Playing with Baby Researched-Based Play to Bond with Your Baby from Birth to Year One

Babies are amazing! From the moment they open their eyes, they are learning and developing at an astonishing rate.

Parents naturally want to engage with infants as they learn and grow, but what if we could optimize the way we play with babies? Backed by the latest research and years of observation, Playing with Baby distills the experts’ findings for new parents, giving them a guide to the first year of a baby’s life and the growth of his or her individual mind. Through specific month-by-month play options and the research behind them, psychoanalyst Laurie Hollman helps us understand how to create secure attachments between baby and mother even before they can communicate with language. While aiding natural development is a big plus, the real payoff for parents comes from the baby’s reaction: when we play on the baby’s level, we engage and connect more deeply—and we have more fun!

Laurie Hollman, PhD, is an award-winning author and psychoanalyst with specialized clinical training in infant-parent, child, adolescent, and adult psychotherapy. She has been on the faculties of New York University and the Society for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, among others, and has written extensively on parenting for various publications, including her popular column, “Parental Intelligence,” at Moms Magazine.