Your six-month-old is sitting up and taking it all in—ready for richer, more complex sensory experiences.
These activities build advanced tactile exploration, introduce messy play safely, and support the sensory processing that helps your baby regulate emotions.
Independent sitting transforms sensory play. Your baby can now sit in front of a sensory bin, splash in water, and explore messy materials with both hands free. They're ready for richer, more complex sensory experiences.
Introduce safe sensory bins with items like cooked pasta, water with floating toys, or fabric scraps of different textures. Supervised messy play isn't just fun — it builds the tactile processing skills that support fine motor development, emotional regulation, and comfortable engagement with new textures.
Rich sensory exploration at six months strengthens tactile processing and emotional regulation while building the fine motor skills needed for self-feeding and tool use.
Your baby can sit independently now! This frees up both hands for exploration, so offer baskets of safe objects for them to discover.
Peek-a-boo is more than a game—it teaches object permanence, the understanding that things still exist when hidden. Play it often.
If you're starting solids, let mealtimes be sensory play too. Squishing, smearing, and tasting are all learning experiences.
Place your baby on an inflatable water mat and watch them press, pat, and track colorful floating toys — tummy time with a sensory twist.
Let your baby splash tiny hands in warm water for a soothing sensory experience that introduces temperature and water play.
Place different textured balls within reach during tummy time to encourage reaching and tactile discovery in young babies.
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.
Gently brush soft fabrics across your baby's cheeks and hands to awaken their sense of touch — a calming sensory activity for newborns.