Montessori Grasping Ring: Essential for Motor Skills and Oral Development
The Montessori grasping ring is a versatile addition to your Montessori parenting toolkit. This wooden ring, with its simple yet powerful design, can engage your baby and support their development in numerous ways, from infancy and beyond. It can function as a standalone wooden toy or as a tactile mobile, making it a valuable investment as your baby progresses beyond the Montessori visual mobiles.
The Montessori grasping ring, a wooden ring sanded smooth on all sides, is designed with your baby's safety in mind. It's large enough to avoid any choking hazards, yet small enough for your baby to hold comfortably. At around 2.5 to 3 months, your baby will start reaching for objects and experimenting with batting, grabbing, and pulling. All these skills can be honed with just one Montessori grasping ring.
On its own, the ring can be used for hand-to-hand transfer, an essential skill that utilizes both sides of the brain. Crossing the midline, as described above, is vital to the development of using both sides of the body together. Everyday tasks such as putting on your shoes, writing, and cutting all involve using both sides of the body together (you see why this is an important skill to work on). It also encourages fine motor development, intentional and coordinated movement, and core strength development. Because the ring is the perfect size for your baby's hands, they can move it independently, which gives them the satisfaction of affecting their environment.
The grasping ring makes a perfect tactile mobile when hung from ribbon or elastic. When hung from a ribbon, your baby can practice batting at the ring and develop hand-eye coordination and visual tracking. They will also learn about cause and effect and executing an action with intention. While their first movements toward the ring may be unintentional, they will quickly realize the power that they have. And, as their arms and core develop, they can more accurately grab the ring. The ring is even more enticing when hung from elastic. The tactile experience of pulling on the ring and the ring pulling back is exciting and offers your baby a lot of valuable sensory input. When attached to elastic, your baby can pull the ring to their mouth independently.
The ring can be used to encourage oral development and soothe sore gums. New research shows a good reason babies put everything in their mouths: all of their chewing and oral stimulation promotes the development of the mouth. This stimulation helps to strengthen the facial and tongue muscles, which help with speech development and ease the transition to eating solids. Oral stimulation helps babies create a mental map of their mouth, which will benefit them in many future endeavors, such as word formulation and moving food around without choking. Wood is ideal for babies to mouth because it is non-toxic, natural, and durable.
The Montessori grasping ring is small but mighty. Your baby will learn to focus and control their movements, develop their gross and fine motor skills, and plan and execute an action. The satisfaction and increased self-esteem they will acquire when they successfully grab the ring can't be beaten. They can pull, hold, bat, explore, discover, and so much more with this one simple toy!
The Montessori grasping ring, a wooden ring sanded smooth on all sides, is designed with your baby's safety in mind. It's large enough to avoid any choking hazards, yet small enough for your baby to hold comfortably. At around 2.5 to 3 months, your baby will start reaching for objects and experimenting with batting, grabbing, and pulling. All these skills can be honed with just one Montessori grasping ring.
On its own, the ring can be used for hand-to-hand transfer, an essential skill that utilizes both sides of the brain. Crossing the midline, as described above, is vital to the development of using both sides of the body together. Everyday tasks such as putting on your shoes, writing, and cutting all involve using both sides of the body together (you see why this is an important skill to work on). It also encourages fine motor development, intentional and coordinated movement, and core strength development. Because the ring is the perfect size for your baby's hands, they can move it independently, which gives them the satisfaction of affecting their environment.
The grasping ring makes a perfect tactile mobile when hung from ribbon or elastic. When hung from a ribbon, your baby can practice batting at the ring and develop hand-eye coordination and visual tracking. They will also learn about cause and effect and executing an action with intention. While their first movements toward the ring may be unintentional, they will quickly realize the power that they have. And, as their arms and core develop, they can more accurately grab the ring. The ring is even more enticing when hung from elastic. The tactile experience of pulling on the ring and the ring pulling back is exciting and offers your baby a lot of valuable sensory input. When attached to elastic, your baby can pull the ring to their mouth independently.
The ring can be used to encourage oral development and soothe sore gums. New research shows a good reason babies put everything in their mouths: all of their chewing and oral stimulation promotes the development of the mouth. This stimulation helps to strengthen the facial and tongue muscles, which help with speech development and ease the transition to eating solids. Oral stimulation helps babies create a mental map of their mouth, which will benefit them in many future endeavors, such as word formulation and moving food around without choking. Wood is ideal for babies to mouth because it is non-toxic, natural, and durable.
The Montessori grasping ring is small but mighty. Your baby will learn to focus and control their movements, develop their gross and fine motor skills, and plan and execute an action. The satisfaction and increased self-esteem they will acquire when they successfully grab the ring can't be beaten. They can pull, hold, bat, explore, discover, and so much more with this one simple toy!
