14 Engaging 4 Month Old Activities To Try in 2025

September 14, 2025

Welcome to the exciting world of your four-month-old! This is a magical time as your baby transitions from a sleepy newborn into a more aware, interactive, and curious little person. You're likely seeing more purposeful smiles, hearing those first delightful babbles, and noticing them gain more control over their head and limbs. This developmental leap is the perfect opportunity for purposeful play.

This guide is designed to help you make the most of this special stage. We've gathered a comprehensive list of simple yet powerful 4 month old activities that support their rapidly growing brain and body. Each activity is easy to set up and focuses on key developmental areas, from strengthening neck and core muscles during tummy time to stimulating their developing vision with high-contrast patterns.

Forget generic advice; we're diving into practical, actionable ideas you can start using today. You'll find fresh perspectives on classic games and new ways to encourage sensory exploration, language development, and social bonding. These aren't just ways to pass the time; they are the foundational building blocks for future milestones, all wrapped up in moments of joyful connection. Let's explore how to enrich your baby's day and foster their incredible growth.

1. Tummy Time Play

Tummy time is a foundational activity for your four-month-old, serving as a crucial workout for their developing body. It involves placing your baby on their stomach while they are awake and supervised. This simple practice is vital for strengthening the muscles in their neck, shoulders, back, and arms, which are essential for achieving major motor milestones like rolling over, sitting up, and eventually crawling.

Recommended by paediatricians and physical therapists, particularly following the "Back to Sleep" campaign, regular tummy time also helps to prevent positional plagiocephaly, or flat spots on the back of the baby's head. By four months, your baby is likely showing more head control and may even start pushing up on their forearms, making this one of the most productive 4 month old activities you can do.

How to Make Tummy Time Effective

To keep your baby engaged and happy, it’s important to make tummy time an interactive and positive experience. Start with short, frequent sessions of just two to three minutes, gradually building up as your baby's strength and tolerance increase. The goal is to accumulate around an hour of total tummy time throughout the day by this age.

Get down on the floor at your baby's eye level to offer smiles and encouragement. This direct engagement makes them feel secure and transforms the exercise into a bonding moment. Using a colourful play mat with different textures or an unbreakable baby-safe mirror can capture their attention and motivate them to lift their head and look around.

Tummy time is not just about muscle building; it’s a sensory experience. It gives your baby a different perspective of the world, stimulating their visual and tactile senses as they explore their surroundings from a new vantage point.

Actionable Tips for Tummy Time Success

If your baby fusses during tummy time, don’t be discouraged. Try these strategies to make it more enjoyable:

Change the Scenery: Move beyond the play mat. Try placing your baby on your chest while you recline, or across your lap. This provides a comforting and different sensory input.
Use Engaging Toys: Place a few favourite toys in a semi-circle just within their reach. This encourages them to pivot and reach, which strengthens core muscles and improves coordination.
Incorporate into Routines: Make tummy time a standard part of your day. A great time is after a nappy change or when they first wake up from a nap and are feeling alert and content. Avoid doing it right after a feed to prevent discomfort.
Sing and Talk: Your voice is a powerful tool. Sing songs, talk about the toys in front of them, or make playful sounds to keep them entertained and focused on you rather than the effort they are exerting.

2. High Contrast Visual Stimulation

Engaging your baby with high-contrast images is a powerful way to support their rapidly developing vision. At four months, a baby’s eyes are still learning to work together, and they can most easily detect stark contrasts, like black and white. This type of visual input helps to stimulate optic nerve development and teaches the eye muscles and brain to coordinate and function properly.

This simple yet effective practice lays the groundwork for future visual skills, including depth perception and object recognition. While your baby is beginning to see colours, their ability to distinguish them is still limited. Bold, black-and-white patterns or primary colours provide the clearest images for their brain to process, making it one of the most beneficial 4 month old activities for cognitive growth.

How to Make Visual Stimulation Effective

To maximise the benefits, present high-contrast images or toys in a calm and focused environment. The ideal viewing distance for a four-month-old is about 8 to 12 inches away, which is roughly the distance from their eyes to your face when you are holding them. This close range allows them to focus without straining their developing eye muscles.

Start with short sessions of five to ten minutes, a few times a day, to avoid overstimulation. You can use flashcards, books with simple patterns like stripes or checkerboards, or even a mobile with alternating black and white shapes. Move the images slowly from side to side to encourage their eyes to track the movement, which strengthens the muscles needed for reading later on.

High contrast visual stimulation is more than just an eyesight exercise; it’s a direct way to engage your baby’s brain. It encourages curiosity, lengthens attention span, and builds crucial nerve connections that support learning and memory.

