I made that happen! Your baby's understanding of cause and effect

Your baby has been exploring movement for a long time before their arrival, and learning about the world using all their senses. Their touch, sight, smell, hearing, balance and proprioception (sense of their body) started to develop before they were born, and touch was your baby's first sense to develop.  

Now they are gaining more control of their movements, they will begin to use them to understand the world and will start to realise that their movements can make something happen, also known as cause and effect.  

Cause and effect through movement

As they develop, your baby will make links between events and explore what happens when they move an object or when they see an object move.^[1] 

Researchers have explored how babies link their movements with events by tying a ribbon to a baby’s leg and to a mobile – as the baby moves their leg the mobile moves. The scientists found that babies quickly learnt to connect their movement with the movement of the mobile (similar experiments have involved babies' leg movements being used to turn on music).^[2] 

Cause and effect through sound

Toys or objects that make a sound when your baby moves them, such as rattles and bells, also support your baby to understand that their actions have an effect. At first, they might not link their movement with the sound that they hear but as they repeat the movement they will begin to make the connection.  

As your baby has more experience with different objects, they will combine information from all of their senses to understand them and the effect of their actions on objects. 

You might find that when your baby has had some experience playing with rattles or bells they will shake a toy or object when they first pick it up to see if it makes a sound.  

They'll soon be dropping, hitting and maybe throwing (so make sure the coast is clear!)

As your baby’s physical skills develop, they will start to explore objects in all sorts of different ways.  

When they can control their hands to drop an object when they want to, they will learn (without realising it) about gravity, dropping objects repeatedly and watching to see what happens. They might also explore hitting objects together or throwing objects to see what happens and to experiment with their developing physical skills.  

References: 

[1] Goswami, U.(2015) Children’s Cognitive Development and Learning.York: Cambridge Primary Review Trust. 

[2] Addyman, C (2020) The laughing baby: The extraordinary science behind what makes babies happy.  London: Unbound.