Screen-free activities by age, babies to 12
By Adam Linmore · October 30, 2026
The best screen-free activities are not elaborate. They use what is already in the house and give a child the one thing a screen cannot: a person who plays, talks and answers. Below are ideas sorted by age, each with a talk tip, a way to turn the play into a conversation. Pick one that fits today.
Safety, every time. An adult stays close for every activity here, within arm’s reach of any water, and handles the stove, sharp knives and tools. For a child under three, or any child who still puts things in her mouth, nothing small enough to choke on: if it fits through a toilet-paper tube, it is too small.
Babies: birth to twelve months
At this age, you are the activity. Your face, your voice and your hands are the most interesting things in your baby’s world.
Face-to-face chat. Hold your baby close, make a sound, then wait. Talk tip: pause after you speak, about five seconds. When she coos, answer as if it were a real conversation, because it is.
Peekaboo with a cloth. Hide your face behind a napkin. Talk tip: “Where’s Mama?” then a beat of silence before “Peekaboo!” By nine months, most babies smile or laugh at it.
Kitchen band. A wooden spoon and a pot lid. Talk tip: “Bang, bang! Loud! Now quiet… tap, tap.”
Narrated walks. Carry her around the house or outside and talk about what you pass. Talk tip: “Tree. Big tree. Leaves go swish.”
The same ten songs. Sing them every day and leave the last word open. Babies learn where the pause in a song is long before they can talk.
Toddlers: one to two years
Toddlers love to move, to copy you and to do real jobs. Short bursts of play, a few minutes at a time, are normal.
The pots-and-lids cupboard. One low cupboard of safe pots, lids and plastic bowls. Talk tip: “In! Out! In again!” When she says a word, say it back and add one.
Box tunnel. Open both ends of a large cardboard box. Talk tip: “Where did you go? There you are!”
Wash the potatoes. A shallow tub of water, a cloth and a few whole potatoes, with you beside her. Talk tip: “Wash, wash, wash. All clean!”
Follow the leader. March, stomp, tiptoe, stop. Talk tip: take turns being the leader and name each move.
Blocks. A set of plain blocks and you on the floor. Talk tip: if she stacks, stack; if she knocks it down, say “Down!” and wait.
Preschoolers: three to five years
Pretend play takes off. Preschoolers can follow games with two or three steps and love to be in charge.
Pretend café. A table, a notepad and toy food or a real snack. Talk tip: let her take your order and ask her questions: “What do you recommend?”
Story cards. Draw simple pictures on cards (sun, dog, house) and turn one over at a time. Talk tip: take turns adding one sentence to a silly story.
Nature hunt. Find something rough, smooth, green, tiny, bigger than your hand. Talk tip: “How does it feel? What else feels like that?” Look and touch, don’t taste.
Freeze dance. You sing; everyone freezes when you stop. Talk tip: name the pose: “You’re a statue of a… flamingo!”
Kitchen helper. Tearing lettuce, pouring water from a small pitcher, carrying the napkins. Talk tip: name each thing as she does it.
Ages five to eight
School-age children want a challenge, rules and a chance to win. They still love it when a grown-up joins in.
Card games. Go Fish, Crazy Eights, War. Talk tip: “Why did you keep that card?”
Build a fort. Blankets, chairs and clothespins. Talk tip: “Where’s the door? What’s the fort called?”
Cooking together. Measure, pour, stir and read a simple recipe aloud. Talk tip: ask her to read you the next step.
Comic strip. Fold paper into four boxes and draw a story by hand. Talk tip: “What happens next? What does the character say?”
Ages nine to twelve
Older children want independence and real responsibility. Offer choices, not orders.
Plan a family meal. They choose the menu, write the list and cook with help. Talk tip: ask about their choices, not only the result.
Build something. A cardboard marble run, a birdhouse kit, a model. Talk tip: “What’s the trickiest part? What would you change?”
A collection or a notebook. Rocks, leaves, sketches, a reading log, a weather journal. Let them show you what is new.
Neighborhood map. Draw the block or a favorite park from memory, then check it on a walk. Talk tip: “What did you remember that I forgot?”
Why play like this is worth a few minutes
Movement. The World Health Organization asks for at least three hours of physical activity a day, spread through the day, for every child from one to four, and outdoors is the simplest way to get there. A separate line of research is about older children’s eyes: for school-age children, time outdoors is linked with less nearsightedness, and in a trial across twelve primary schools in China, the schools that added one forty-minute class outdoors each school day saw about a quarter fewer children become nearsighted over three years.
Fewer, quieter toys. When 36 toddlers had four toys in the room instead of sixteen, they played longer with each one and in more varied ways. When parents and babies were recorded playing, electronic toys produced fewer adult words and fewer turns than traditional toys or books, because a toy that talks does the talking.
Play itself. The American Academy of Pediatrics’ 2018 statement “The Power of Play” asked pediatricians to tell every family that time on the floor is not wasted.
The kitchen and the table. In a long study of children’s language, the talk at family meals predicted vocabulary and comprehension years later. In a large American sample, children who did chores more often at five or six were, by eight or nine, more confident in their school abilities and had higher math scores. These are associations, and families who do these things differ in other ways too.
Older children can make the change. In a Danish trial, families who handed in their phones and tablets for two weeks had school-age children who were physically active about forty-five minutes a day more.
A simple way to start
Choose one activity for your child’s age.
Set it up before the moment a screen usually appears: before dinner, after school.
Join in for the first few minutes, then step back if she is happily playing.
Repeat it three days in a row. Children love repetition, and it gets easier each time.
What this does not mean
Screen-free play is not about being a perfect parent. The research on responsive parenting does not find that children need a perfect partner, only one who answers often enough. For a child under six, the book behind this site asks for no screens if you can manage it, a precaution rather than a guideline; for an older child, a little, slow and shared. This list is a stock of easy ideas for the moments a screen used to fill.
If anything about your child’s talking, play or development worries you, talk with your child’s doctor, and ask for a hearing test first. “Virtual autism” is not a medical diagnosis; if that phrase brought you here, read what it means.
Sources: World Health Organization 2019; He et al. 2015; Dauch et al. 2018; Sosa 2016; Yogman et al. 2018; Snow and Beals 2006; White, DeBoer and Scharf 2019; Pedersen et al. 2022; Zubler et al. 2022. Full references are in chapters 10, 15 and 16 and appendix F of Virtual Autism; the sources page lists the key studies behind this site.
Want the full picture? Virtual Autism sets out the research, its limits and a practical plan for home.
General information, not medical advice. If you are worried about your child, talk to your child’s doctor.