Tactile Boosters for Baby

Texture Crawl

Ages 0 to 2 years

Collect safe objects with interesting textures, such as a rubber floor mat, carpet samples, silk scarves, a chenille rug, bubble wrap, a piece of corduroy, velvet, satin, sticky side of a piece of contact paper, etc.

Crawling babies will love “touching and feeling” these assorted objects laid across the floor. Get down on all fours and explore these objects together, verbally prompting your baby with words like “cool,” “smooth,” and “bumpy” to talk about what you are feeling with your hands and knees.

Put some of the objects on top of a low table and have your baby feeling them from this new angle (as opposed to feeling them from the floor). Then try putting the rest of the objects in a box and help your baby pull them out one by one while using tactile words to describe each object.

For older kids, demonstrate how to feel the items with their face or feet.