There are different types and forms of play. Children's play begins around 3 months of age, and starts with exploratory play in all its forms. At first, the child discovers his environment at all levels1 : visual, auditory and tactile. There are several types of explora on in babies: bodily explora on, object explora on and vocal explora on.

The limits of movement possible in young children, and their lack of coordination, mean that they are primarily in the process of discovering their senses. Indeed, a 2-3-month-old baby is looking for sensory input, s mulating his perceptual system by generating noises or sensa ons. For example, a baby lying on his tummy scratching a surface, alternately opening and closing his hands, generates sensory input (noise and tactile feedback) through his motor movements, which his brain will process, i.e. analyze and interpret. With several repetitions on several surfaces, the baby explores his environment and generates a catalog of stimuli relating to his environment and with the object.

The exploration of objects begins with the arrival of hand-eye coordination; at around 3-4 months, the baby begins to pick up light objects (such as a rattle), and tries to manipulate them. At first, the child's movements lack stability, so he may accidentally hit himself with a rattle. As his coordination improves, he can grasp an object in one hand, shake it, bring it to his mouth (around 5/6 months), tap it, and transfer it from one hand to the other (around 7 months). This discovery of the environment occurs through repetition. Babies love doing an ac on and repeating it several times with the same object or with other objects2. This enables the child to : Learn cause-to-effet, i.e., a specific ac on will generate a specific result, for example: "I wave my arm, the rattle moves and makes noise" or "I press a button and there's a noise".

Acquire object-related knowledge:

Babies love to put objects in their mouths; the mouth is a highly-developed sensory receptor zone in children. Children use this sensory influx to discover the properties of the object in question: its texture, shape, hardness, malleability, taste and weight.

Bodily explora on, i.e. the discovery of one's own body, also begins around 2-3 months3. At first, the child discovers his hands by moving his fingers in front of him (3 months), then his face (4 months) by bringing his hands to his face, then his feet and knees (5-6 months), by trying to scrape them; then comes the discovery of his hair and thighs by scraping them (9 months); between 10-12 months the child has better motor skills and discovers his whole body as well as his genital par es.

Vocal explora on, the act of playing with the voice, is a prerequisite for language acquisition. Newborns vocalize only through vegetative sounds (cries, cries, gurgles). These sounds reflect the infant's physiological needs, through changes in pressure in the buccal and pharyngeal spheres. Between 2 and 6 months, the child begins to engage in vocal play, exploring and discovering its voice. The child will play with his or her voice, changing intensity (volume), increasing duration, and changing pitch (higher or lower). At first, these are "arrheu" and "agueu" sounds, which gradually diversify with the arrival of consonants. At this point, we're no longer talking about play, but about language and communica on.