Actionable Tips for Visual Stimulation Success

Making this activity part of your daily routine is easy. Here are some practical tips to get started:

Integrate into Playtime: Attach high-contrast cards to the side of their cot or play gym. This gives them something interesting to focus on during independent play or just before a nap.
Use During Tummy Time: Place a high-contrast book or cards in front of your baby during tummy time. This provides excellent motivation for them to lift their head and strengthen their neck muscles.
Create Your Own Cards: You don’t need to buy expensive toys. Use a black marker to draw simple shapes, spirals, and patterns on white card. This DIY approach is just as effective. For more ideas on using visual aids, you can explore the benefits of flash cards.
Observe and Respond: Pay attention to your baby’s cues. If they look away, yawn, or get fussy, it’s a sign they’ve had enough stimulation. End the session and try again later when they are alert and content.

3. Sensory Exploration Play

Sensory exploration is a cornerstone of your baby’s learning process at four months old. This activity involves introducing your little one to a variety of safe textures, sounds, and visual stimuli to engage their developing senses. From feeling a soft fabric to hearing the gentle jingle of a rattle, each new experience helps build neural connections in their brain, laying the groundwork for future learning and cognitive development.

Popularised by Montessori educators and occupational therapists, sensory play is fundamental for understanding the world. At this age, your baby primarily explores using their hands and mouth, so providing a rich sensory environment is one of the most impactful 4 month old activities you can facilitate. It supports motor skills as they grasp for toys, cognitive skills as they learn cause and effect (shaking a toy makes a sound), and even emotional regulation.

How to Make Sensory Exploration Effective

Creating a stimulating sensory experience doesn't require expensive toys; it's about variety and safe exploration. The goal is to offer different materials that awaken their senses of touch, sight, and hearing. You can start with simple items like soft fabric books with crinkly pages, textured balls, or silicone teething toys with interesting bumps and ridges.

Engage with your baby during this playtime by describing what they are feeling or hearing. For example, say "This is a soft blanket" or "Listen to the crinkly sound." This verbal interaction adds another layer to their learning, helping to build early language skills alongside sensory processing. You can learn more about the benefits of specific items by exploring a guide to sensory toys for babies.

Sensory play is your baby's first science experiment. Each touch, sound, and sight is a piece of data they are collecting to understand how their world works, forming the essential building blocks for more complex learning.

Actionable Tips for Sensory Success

To ensure sensory play is both safe and beneficial, keep these practical tips in mind:

Introduce New Things Slowly: Offer one new texture or sound at a time to avoid overstimulation. This allows your baby to fully focus on and process the new sensory input without feeling overwhelmed.
Safety First: Ensure any item you provide is large enough that it cannot be a choking hazard, is non-toxic, and has no small parts that could break off. Always supervise sensory play closely.
Narrate the Experience: Use descriptive words to talk about what your baby is experiencing. Phrases like "The toy is bumpy," "That's a loud rattle," or "The fabric feels smooth" connect words to sensations.
Follow Your Baby's Cues: Pay attention to your baby’s reactions. If they turn away, cry, or seem agitated, it might be time for a break. Every baby has a different tolerance for stimulation.

4. Interactive Reading and Storytelling

Interactive reading is a powerful activity that lays the groundwork for future language and literacy skills. It involves more than just reading words on a page; it's about creating a rich, multi-sensory experience for your baby by using expressive tones, pointing to pictures, and encouraging them to touch and feel the book. At four months, your baby's brain is rapidly developing, and hearing your voice in rhythmic, varied patterns helps them tune into the sounds and cadence of language.

This simple routine is one of the most beneficial 4 month old activities for cognitive growth and emotional bonding. While your baby won't understand the plot of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar', they will respond to the bright colours, the sound of your voice, and the comforting closeness of sharing a book with you. It helps build positive associations with reading from the very beginning.

How to Make Reading and Storytelling Effective

To capture your four-month-old's attention, make story time an animated performance. Sit with your baby in your lap so they can see the book and your face. Use a sing-song voice for rhymes and change your pitch to match different characters or events in the story. This isn't about finishing the book; it's about the shared experience.

Choose books designed for this age group, such as sturdy board books, soft cloth books that can be safely chewed, or "touch-and-feel" books with different textures. Point to the colourful illustrations as you name objects, like "Look at the big, red apple!" This helps your baby begin to connect words with images, a foundational step in language acquisition. For more ideas on what to read, you can explore some of the best board books for babies.

