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You baby just turned 10 months! The good news is that there are many 10-month-old activities that you’ll both enjoy.
At 10 months, your baby is quite lively and much more present than before. Perhaps they are already walking, with or without support on furniture, or they have found a way to move around either by crawling or by using their own unique movement.
10-month-old babies understand simple words such as “no” and they are also more vocal. They enjoy imitating gestures and trying to repeat the sounds they hear.
The skills your baby is developing at 10 months
Most babies can:
- Crawl or are about to begin.
- Sit up without support.
- Stand with support.
- Combine two or more simple syllables to make sounds like “mamamama”, “dada”, “bye-bye”.
- Imitate gestures.
- Attempt to imitate new words.
- Move objects from one hand to the other.
- Point with their fingers.
- Follow moving objects, for example when someone enters or leaves a room, or when an object falls.
- Use the pincer grasp, meaning that they can use their fingers to pick up objects.
Separation anxiety is also common at 10 months, meaning that your baby is likely to act clingy at around this age.
Your baby is developing many important skills at this stage and helping them engage in certain activities can help them strengthen their mastery of those skills.
Here are several activities that can help your child develop different competencies. The best part is that many of them can be done with simple objects you already have at home!
Best sensory activities for a 10-month-old baby
- Put objects with different textures into a cardboard box and tape it. Make an opening large enough for the objects to pass through then have your child remove them and put them back in again. This is also a great activity for the development of their fine motor skills.
- Playing different kinds of music will help familiarize them with different sounds.
- Touch your baby with objects with different textures.
- Encourage your baby experiment with food items with different textures and tastes.
- Even at 10 months, your baby can enjoy sand play, and this activity is also great for the development of their fine motor and gross motor skills. Don’t forget to supervise to ensure that they don’t get sand into their eyes.
10-month-old activities at home to teach your baby about object permanence
Most infants develop separation anxiety between nine and 12 months, and this is often accompanied by fear of strangers. It develops when your child begins to feel anxious at the thought of being without you.
Activities that can help them better understand that things that they can’t see still exist are great at this age.
Here are three activities that can help:
- Show your baby a toy then hide it – for example under a blanket or under a pillow – and encourage them to look for it: “where’s the ball”?
- Take three cups, hide an object under one of the cups, and watch as your child lifts the cups and discovers the hidden object. Shuffling the cups will make the activity even more interesting.
- Show your baby a toy, then wrap it up loosely in paper and have them unwrap it to discover the toy once again. This is also a great activity for the development of their fine motor skills.
Best gross motor activities for your baby
- Create an obstacle by stacking pillows and blankets and encourage your child to crawl over (not around) the obstacle.
- Your baby will love crawling through a transparent tunnel (and you get to see what they’re up to!).
- Holding toys out of their reach will encourage them to work their gross motor skills as they attempt to reach for them.
- By 10 months, your baby is already showing a preference for certain toys. Place those toys all over to encourage them to crawl to them.
- Do you have stairs? Encourage your child to crawl on the stairs, but only under your supervision.
- A Pikler arch is a great toy for developing your baby’s gross motor skills because it encourages them to pull, climb, crawl under, grip, balance, and so on. As they grow older, they will use the arch in different ways. If you choose one like this one, your baby can use it for years.
- Why not give your baby a large ball and watch them as they roll and follow it?
- Cardboards have been providing kids with fun moments for years, and your baby will love crawling through a cardboard tunnel. Grab the sturdiest and biggest box you have and open it up to make a tunnel that they will love disappearing into. This is a great activity for developing their gross motor skills.
What activities can I do with my 10-month-old to develop their fine motor skills?
- Playing with stacking cups is a really great activity for 10-month-old babies. And the good news is that you can even use plastic cups you already have at home to encourage your child to practice stacking.
- Place objects with different sizes and different colors inside a cardboard box. Tape the box then cut out an opening large enough for the objects to pass through. Have your child take out the different objects and place them back in again.
