12 Best 8 Month Old Activities for Your Little One
Check out these top 8 month old activities to enjoy with your little one! These with help your baby develop fine and gross motor skills, build muscles, develop their brain, and have fun with you.
Are you looking for some exciting activities for your eight month old that will help them reach developmental milestones?
This post is full of new ways to encourage your baby’s growth, strengthen cognitive abilities, and more!
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8 Month Old Activities for Your Baby’s Development
There are so many ways to play with your little one but these are just a few of the top activities for 8-month-old babies.
They’re all simple to set up, even if you’re a new mommy with little experience playing with babies or doing activities.
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Try Different Takes on a Classic Game
An eight month old needs different activities than younger babies, but can still benefit from things like tummy time and nursery rhymes.
They might seem like easy games that your baby has outgrown, but they’re building blocks for better brain development, problem-solving skills, working through separation anxiety, and much more.
Even if you think your little one has outgrown some of these simple activities, try them anyway!
Whether it’s peek-a-boo or tummy time, try switching it up a bit to make it more engaging and challenging.
For example, you can show your little one how to roll a ball back and forth to you during tummy time, which challenges their balance and hand-eye coordination. This is also a perfect time for mirror play with a baby-safe stand-up mirror.
Another idea is classic peek-a-boo but hiding behind different objects and at different distances or for longer periods of time.
Peek-a-boo is said to build baby’s object permanence, help them recognize familiar faces, and strengthen their attachment bond to you, ultimately learning that you’ll always come back.
You can also sing classic nursery rhymes in a different pitch, use new words in place of the originals, or make it funny with different facial expressions. This will not only make your baby laugh but will nurture their language development and even musical skills down the road.
These simple eighth month old baby activities can still be fun and help your baby reach new developmental milestones with some variations and adaptations.
Play with Stacking Toys
Playing with stacking toys offers significant developmental benefits for an 8-month-old. This activity helps enhance fine motor skills as infants grasp, hold, and place the toys, improving hand strength and coordination.
The precise actions required for stacking aid in developing better control over their movements, which is crucial for more complex skills later on.
Stacking toys also help with problem-solving abilities and an understanding of cause and effect. Babies learn how to balance the toys and arrange them in the correct order, recognizing that their actions lead to specific outcomes.
Sensory Activities
There are many ways to provide sensory experiences for your eight month old from sensory bins and bags to sensory pads and mats. You don’t have to buy special toys, though.
Walking on a variety of things that are in your everyday life like grass and sidewalks is more than enough to help your baby explore different textures.
You can help them build language skills by explaining what you’re walking on, how it feels, and what it sounds like as you touch or scratch it. Your eight month old will learn valuable communication skills as you do this!
Additionally, research has shown that multi sensory activities are particularly beneficial for babies and kids who have a sensory processing disorder.
If you’re working with an occupational therapist, ask them for their recommendations for sensory play and other activities specific to your child.
Experiment with Sensory Bins
Of course, with sensory play comes sensory bins! These provide a great way to keep the mess (mostly) contained and can be customized to whatever activity or theme you choose.
As the name implies, you fill a bin with a variety of different objects like pom poms and fillers like rice that stimulate their senses.
Ideally the toys have different shapes, textures, colors, and are in varying sizes. It goes without saying, but make sure the small objects aren’t too small – you don’t want any choking hazards!
You can set up a fun game like picking up the pom poms with their fingers and stuffing them in bottles or clean egg cartons, which helps to improve their fine motor skill development, especially their pincer grasp.
Sensory bins are one of the best ways to build and strengthen cognitive skills and encourage independent play, so have fun with them and be creative as long as you make it a safe environment!
For an 8 month old, make sure your sensory bin fillers are taste safe, in case they try to eat whatever is inside.
Messy Play
It might be a bit inconvenient, but messy play is surprisingly one of the most important things for building your baby’s development no matter how many months of age your babe is.
It’s also great for beating boredom and encouraging independent play just like sensory activities can be.
Messy play can range from playing with sensory bins as mentioned above, making mud pies, throwing balls in a pit, tearing up grass in the yard, water play, or taking things in and out of the cabinets.