Reading to your baby is a conversation. Even if their response is a coo or a kick, they are participating. This back-and-forth interaction is a vital building block for social and communication skills.

Actionable Tips for Storytelling Success

If your baby seems more interested in mouthing the book than listening, that’s a normal part of their exploration. Try these tips to keep them engaged:

Be Expressive: Use exaggerated facial expressions and gestures. Open your eyes wide in surprise or smile broadly to match the story's mood. Your baby is learning emotional cues from you.
Let Them Participate: Allow your baby to touch, hold, and even mouth durable cloth or board books. Guide their hand to touch different textures in a sensory book while you describe what they are feeling.
Embrace Repetition: Don’t worry about reading the same book over and over. Babies thrive on familiarity and repetition, which helps them learn and feel secure.
Make It Routine: Incorporate reading into your daily schedule, such as before a nap or as part of your bedtime ritual. A consistent routine makes story time a comforting and anticipated activity.

5. Music and Movement Activities

Incorporating music and gentle movement into your baby's day is a joyful way to stimulate their developing senses and strengthen your bond. At four months, your baby's hearing is fully developed, and they are beginning to recognise rhythm and melody. This activity involves singing, playing musical instruments, and gentle dancing to nurture their auditory processing, physical coordination, and emotional expression.

This multisensory experience helps create neural pathways in the brain associated with language, memory, and emotion. As popularised by child development experts and programmes like Kindermusik, these shared musical moments are not just fun; they are powerful learning opportunities. Responding to different sounds and rhythms makes this one of the most engaging 4 month old activities for cognitive and social growth.

How to Make Music and Movement Effective

The key to a successful musical experience is interaction and variety. Your baby isn't just a passive listener; they are an active participant who learns through your engagement. Use different types of music, from calming classical pieces during quiet time to upbeat nursery rhymes when they are alert and playful.

Hold your baby securely and sway or dance gently to the beat. This helps them physically feel the rhythm and introduces them to the concept of movement linked to sound. Simple hand-motion songs like 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' or 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' are excellent for capturing their attention and developing their visual tracking skills as they follow your movements.

Music is a universal language that communicates emotion and connection. For your baby, your singing voice is the most beautiful sound in the world, providing comfort and security while laying the groundwork for language development.

Actionable Tips for Music and Movement Success

If you're not sure where to start, try these simple strategies to bring more music into your baby’s routine:

Use Your Voice: You don't need to be a professional singer. Your baby loves the familiar sound of your voice, so sing lullabies, nursery rhymes, or even your favourite pop songs. Your voice is their favourite instrument.
Introduce Baby-Safe Instruments: Offer simple instruments like soft bells, a baby-safe maraca, or a small toy drum. This encourages them to explore cause and effect as they learn that their actions can create sound.
Integrate into Daily Routines: Make music a part of everyday activities. Sing a specific song during nappy changes or bath time to create positive associations and predictable routines.
Observe and Respond: Pay attention to how your baby reacts to different genres and tempos. Do they kick their legs excitedly to an upbeat tune or become calm with a soft lullaby? Responding to their cues makes the experience more meaningful.

6. Social Interaction and Face Games

Your four-month-old is becoming a social butterfly, and face-to-face interaction is their favourite way to connect. Social games are more than just fun; they are a cornerstone of your baby’s emotional and cognitive development, teaching them the fundamental rhythms of communication, social cues, and emotional expression. This direct engagement helps build a secure and loving attachment between you and your baby.

At this age, babies are fascinated by human faces, especially those of their primary caregivers. They are beginning to recognise expressions and associate sounds with emotions. Engaging in interactive face games is one of the most rewarding 4 month old activities because you can see their understanding and delight grow in real-time as they learn to anticipate a smile or a silly sound.

How to Make Social Games Effective

The key to successful social play is being present and responsive. Your face is your baby's most interesting toy, and your expressions provide a rich source of information. Simple, repetitive games are perfect for their developing brains, as predictability helps them learn and feel secure.

Dedicate short periods throughout the day for focused, one-on-one interaction when your baby is calm and alert. This could be during a nappy change or after a feed. Games like peek-a-boo, making exaggerated happy or surprised faces, and mirroring their gurgles and coos are all powerful ways to communicate and strengthen your bond.

Social interaction is your baby’s first language lesson. By responding to their vocalisations and mirroring their expressions, you are teaching them the back-and-forth pattern of conversation and validating their attempts to communicate.