- Flap books or Touch and feel books are great for developing 10-month-old babies’ fine motor skills because they encourage them to turn pages in order to discover things. Your baby will love books with bright, bold or contrasting colors (black/white is a favorite) such as Open the barn door, Peak-a-moo and Bright Baby Touch & Feel Baby Animals.
- Give your baby a large sheet of paper and age-appropriate crayons and let them unleash the artist within. You can also encourage them to create art with this edible paint that they can eat!
- Give your baby different sized boxes and let them stack them or do whatever they would like with them. Medium-sized boxes (for example tea-bag boxes or gift boxes) work best for this age group because they are neither too big nor small for your baby’s fingers.
Activities to do with a 10-month-old to strengthen their language and communication skills
- Reading is one of the most important activities to help your child strengthen their language skills. In addition to teaching them new words, it also helps them learn about the basics of communication such as changes in intonation, pauses, and so on.
At this age, your child will love books with lots of rhymes and rhythm.
The Reading Bug Box and the award-winning Bookroo are great subscription boxes which choose the best age-appropriate books both you and your toddler will enjoy.
- Songs and nursery rhymes are activities many 10-month-old babies will enjoy and they can help them develop their language skills. Make them participate by giving them two objects to bang together to the rhythm (great for their fine motor skills!).
- Simply talking to your child and explaining your actions (“It’s time for your nap” “we’re going to listen to a song”, etc) is an easy way to help them develop their language skills.
- 10 months is the “age of imitation” as your child attempts to mimic your gestures. Exaggerate them and watch them as they imitate you!
Further reading
The 15 best books for babies under 1
Games to play with a 10-month-old
Great toys for 10-month-old babies are those that help them develop specific skills. Here are five toys your baby will love:
The Hape Pound & Tap Bench is an award winning durable wooden pounding bench that will promote their hand-eye coordination and help them better understand the concept of cause and effect.
Your child will love putting together and pulling apart Infantino Press & Stay Sensory Blocks. These blocks are great for their sensory development, visual stimulation and fine motor skills.
Your child will get years of play and exercise from a climbing triangle.
An interactive walker will help them practice walking and also develop their fine motor and visual discrimination skills.
Your baby will love this Baby Block Walker by Tender Leaf. It will help them work on their gross motor skills, and it comes with wooden blocks in varying shapes and sizes to help them work on their fine motor skills.
Further reading
Montessori toys for 1-year-old babies
Last thoughts on 10-month-old baby activities
10-month-old babies thrive on routines, so if you don’t already have one, this can be the perfect time to introduce one.
For example, having a regular time for feeding, shower time or reading is a simple way to set up a routine with your baby. Their memories improve as they grow older, and having routines helps them strengthen their memory capacity.
In other words, if you always read them a story before their nap, reading a story will trigger the memory that it’s almost time for their nap and therefore make the transition easier.
Other easy routines include: a story before their nap, a short walk after their snack, a period of play after their bath, and so on.
Praise is also important for your 10-month-old, and the more you praise them, for example by clapping your hands, smiling broadly and showing your enthusiasm, the more they are likely to repeat specific behavior.
Your baby also begins to understand the meaning of “no” at around this age, so do not hesitate to start laying the basic rules: “No, don’t touch, it’s hot. You’ll get burned”.
Although your 10-month-old is more independent, you still have to supervise them and keep them safe as they participate in their activities. You actually have to supervise them more because they are more mobile, meaning that the chances of hurting themselves is greater.
Here are a few easy things that you can do:
- Use gates and electrical outlet covers to babyproof your home.
- Use cabinet and drawer latches to keep your child safe.
- Lock away any medicines and cleaning products or put them out of your baby’s reach.
- All fragile, sharp and breakable objects should be kept out of their reach.
10 months is a great age to help your child develop multiple skills through different activities. Remember that any 10-month-old baby activities that help them work on skills such as their fine motor skills, their visual perception skills or their gross motor skills will do them a world of good.
Additional resources
Center on the developing child
Listen up! Speech is for thinking during infancy
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