3 Easy Facial Expression Sensory Activities for Babies
Practice making different expressions with your baby with these 3 easy facial expression sensory activities for babies that fit the bill for easy sensory activities for babies 6-12 months.
Did you know that one of the earliest skills that babies learn is how to mimic their parent’s facial expressions?
In fact, it’s one of the first skills that a speech therapist will ask you to practice even after your baby gets their cochlear implant
I remember when my boys were babies, one of the “speech” goals that we spent a lot of time on in the beginning was helping the boys learn how to mimic our facial expressions.
We worked on this even before the boys could hear, and after they got their cochlear implants, too!
Facial Expression SEnsory Activities for BAbies
Learning how to mimic facial expressions also teaches babies to look to you for information.
Incorporating some facial expression sensory activities for babies into your daily routine will be helpful to teach your baby about facial expressions and emotions, even before they get their cochlear implants.
For kids who are deaf/ hard of hearing, the ability to “attend” or look at the person who is speaking is important to learning a language.
Babies who are deaf/ hard of hearing need to be able to pay attention to facial expressions for language cues, read lips to know mouth placement for certain words, and to watch ASL signs.
read a book with silly facial expressions
Reading books is one of the best ways to practice language with your kids! You can use books to create a ton of language scenarios, and it’s usually fun and engaging for babies, too!
For this activity, a book with a lot of good pictures is ideal. Simply read through your baby’s favorite book and make the facial expressions of the characters on your own face.
Remember to overexaggerate your face! If a character in the book is mad, make your face obviously very mad! If the character is sad, make your face a very sad face.
Your baby will begin to understand what emotions are from reading the book. After a few tries, your baby should start attempting to make the facial expressions as well!
Make sure to check out peek a boo sensory activities for babies if your baby is restless and needs some more active play time.
feel your face sensory activity
This is a great activity that let’s your baby move around more if they are in an active mood! And it’s so simple- it just requires your face!
For this activity, make a facial expression. Have your baby feel your face, and then have them make the face on themself!
This activity helps baby with motor planning of their facial expressions. You can even describe to your baby how your face curves up in a smile, or down in a frown.
Place your hand over your baby’s hand and help them create the expression with their hands on their own faces.
This activity is silly and guaranteed to get a lot of laughs from your baby. Have fun with it and make lots of crazy faces!
ASL with facial expressions sensory activities
The language of ASL is visual, and includes facial expressions as a foundation of the language. You can definitely start to incorporate language into your facial expressions sensory activities for babies.
Each time you make a facial expression on your face, make the sign for the emotion at the same time. Even if it takes time for your baby to catch onto signing, the activities are laying the foundation for your baby to pay attention to your face and hands.
One of my favorite apps to use on my phone is ASL pocket sign. You can look up any sign and it will show you a visual about how to make the sign. It’s perfect for learning to sign emotions for our activities!
Facial expression sensory activities for babies are fun, and lay an important foundation for language and emotional regulation as your baby grows into a toddler. You can use these activities before your baby gets their cochlears as a way to bond with your baby and start to teach your baby language through signing the emotions.
Don’t forget to download your free Sensory Play Guide!
What facial expression makes your baby laugh the most? Let me know in the comments!
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