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Baby and I arrived at our first Baby Sensory class a little unsure what to expect. I’d heard of Baby Sensory classes in the UK and was surprised to find classes in Australia too. We were greeted with a big warm smile by Jewels and joined the circle of other parents and babies.

Jewels explained that Baby Sensory classes are designed to support early development of babies from 0-13 months and to activate Baby’s senses of hearing, seeing, smelling and touching. Each class is 1 hour long and consists of 3 phases. The first phase includes all sorts of sensory activities starting with a “Say Hello to the Sun” song – complete with actions.

As the class progressed there were more songs and I learnt that many of the actions to the songs were based on Baby Sign Language. This was the first time I had seen Baby Sign Language in action (and not just on Meet the Fockers). Singing “Old MacDonald had a farm” complete with signs for the various animals and the chorus “E-I-E-I-O” not only taught us the baby sign language for animals but baby sign language for vowels!

It wasn’t too long before we were in the second phase of the class which is all about Discovery. In this phase parents are encouraged to take their baby to the large play area and discover the activities in this space. Baby discovered two teddy bears named “Nutmeg” and “Cinnamon” (each teddy bear smelt like their respective name). Baby ended up submerging in a pool of plastic balls which resulted in squeals of excitement as she was trying to crawl her way out and find her balance at the same time. It wasn’t too long before she found a baby around the same age and they began playing a baby xylophone together. While the babies were playing together it was lovely for me to meet some of the other parents in the class.

It was then back to the sensory area for more sensory, visual and therapeutic experiences in the third phase of the class. Jewels sung “Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” while performing a puppet show with little pigs and a wolf. We mesmerised the babies with tinsel pom-poms, bubbles and a parachute. Throughout the session Jewels explained the benefits of each activity and suggested good ideas to take home. Finally, we gave the babies a therapeutic baby massage before singing the “Good bye song”. We all had such an enjoyable time that we organised to go to a nearby cafe after class.

Baby Sensory is not a course and you can join at any time. We went to our Baby Sensory class in the Brisbane suburb of Hawthorne. To find out more contact the Baby Sensory team in Morningside on (07) 33992004 and mention www.babyreview.com.au to receive your “First 2 lessons FREE”. To find out more visit the Baby Sensory website.