The child uses all of his/her senses to explore objects. S/he gazes, listens to, smells, touches, bats, grabs, pulls at toys and begins to move towards them.

Play materials are first looked at, then touched and finally brought to mouth to further explore. Children having difficulty manipulating toys may prefer highly reactive toys.

Young children explore all objects in the same ways with repetitive movements.

• imitate the child's sounds, add inflections to encourage child reactions
  
  
• react to the child's signals
  
  
• place the child in different positions for play
  
  
• encourage the child to look at brightly colored objects as they are moved
  
  
• provide opportunities for the child to reach, pull and grasp objects
  
  
• offer toys with different sensory characteristics (vision, sound, texture, vibration)
  
  
• provide opportunities for the child to experience moving through space
  
  
• include the child in conversations and talk about people and actions that are taking place or about to happen