balls, heavy and light blocks, warm and cool cloths. Your baby is building the discrimination skills that support academic learning and practical life skills.
Sensory comparison and categorization at ten months build the discrimination and classification skills that support language development, math concepts, and scientific thinking.
Stacking and nesting toys are perfect for this age. Your baby is learning about size, order, and cause-and-effect with every tower they build and knock down.
First words may be emerging! Name everything you see throughout the day—narrating your world is the single best vocabulary builder.
Brief standing is happening! Let your baby practice standing while holding your fingers—building the leg strength and balance for walking.
Place your baby on an inflatable water mat and watch them press, pat, and track colorful floating toys — tummy time with a sensory twist.
Set jiggly, colorful gelatin on a tray and let your baby squish, poke, and mouth this completely safe sensory material.
Seal paint inside a zip bag and tape it down — your baby presses, squishes, and watches colors blend without any mess on their hands.
Create a glittery sensory bottle your baby can shake, roll, and watch — a mesmerizing visual and tactile experience for curious little hands.
Thread ribbons through a colander and let your baby pull, tug, and discover — a simple fine motor and sensory activity they'll love.
Fill sealed bottles with rice, bells, and beads to create shake-and-listen sensory toys your baby can grab and explore safely.