Try to keep it open ended and focus on letting it be an integrated learning experience instead of a perfectly planned activity that you see on Pinterest!
As long as it’s safe and age-appropriate, let their curiosity guide them. This also gives you clues to what may become their interests and learning style as they get older.
Play with Mirrors
This simple yet fascinating experience helps infants develop self-awareness and recognize their own reflections, a crucial step in their cognitive development.
As they observe their movements and facial expressions in the mirror, they begin to understand the concept of self and differentiate themselves from others, especially their mom.
Mirror play also stimulates visual and social development. The visual stimulation from seeing their reflection and surroundings in the mirror enhances their focus and tracking abilities.
Socially, interacting with their reflection can be a form of early socialization, as they may smile, laugh, or make faces, promoting emotional expression and recognition. This interaction helps them understand social cues and develop early communication skills.
Plus, it is so cute seeing them look at themselves in the mirror!
Make sure to get a baby safe mirror so it won’t break and hurt them.
Play with Musical Instruments and Toys With Different Sounds
Exposing your eight month old to musical instruments and toys with different sounds has been proven to nurture their language development, emotional intelligence, communication skills, and much more.
Even something as silly as a squeaky toy or silly sounds can be beneficial in the same manner and help them recognize varying sounds and where they come from. If nothing else, it’s just fun!
You don’t need a music class to make this a great activity, either. Some simple baby musical toys like the ones from Melissa and Doug are a perfect start!
Go to Social Gatherings
What better way to build social skills than to get some real social interaction! As long as your baby is healthy and you are comfortable with the surroundings, go on a couple of mommy-and-me playdates or family events.
It will help your little one gain valuable social skills and help you have conversations with another adult!
You can try searching for local mom groups through Facebook groups, an online app like Meet Up, or Googling “mommy and me groups near me.” Some areas have groups just for new mammas, too.
This may not seem like it should be on a list of developmental activities for an eight month old, but socializing is beneficial for a child’s development throughout their life – even this young.
Try New Foods
It may not normally be thought of as an activity either, but your eight month old will have a great time regardless!
This is a good age to introduce solid foods as long as your baby is showing signs of being ready.
Try laying out a couple of finger foods in their high chair tray like cooked pasta, potatoes, bagels, and so forth.
You can test out different sauces and seasonings, too. Dipping their food is another great way for them to work on their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
If they’re not a fan of the high chair, try putting some toys on their tray or letting them do other fun activities in it to help them get used to it. (And yes, this definitely counts as messy play, too!)
Set Up Obstacle Courses
A simple baby obstacle course is a fun way to encourage crawling and eventually baby’s first steps.
The layout will depend on your little one’s abilities but a good starting point is to arrange a few soft objects like pillows on the floor that your baby needs to move around.
You can hang a hula hoop in a doorway for them to crawl through or help them step over, as well. Soft foam blocks, couch cushions, sensory pads, makeshift tunnels, and gym mats are perfect for baby obstacle courses.
Just remember to keep it fun and not too challenging so baby doesn’t get frustrated!
Read Books
Reading books with an 8-month-old offers ton of developmental benefits. This early exposure to books stimulates cognitive development as infants begin to understand the concept of stories and sequences.
Looking at pictures and listening to your voice helps them start to make connections between words and images, laying the foundation for language.
The rhythmic patterns and repetitive phrases commonly found in children’s books also enhance memory and learning.
Reading together also builds emotional bonding and social development. The close physical contact and shared attention during reading sessions strengthen the emotional connection between the infant and mom.
Play with Blocks
This hands-on play promotes fine motor skills as infants grasp, stack, and manipulate the blocks, improving their hand strength and coordination.
The precise actions required to place one block on top of another enhance their control over their movements, setting the stage for more complex tasks in the future.
I love these silicone blocks for young babies because they also provide sensory input too!
8-Month-Old Baby Activities Wrap-Up
Whether your 7-month-old baby is a bit ahead of the curve or your 8-month-old is just now discovering the basics, these developmental activities will help them learn essential new skills while having so much fun in the process!
As always, talk with your baby’s doctor or occupational therapist if you have concerns or need medical advice – and remember that every baby reaches milestones at their own pace so don’t worry too much if they seem a little behind!