It's extremely interesting to watch Ryan as he plays and learns to manipulate objects. When he initially learned to grab hold of a toy some months ago, he would look at it, and then put it in his mouth. He still explores everything that way, by first using his eyes and mouth. Then, because many baby toys rattle, Ryan soon learned to shake everything we give him to see if it makes a sound.
Then he learned to hit objects together. For example, he'd hold a wooden block in one hand and use that to hit the floor or table leg. Since the table legs are made of metal, a nice ringing sound is produced. Later, he learned to hold two hard objects in each hand and strike them together. It's not easy, when you think of it, to manipulate tools as an extension of each hand simultaneously.
He also learned to pull. He'd pull open drawers and doors. The only kind of drawers he can't open are those where you have to rotate your hand such that your fingers come up (palm up) and under the handle. He could pull a toy that has a string or ribbon attached, though hand over hand pulling is beyond him. When we played peek-a-boo, he knew how to hold the cloth/blanket himself to raise (pull up) and lower it.
Recently he started dragging objects along the floor. His favorite is a cookie tin; banging on it makes a satisfactorily loud sound and dragging it along the floor produces a wonderful racket.
Right now, Ryan's learning to drop things. While either seated or lying on the floor, he'd hold up a toy to the height of his head and drop it repeatedly. He does it with all sorts of objects but he especially likes the objects that make an interesting noise. I gave him an empty plastic ramekin, the kind was used to hold a mini lava cake, and the flexible plastic makes a vibrating sort of ringing sound when dropped. I guess he's learning about gravity. Interestingly, I think he's starting to understand the concept of 'falling'. He fell off the side of his crib once, and now he hovers at the edge, wanting to move forward but remembering that it hurts to fall.
When presented with a new object, his exploration sequence goes like this: examine first with eyes, then shake. Put into mouth, and finally drop it.
Then he learned to hit objects together. For example, he'd hold a wooden block in one hand and use that to hit the floor or table leg. Since the table legs are made of metal, a nice ringing sound is produced. Later, he learned to hold two hard objects in each hand and strike them together. It's not easy, when you think of it, to manipulate tools as an extension of each hand simultaneously.
He also learned to pull. He'd pull open drawers and doors. The only kind of drawers he can't open are those where you have to rotate your hand such that your fingers come up (palm up) and under the handle. He could pull a toy that has a string or ribbon attached, though hand over hand pulling is beyond him. When we played peek-a-boo, he knew how to hold the cloth/blanket himself to raise (pull up) and lower it.
Recently he started dragging objects along the floor. His favorite is a cookie tin; banging on it makes a satisfactorily loud sound and dragging it along the floor produces a wonderful racket.
Right now, Ryan's learning to drop things. While either seated or lying on the floor, he'd hold up a toy to the height of his head and drop it repeatedly. He does it with all sorts of objects but he especially likes the objects that make an interesting noise. I gave him an empty plastic ramekin, the kind was used to hold a mini lava cake, and the flexible plastic makes a vibrating sort of ringing sound when dropped. I guess he's learning about gravity. Interestingly, I think he's starting to understand the concept of 'falling'. He fell off the side of his crib once, and now he hovers at the edge, wanting to move forward but remembering that it hurts to fall.
When presented with a new object, his exploration sequence goes like this: examine first with eyes, then shake. Put into mouth, and finally drop it.
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