Keep Them Moving
Ten-month-old babies are highly mobile and enjoy exploring their environment. Many are crawling and pulling themselves up around this age, as well as coasting along the edges of furniture. Encourage this constant physical movement and help babies learn and practice motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Push toys and baby walkers come in various shapes and sizes and offer an array of sounds. The Juppy Baby Walker is one product that requires parents assist children with their walking efforts. Place baby in the harness and retain control of the handles, then enjoy a safe, leisurely stroll around the yard.
Language Development
Every human being begins his journey into full communication with single sounds or words popularly recognized as "baby babble." Interact with baby during playtime using alphabet cards with colorful animal images and transportation shapes. Laminate cards so you can wipe them off as they get dirty. Hold them up one at a time, state the first letter of the image's name and slowly sound out the word. Consistent repetition will help babies develop an auditory ability to hear letters and words and will later allow for full word comprehension.
Books
Read to your child from an early age and help cultivate language development and observation skills. Board books made of heavy cardboard or soft, squishy fabric are both safe for baby to chew on as well as light enough to hold. Offer books that cover an assortment of themes such as colors, numbers, animals, continents, popular animated characters or foods. Set baby in your lap and act out movements together to help baby with hand coordination. Point out small details in the images, identifying them to baby one at a time.
Building Toys
Once on the move, babies gravitate towards anything that moves. Give them something safe to build with by introducing building blocks at an early age. Wood blocks come with various pictures, letters or colors printed on them. Solid-colored blocks are also available. Pick up a book or make homemade drawings of simple structures for baby to replicate with blocks. Help her learn how to use small random pieces to create something specific. Colored blocks offer additional opportunities for color identification, matching and blending.