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I was looking for some exercises , games for 6-7 month old infants that would help them exercise their motor skills and cognition. Since such infants can't even sit or rollover without support, what types of games, toys etc would help in their mental development?

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    While this question has good pieces, the age range of 2-6 months is probably too broad. A 2 month old is likely not rolling over. A 6 month old should be rolling both directions and able to sit if placed in that position, and may be independently sitting up as well as crawling. A 2 month old is barely batting at toys. A 4 month old is grasping toys and bringing them to his or her mouth to chew or reaching, grasping, and rattling. Also the categorization "motor skills and mental development" is so broad it might as well be "all developmental areas."
    – justkt
    Commented Sep 9, 2013 at 9:16
  • @justkt updated the age
    – parenting101
    Commented Jan 1, 2014 at 6:25

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You might have seen "play gyms" - these are mats with interesting patches. Some of the patches make noises, or have different textures, or are bright colours.

Sometimes the mats have soft frames and mobile things dangling down.

Tummy time is good because it helps with crawling and avoiding flat head. And having fun things to crawl towards helps. Having things dangling over you is interesting, and children reach their arms out to try to reach the things. But watch out! sometimes having this stuff can become gently distressing.

There's also "heuristic play" - this pretty much means that you find a bunch of everyday objects with different colours and textures and sounds, and put them near your child to play with. S/He will explore different things. Often children take things to their mouth to explore them - the lips have many sensitive nerve endings - so you want to make sure the objects are safe. You obviously need close monitoring with this, but you want to try to balance "freedom to explore" with "let's be safe".

Messy play with things like tins of baked beans or cold-cooked rice pudding (lumpy, chunky, textures) are fun because children squeeze things between fingers.

For slightly older children pens and paints introduce finger nad hand movements.

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