Are you ready..? What your baby learns from anticipation and excitement in songs and games

It’s no surprise for parents that babies love to play peek-a-boo or hear rhymes with a big reveal at the end, both of which often result in those addictive baby giggles. These games and rhymes with predictable actions are supporting their development while they play.

While they enjoy the predictable actions and sense of anticipation, your baby is also learning about lots of social skills, such as turn-taking, waiting and understanding social cues, language and facial expression. By experiencing these silly, playful moments with you from this very young age, they are building connections and developing expectations which will be helpful as they grow and begin to interact with others.

Your baby will learn from traditional favourites or from your very own giggle game 

Your baby will enjoy any games or rhymes with a familiar and predictable sequence of actions. As they begin to anticipate what is going to happen next, you can pause and give them time to enjoy the excitement of waiting for the next step!  

The delights of being daft

As well as popular rhymes and games like Peek-a-boo, 'Round and Round the Garden' and 'This Little Piggy', your baby will enjoy completely ridiculous moments that you come up with yourself! Making lots of one noise, then abruptly changing the sound as you tickle them, is just as fun as a full song. You could use letter sounds, such as “Buh-buh-buh-buh...da!” or things you know interest them like animal noises “Baa-baa-baa-baa...Quack!” or even sounds relating to their name: "Mmm-mmm-mmm...Mo!” 

Whatever games you play or songs you sing, know your baby is learning so much about social interaction as they wait for the big moment to make them laugh.