Read to your child, play with your child, take your child on outings in nature, talk to them about what you see. Name birds and animals and trees and flowers, Show them colors, give them finger paint and chalk and clay and crayons. All of these things you can do with a young child, but…do not try to create a super baby, the best teacher is discovery not pressure to learn and perform. A 9 month old baby needs to learn nothing and just enjoy his/her parents love, reading stories, playing in the bath and the rest will unfold as time wears on.

Take is slow. Play. Babble.

Water play, sand, animals, parks, talking. The world is a whole new place to explore and “learn.” Don’t worry about “book larnin”” yet.

(Written before I read @Coloma‘s excellent answer.)

Read to them as often as you can, don’t coddle your child, teach them how to be kind, considerate, respectful and being smart doesn’t do much for a child unless they learn to handle disappointment.

@Cruiser He’s tallking about a nine month old!

@janbb I caught that much and IMO you can’t start early enough with teaching your children well.

I guess with a baby I’d rather teach them first that their needs will be met than that they will be disappointed although I realize that dealing with disappointment and frustration are part of life learning. I just feel that and consideration and respect are for older children than infants.

@janbb The disappointment lessons are only a smidgeon of what a child needs to learn. IMO reading to and or with your child every day is a must.

Every single thing that you do (or don’t do) is an education for the child. The baby is just figuring out what it’s like to be alive. Just be kind to her.

At nine months of age, sign language and swimming are good lessons to start with. One will help with development of communication skills (it is always surprising what an infant can communicate by way of sign language), and the other is good for basic safety. Both are fun.

@Cruiser I wasn’t talking about the reading part; I was talking about the disappointment part. I think 9 months is too young to learn that.

Um, @janbb what did you mean by ” I just feel that and consideration and respect are for older children than infants.” Do you mean showing consideration and respect for you child isn’t needed when they are babies?

@Dutchess_III No of course not. That should be obvious. We’re talking about educating them and yes, we educate by example as well which is why I said having their needs met was crucial..

A lot of parents are in a hurry to have their babies grow up. Thinking ahead about walking and talking and potty training and learning. It’s important to be present, fully present, with every stage of development and not get ahead of yourself or your child. Raising kids is not a competition and a lot of moms get into a competitive mode, whose baby was toilet trained first, walked first, talked first and are wanting to put their infants/toddlers in play groups well before the child has any concept of playing with or sharing with other children. IMO toilet training shouldn’t start until the child is 2 years old or more and play groups are complete nonsense until around age 3 in most cases.

Don’t be in such a hurry to take away their bottles, pacifiers, diapers, security blankets and thrust them into social situations they have no ability to cope with. My daughter still had her bottle until she was around 16–18 months old and wasn’t fully potty trained overnights, until 3 and still slept with her favorite blanket until she was about 7. Who cares whose kid did what first at what age? Who cares if they still get comfort from sucking on a bottle at 18 months?

Who cares if they want their security blanket until they are 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or walked at 10 months or 14 months? WHO CARES!
Let little kids enjoy being little without all sorts of adult pressure to do something on some rigid time table just to stroke mom and dads ego and give them bragging rights.

And let them sleep with you as long as they want. I promise that when they start dating they won’t want to sleep with mom and dad any more!

@Coloma You rule!

There are studies out that say reading to your child from birth on will help them succeed.

‘Helping Children Succeed’ Starts At Birth; A Case For The Power Of Nurture