Developing the Five Senses and Teaching Baby with The Learning Lovey

Baby Jack sells products that help with the developmental growth of your baby, from birth all the way into preschool age and beyond. Since children are always striving to meet new milestones, we wanted to share how our sensory toys and loveys can help with these transitions and helping to develop the five senses, all in one product!

Your baby's sense of touch begins to develop when he's still in the womb—around week 7. As soon as he's born, your little one starts learning about himself and the world through his ultra-sensitive tactile sense. That's why holding him skin-to-skin or giving him a massage is so powerful. But when mom or dad is not near, it is great to provide babies with fun tools to teach. 

Babies love to touch everything that they see. They develop emotionally, physically and mentally through sensory play and interaction.  A sensory tag toy like Baby Jack & Co. creates has a variety of textured ribbons, all sewn shut to keep fingers safe, making it a perfect baby gift allowing them to explore their sense of touch. 

Taste buds in newborns can be found on the tonsils and the back of the throat, as well as on the tongue. During her first three months, your baby can distinguish between sweet and bitter tastes. She prefers sweet flavors, like the taste of breast milk. By 3 months of age, your baby's tongue has grown.

Nom Nom Nom. Babies explore their sense of taste by putting things in their mouths. As parents, we all know how scary that can be so we want to give them the best tools to be able to learn about textures. The Baby Jack Learning Lovey has a variety of ribbons and fabrics that appeal to a child's senses. Velvet, satin, ribbed and ultra soft minky will stimulate your little one and help with development.

Your baby sees things best from 8 to 12 inches away. This is the perfect distance for gazing up into the eyes of mom or dad (a favorite thing to do!). Give your baby lots of appealing things to look at. Human faces, bright colors, contrasting patterns, and movement are the things newborns like to look at most. Black-and-white pictures or toys will keep your newborn baby's interest longer and objects or pictures with lots of similar colors will appeal to your growing infant! 

Baby Jack Learning Lovey fabrics have bright, modern designs with images that are a positive interaction to babies. The animals and objects on each pattern can be a fun game or developmental teaching tool as your child grows! 

Your newborn has been hearing sounds since they were in your tummy. Mother's heartbeat, the gurgles of her digestive system, their own hiccups, and even the sounds of her voice and the voices of other family members are part of a baby's world before birth. Once your baby is born, the sounds of the outside world come in loud and clear and may startle from loud sudden noises or be soothed by a vacuum cleaner or dishwasher. 

Auditory development is a great way to teach your growing baby. The crinkle crackling sound of our 8x8 Sensory Tag Square is a wonderful way to educate about cause and effect. Baby becomes intrigued that their efforts make sounds. 

Newborns can taste and smell and will favor sweet tastes over bitter ones. Newborns will always favor breast milk or formula due to the sweet taste but will turn away or cry if given something bitter or sour to taste. Likewise, newborns will turn toward smells they favor and turn away from bad odors.

We tend to learn a lot from feeding expert Ms. Dawn SLP who recommends adding some breast milk drops on your sensory ribbon tags for baby to engage with on Baby Jack's Learning Loveys. It also serves as a comfort to have mom's body scent on this object when sleep training or easing your child's separation anxiety. 

Resources from www.msdawnslp.com and www.kidshealth.org