Are you ready to get moving? As your baby nears his first birthday, your baby is on the move, and you have more options for activities for 10 month old babies. This stage bring plenty of physical, mental, and social development.
The changes your baby will experience are amazing.
Your baby may start to cruise around the furniture in your living room, and don’t be surprised if he says his first purposeful word. He wants to play all the time; those toys you bought finally become a really beloved part of the day.
Best of all, the activities you can experience with your 10 month old are fun and more exciting than ever. Your baby plays and has fun engaging in different games.
Let’s take a look at some of the activities you can do with your 10 month old baby.
Related: 14+ Simple Activities to Teach Toddlers the Alphabet
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Common Milestones for a 10 Month Old Baby
It’s important to remember that all babies develop at their own pace, but many babies reach similar milestones during this time. Don’t feel like your baby is behind if he isn’t hitting some of these – remember, all babies are unique.
Crawling
Around the 10th month your baby will begin to crawl, which is a big step for them! Once they’ve started crawling, they are requiring more movement and stimulation around them.
Cruising
Taking steps unassisted comes next; your baby starts to cruise around, which means they’re walking around holding furniture.
If your baby hasn’t already taken their first steps by this age, then it won’t be too long before he or she does. It takes some babies until 12 months but some may take as long as 16-18 months to learn how to walk on their own.
Walking
Right after taking their first steps, toddlers begin walking everywhere! Even if you limit them from going out of the playroom, they will find ways to get there. Don’t be surprised if you find them in the bathroom with your toothbrush, or cooking in the kitchen!
Grabbing Objects
At this point, your baby is working on their pincer grasp; it has more precision. They’re able to grab smaller items than ever before.
Mimicking You
You might be surprised that your baby is mimicking you more and more than ever. When you make different facial expressions, your baby might copy you and make the same expressions. When you clap, your baby will clap.
Related: Teaching Baby to Point to Develop Early Language Skills
What to Expect from Your 10 Month Old Baby
Aside from the milestones, your baby is making all sorts of developments at this age. They may be experimenting with different sounds and new motor skills. You might even hear your baby’s first word at this time.
Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills are more controlled by the time your baby is 10 months old, and they are exploring toys with different parts. Your baby improves their use of their pincer grasp to pick up small objects.
At this age babies begin using their fine motor skills to learn about new objects. They start exploring toys that have different parts on them, so they can figure out how it all fits together. This will also help with dexterity as time progresses.
You may notice your baby is able to hold an object in one hand, and their coordination skills increase. An example is being able to pick up food off their plate and putting it into their mouth, which takes hand-eye coordination.
Gross Motor Skills
Gross motor skill improvements continue around this age range, but mostly in the form of cruising around furniture and trying to balance themselves while standing up. This is an age of a lot of movement, since your baby is able to roll over, sit unassisted, stand up and down, and cruise.
Cruising means that your baby is able to walk along furniture without holding on to anything for support. The ability to balance themselves while standing is another sign of improvement in their gross motor skills.
Communication Skills
Communication skills are improved with the help of verbal and nonverbal cues. Your 10 month old can understand and follow instructions, such as “clap your hands.”
By now your baby should be able to point at things they want, imitate some words that sound familiar, recognize other people’s facial expressions, and wave goodbye! This is where toddlers start using basic gestures to communicate what they need or want so it’s important for parents to observe these cues!
Social Skills
At this age, your baby also works on his social skills. As their cognitive abilities grow, you’ll notice they react differently in social situations.
Your baby may start to wave to people, or he may act shy. Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety may develop at this time, or he may want to smile at every person they see. It all depends on your baby and his personality.
14 Activities for 10 Month Old Babies
1. Peek-a-Boo with Objects
Peek-a-boo is a classic baby game that parents play regularly, and while it might seem silly, it helps develop your baby’s sense of object permanence. Object permanence is when your child knows something still exists even when it’s out of sight.
By this age, many babies are over the regular peek-a-boo, so use this time to change it up and hide toys under a blanket.
When you are playing peek-a-boo with your baby, hold up several objects for them to play with. Then, put it under your baby’s blanket, concealing it. Your baby has to remove the blanket to reveal the toy underneath it, practicing object permanency.
2. Tug of War
If your baby likes to pull on things during playtime, then tug of war is a fun game for both of you to enjoy! Make sure that the toy you use isn’t too small or flimsy so there aren’t any problems when they accidentally drop it. Also be careful not to pull too hard !
3. Make Music Together
Making music is a great way to work on both fine and gross motor skills. Singing songs together will also improve their language practice.
To get started, try playing instruments like pots and pans, wooden spoons, shakers, bells or kazoos. You can make instruments from objects you have around your house. Try clapping your hands, and stomping your feet. Then, move onto actual musical instruments when they are interested.
This is a great time to also play simple songs and nursery rhymes. Over time, your baby will learn the songs like “Row, Row, Row Your Baby” and the “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”
4. Play with Cooked Noodles
After they’ve had their fill of musical playtime, give them some cooked noodles to continue the fun! Noodles are great for improving dexterity because they are hard to pick up with your fingers.