Actionable Tips for Social Play Success

If your baby seems disinterested or fussy, it may just be a matter of timing or overstimulation. Try these tips to foster joyful interaction:

Follow Their Lead: Pay close attention to your baby's cues. If they turn their head away, it’s their way of saying they need a break. Respect their limits and try again later.
Be Expressive: Use a wide range of animated facial expressions and vary the pitch of your voice. This captures their attention and helps them learn to differentiate between emotions.
Play Classic Games: Simple, timeless games are often the best. Play peek-a-boo with your hands or a light blanket, or recite "This Little Piggy" while gently wiggling their toes. The repetition is comforting and educational.
Use a Mirror: Hold your baby in front of a baby-safe mirror. Talk about who you see ("Look at that clever baby!") and point out their eyes, nose, and mouth. This helps develop self-awareness.

6 Key Activities Comparison for 4-Month-Olds

Activity	Implementation Complexity 🔄	Resource Requirements ⚡	Expected Outcomes 📊	Ideal Use Cases 💡	Key Advantages ⭐
Tummy Time Play	Low - simple setup but needs supervision	Minimal - firm surface, optional toys	Strengthens muscles, prevents flat head, promotes motor milestones	Daily short sessions to build strength and motor skills	Essential for motor development, no special equipment needed
High Contrast Visual Stimulation	Low - easy to prepare and use	Minimal - high contrast cards or objects	Enhances visual tracking, focus, and early cognitive processing	Visual stimulation during awake time, short duration	Supports vision growth, easy DIY, calming for many babies
Sensory Exploration Play	Medium - selection and monitoring required	Moderate - variety of safe sensory items	Stimulates multiple senses, encourages curiosity and neural development	Sensory exploration and calming activities	Multi-sensory engagement, promotes tactile discrimination
Interactive Reading and Storytelling	Low - requires books and caregiver engagement	Minimal - age-appropriate books	Language development, bonding, early literacy foundation	Daily reading sessions, bedtime routines	Promotes language skills, strengthens parent-child bond
Music and Movement Activities	Medium - needs music choices and caregiver participation	Minimal - simple instruments optional	Auditory processing, rhythm recognition, emotional regulation	Soothing, bonding, and rhythm exploration	Enhances auditory skills, emotional connection, and calmness
Social Interaction and Face Games	Low - interactive and spontaneous	None	Emotional bonding, social skill development, communication growth	Anytime interaction to build attachment and social skills	Free, strengthens attachment and communication skills

Embracing the Journey of Play and Growth

At four months old, your baby is primed for intentional interactions that lay the groundwork for future milestones. This article explored six essential activities—Tummy Time Play, High Contrast Visual Stimulation, Sensory Exploration Play, Interactive Reading and Storytelling, Music and Movement Activities, and Social Interaction and Face Games. Each activity is designed to support motor skills, awaken the senses, and foster early social connections. By weaving these simple experiences into daily routines, you can turn every moment into a purposeful learning opportunity that helps your baby thrive. As you revisit each activity, you will notice progress in tiny yet meaningful ways. This conclusion ties together key insights and suggests next steps for you and your baby.

Key Insights

Tummy Time Play strengthens neck muscles and prepares for rolling over
High Contrast Visuals sharpen focus and encourage tracking
Sensory Exploration engages touch, taste and sound in short bursts
Interactive Reading builds language awareness and parent–baby bonding
Music and Movement enhances pattern recognition and coordination
Social Interaction with facial expressions nurtures emotional intelligence
Alternating activities keeps your baby curious and attentive

“Observation and responsive play unlock each developmental milestone.”

Actionable Next Steps

Create a flexible daily play schedule with 10–15 minute sessions
Keep a simple journal of your baby’s reactions and new achievements
Rotate toys and visuals weekly to sustain interest and challenge senses
Invite siblings or grandparents to join face games and storytelling

Long-Term Benefits

Building a strong foundation now pays dividends in future learning and social confidence. Mastering these concepts equips you to adapt activities as your baby grows.

Improved gross motor skills lead to smoother tummy time transitions
Enhanced sensory processing supports self-regulation and calmer moods
Early exposure to language boosts vocabulary recognition by six months
Positive play experiences foster secure attachment and trust

Final Words

Embrace each giggle, each little stretch and every bright-eyed stare as proof of your baby’s growing potential. Your mindful approach to “4 month old activities” transforms everyday moments into powerful stepping stones. Celebrate each milestone—no matter how small—and remember that the love you share is the most important ingredient in every play session.

Ready to simplify developmental play?
Discover Grow With Me’s curated play kits packed with age-appropriate toys and guided activities tailored for four-month-olds. Let us support your journey with purpose-driven tools that nurture growth and spark joy.
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