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'Ready…Steady…Go!' games are great for building your baby's attention and listening skills.

Check out the examples in the video below for some ideas of games to play with your baby.

A baby girl in the bath smiling at her dad.
Image caption,
Try building their anticipation with a 'ready', steady...' - it can be great to engage babies in an activity.

What are the benefits of playing ready, steady, go games with your baby?

  • Ready, steady, go games are great for building your baby's anticipation skills
  • They are engaging and useful for getting children to practise listening to your voice
  • It gets children used to taking turns, a key skill for communication as children begin learning to talk

How to play ready, steady, go games with your baby

All sorts of activities can work well for ready, steady, go games. Things like blowing bubbles work really well.

When you're playing a game with a repeated action, build their anticipation by putting on a very expressive voice and smiley face and saying 'Ready…', 'Steady…' and then pausing and waiting for them to respond to you before saying 'Go!' and doing the thing your baby is waiting for.

Repeat the game over and over again. In time, your baby will come to expect what is coming next and might respond in some way to the game to 'ask' for it to happen.

Your baby might respond with a noise, a gurgle or a gesture. Whatever it is, wait for them - this is their turn in the game!

Activities that work for ready, steady, go games

Like in the video, simple bath time fun like pouring water cups can be good for ready, steady, go games. But there are lots of things you can do:

A baby girl in the bath smiling at her dad.
Image caption,
Try building their anticipation with a 'ready', steady...' - it can be great to engage babies in an activity.

Find another activity

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