Start by cooking spaghetti noodles and letting them cool in a colander or container. Then, give them to your baby and let them explore all the different textures. Your baby will move his hands through the noodles, picking them up and squeezing them. He may take two hands and pull the noodles apart.
Sensory play is one of the most important activities for 10 month old babies. It exposes them to new texture; you can find all sorts of sensory activities for babies, like making sensory bags or sensory bottles.
Related: Easter Egg Water Scoop: A Baby & Toddler Sensory Activity
5. Stacking Cups
You can use regular cups or grab a set of stacking cups for babies. These last forever; I use them for all of my babies.
Put the cups on the floor and stack them on top of each other, or place them inside of each other. These activities for 10 month old babies help them with their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and understanding bigger and smaller.
Stacking stimulates your child’s concentration skills. Offer wooden blocks or cubes of different sizes; it helps your child learn the concept of balancing and weight.
6. Tiny Bubbles
Your baby will love to chase bubbles around during playtime! Letting them catch them is great for developing motor control as they learn how to land softly so as not to pop them. This fun activity is also great for language as they learn to imitate words like “pop” as the bubbles burst.
In the summer time, I bring out a bubble machine, and my little kids go crazy. Even if your baby can’t walk, they can try to grab the bubbles that come their way.
7. Take Things In and Out of a Box
Here is a great activity for a 10 month old baby. Grab a box that your baby can reach into and a selection of household items that are safe for your baby. Example include:
- Wooden blocks
- Measuring cups
- Kitchen spatula
- Baseball
- Socks
- Plastic cup
- Tennis ball
- Hand towel
- Tissue paper
- Water bottle
Show your baby that you put the objects into the box and how to take them out again. Explore the items in your hand, and that’s all you have to do.
This is a simple activity, but since you can consistently change the items, it’s always exciting for your baby to discover new things. Your baby will always be engaged.
8. Read Together
Now that your baby is 10 months old, they are really developing an interest in books!
Reading to them at this age will help them improve their vocabularies as well as imagination. At this age, your baby might be able to point out objects if you ask where the cow is or where the baby is in the book.
Reading to your baby is incredibly important, so make sure this is a daily activity. It’s perhaps one of the most important activities for 10 month old babies since it helps develop their communication skills.
Related: How Does Reading Improve Speech for Your Child
9. Play Copycat
By 10 months old, your baby loves to play copycat and mimic whatever you do. Their mimicking skills are purposeful; this actually helps babies develop social skills. It allows them to learn things that you do in different situations, even when you don’t realize your baby is copying you.
It’s easy to play this game with your baby.
Sit with your baby and clap your hands. Then, tell your baby to clap their hands. Make a silly face or flap your arms, watching to see if your baby copies you. When they do, give your baby a lot of praise!
10. Stack Blocks
Blocks are a great toy for babies because they develop fine motor skills as well as problem-solving skills, which is why they’re one of the best activities for 10 month old babies.
To start, stack a few blocks together and let your baby try to knock them over. Once that gets boring, give the blocks to your child and watch as they learn how to sort them into piles by stacking them. Then, try knocking those stacks down with a soft ball so that you can encourage cooperation as they work together to put the blocks back.
11. Color with Baby Crayons
Now that your baby is at least 10 months old, you can probably give them a chance with the normal crayons.
To start, use two different colors to draw a simple picture on a white piece of paper. Then, let your baby try and color as well. Show your baby how to make lines by pressing and moving the crayon on the paper.
Make sure you supervise your baby because crayons often end up being eaten or walls colored. I prefer, at this age, the large toddler-sized crayons. If you don’t want to offer crayons, try painting with edible paint; babies love this!
12. Playing in a Cardboard Box
Cardboard boxes are a great toy to play with, and they’re free!
Since they come in so many shapes and sizes, there’s always one that matches their current interests. Let your baby explore the box by crawling inside it. This will help them learn about size as well as spatial awareness.
Once they feel comfortable inside a box, try closing the lid and seeing if they notice! Adding a blanket or pillow into the mix, or show your baby how to put toys in and out, kick it, or roll it around. You also can bring the cardboard box outside with you.
13. Play with Balloons
Balloons are a great toy to play with at this age because babies simply find them fascinating !
Try inflating one or two balloons, but don’t tie them up just yet. Give your baby the balloons and see how they react! They might try to bat them around, pop them, or even take a bite. This activity is safe so long as you don’t let your child have too much unsupervised time with the balloon. If it pops, it can be dangerous, so watch carefully.
14. Sorting Toys
Sorting toys work on allowing your child the opportunity to sort toys into different groups. Babies are beginning to understand the concept of sorting objects by color, size, or shape.
To help them develop this skill even more, try giving your baby 6-8 small toys and give them a bowl. Let them sort the toys into the bowl by matching each toy with its respective category, either by color or shape.
Another option is to grab a classic shape sorter and work on two to three shapes at a time.
Finding fun activities for 10 month old babies is pretty easy. Babies work on their new milestones, explore new textures, and practicing new skills. Use those to find games your child will love.
