Why does your baby love posting objects so much?

You might have noticed that your baby is showing an interest in posting objects – possibly ending up with your phone in a cereal box or your keys going through the letterbox! Shape sorters and other posting-type toys provide loads of entertainment, plus they're brilliant for your baby's development. 

Babies learn a lot from the process of posting one object into another. They will most likely find opportunities to do this when they are ready, so having some toys or safe posting spaces made ready can help to avoid the stress of searching every container you own to find your keys or bank card.  

Although it can be frustrating watching them take such care, and such a long time, turning or moving an item to make it fit, it’s important to know just how much learning is happening for them while they do it.  

Here are just some of the skills your baby is mastering as they post items while they play. 

Fine motor skills – this phrase covers all the skills that are being developed as the smaller muscles in your baby’s body (including ones in their hands, fingers and eyes) get stronger.  

Posting requires lots of movement from your baby’s hands, wrists and fingers to turn the shape and hold the items steady as they bring them together.  

Visual skills – your baby is using their sight to help them work out what to do, both through looking at the items and through watching their movements, and coordinating everything to work together. Hand-eye coordination is tricky and mastering this skill will take a lot of practice as they grow.  

At first, your baby will have most success posting simple round shapes, so give them plenty of chances to succeed with these shapes when they are first interested in posting items. This will help to ensure they are having fun, and not being frustrated by tricky angles.  

Sense of shape and space – these mathematical concepts are part of our everyday life, but for our babies it is all about learning these facts by playing and experimenting.  

Finding out about size, comparison and proportion will begin with posting items into containers and discovering what fits where.