I’ve been a fan of SmartNoggin Toys and recently had the opportunity to team with them, making a video of their “NogginStik” light-up rattle. Capturing the babies’ interest and joy in watching and playing with the NogginStik was such fun.

Loaded with developmental learning features, the NogginStik was developed by early learning specialist, Marcia Haut. Marcia and I immediately clicked as therapists who “speak the same language” and both have a passion to help parents get the most fun and learning out of play time with their babies.

Listen to the tips on how to maximize learning while playing with your new little one to promote language learning.

  • Babies: Describe what your baby is looking at like a running commentary–what is he feeling, seeing and hearing–to encourage language development and listening skills, using rich vocabulary, not baby talk. “Look at Noggin’s face change from red to green. He’s moving over to this side and back to the other side, up/down, across, on/off” etc. Babies pick up more language when you are talking about what they are focused on and interested in so follow their focus of attention.
  • 3 months: Continue to pass the NogginStik back and forth and up and down, encouraging visual tracking, a skill needed for later reading, describing the action, colors and sounds.
  • 6 months: As your baby starts to reach and grab, learning cause-effect, describe how the NogginStik changes in colors and sounds.
  • 10-11 months: As your baby is learning to imitate, play a little game of shaking, banging and moving, pause and let her imitate you, describing her actions.

I gave each mom a NogginStik to take home and have heard that it is their baby’s favorite and mom’s “must have” toy in the diaper bag!