EYFS Activities: Birth to two… ‘High play’

‘High play’ is my term for lifting babies up in the air with your arms outstretched so they can look down on you. Babies love being up high, as it gives them the chance to see the world from a different viewpoint.

WHEN AND HOW

Babies need to be about five or six months old before you play this type of game as they need to be able to hold their heads up without support. The starting point for lifting a baby up into the air is that you have a good relationship with them. The baby has to trust you and feel secure.

This movement is very stimulating for babies, so avoid playing this game before naps.

Make sure that the area around you is clear – for example, with no overhanging shelves.

Choose a time when the baby is not tired and fairly content and settled.

Start off by prolonging lifts that form part of everyday routines – for example, lifting the baby from a high-chair or after a nappy change, bringing the baby up to your eye level. (You should hold the baby securely under the armpits using two hands.)

Smile and start using a phrase that you can keep repeating such as ‘Up you go!’

Once the baby seems to enjoy these short lifts, start to take the baby up a little higher for a few seconds.

Maintain eye contact and bring the baby back down to your chest.

Repeat a few times using the same phrase each time.

Note: To avoid back strain before lifting a baby up to your head height, bring the baby into your chest first. If you are lifting a baby from the floor, you should always bend your knees and bring your bottom down.

DEVELOPMENTAL BENEFITS

Being lifted into the air by someone they trust is very stimulating for babies. It allows babies who often spend a lot of time at floor level to see their world from a very different perspective. It also is a great bonding activity as babies and adults are making physical contact as well as eye contact. Ideally, this type of play should be incorporated into the planning each day as it:

• strengthens muscles in the neck and back as babies have to maintain their position (physical)
• helps babies learn to balance and develop spatial awareness (physical)
• helps build vocabulary as children associate words with actions (language)
• helps babies to see their surroundings and objects from a different height (cognitive)
• helps babies to connect with their key person or special adult (social).
  
  

NEXT STEPS

Once you are regularly using ‘high play’ with babies, the next step might be to introduce a song or a rhyme so that this becomes part of the activity alongside the repeated phrase. You might also increase the opportunities for babies to be high up in a range of different places, including outdoors. Where safe, babies might also touch or feel items that are higher up – for example, touching a mobile (assuming it is safe) or the branches of a tree.

WHAT TO OBSERVE

Several aspects of development are worth observing:

Physical skills Consider the baby’s posture and balancing skills.

Communication Look out to see if the baby can show you that they want to be lifted up and also how they communicate their enjoyment.

Language See if the baby responds when you use a repeated phrase.

HOME LEARNING

Many parents, particularly fathers, are very good at engaging in ‘high play’. They may do this quite instinctively, but they may not know what the learning potential of this activity is.

It is, therefore, worth talking to parents about the benefits of this activity, as well as the importance of using repeated phrases, so that their child will gradually make the link between the phrase and the actions.

RHYME TIME

There are many wonderful action rhymes for babies that will reinforce being up in the air or moving up and down.

You might like to try out this simple one, which can be said or sung while moving the baby in time to the words:

Here we go up, up, up,

And here we go down, down, down.

Here we go back and forth, and back and forth,

And around, and around, and around.

To hear the rhyme as a song and also to see a video, visit: http://tmas.kcls.org/here-we-go-up-up-up

BOOK TIME

Look out for simple picture books which explore the concept of animals or items being in the air or going up and down. A good example of this is Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree by Eileen Christelow.

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