Understanding your child’s first year milestones

Parenthood is an exciting time, when you too learn so many new things as your baby grows. However, this phase is also filled with a lot of questions. Talking about 6-12 months, it is the time, when your baby is achieving new developmental milestones almost every month.

Which gross motor skills develop during this phase?

This is the phase when your baby starts exploring the world around with their touch and movements. Here is a list of the gross motor skills that your baby develops during 6-12 months of age:

• Gets his feet to his mouth – 6 months
• Sits without support for a short period – 6 months
• Stands with support – 8 months
• Lifts his head up, while lying down – 6 months
• Starts crawling – 8-9 months
• Plays or manipulates toys – 9 months
• Sits without support for a long period – 10 months
• Stands up using support – 9-12 months
• Walks holding on to the furniture or hand – 12 months

How to improve my baby’s gross motor skills?

• You can use toys that can be pushed or pulled like cars, trucks, toy vacuums, etc.
• You can create a child-safe area, which your child can explore safely, by placing toys on sofas or low tables, where he/she is motivated to stand with support or pull himself/herself up to reach these toys. This helps in improving gross motor coordination.
• You can also take help of a chair that can be placed in between your child and toy, this will motivate the child to either moves it away or takes help of the chair to stand up and reach up to the toy

Which are the fine motor skills developed during this phase?

Fine motor skills developed during 6-12 months of age are as follows:

• Ability to transfer the toy from one hand to another
• Pick up small sized objects
• Able to drop objects intentionally
• Uses both hands simultaneously
• Poke things using the index finger

What can I do to help my baby tune his fine motor skills?

• Help your baby combine objects that are used during playing like banging two blocks together, putting his toys in the container. This helps him to figure out how objects can be combined,improving fine motor skills
• Games to develop fine motor skills include ring stacks or busy box

What cognitive development does my child go through during this phase?

Cognitive development includes the following:

• Bangs toys together
• Reaches his toy with one hand
• Grasps objects with thumb and fingers
• Shows interest in pictures
• Reaches an object with index finger
• Puts things in and out of containers
• Picks up and drops his toys deliberately

What lingual development is happening in my child during 6-12 months of his age?

This is the phase when your baby initiates communication, which is predominantly non-verbal or an early phase of babbling:

• Your baby will respond to his/her name
• Uses monosyllables like ka, ma, ba, etc.
• Uses disyllables like da-da, ba-ba, ta-ta, etc.
• Mimics simple sounds
• Loves to make sounds with toys
• Able to understand ‘No’
• Uses mama or dada – inappropriately

What social developments are happening in my baby?

This is the phase when babies start smiling and become more aware of people around them and they love being reciprocated to. Other social developments are as follows:

• Identifies and discriminates strangers
• Beginning to enjoy peek-a-boo
• Smiles to mirror image
• Offers his toys without releasing them
• Waves bye-bye
• Rolls ball towards other person
• Loves interacting with adults

What can I do to nourish his lingual and social development?

Repeating actions over and over again is enjoyable for babies and that’s the key to make your baby learn during this phase.

• Talk to your baby and give him/her time to respond
• While your baby is responding, he/she may make sounds or move their body or make facial expressions, continue to talk or babble back to encourage him
• Show your baby photo albums of your family, home, and their favorite toys
• Read a book with your child, name photos, help in learning the names of people in his world and allow him to turn pages
• Use toys that play songs or rhymes

Disclaimer: The information in the article is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor.

Also read: A complete guide to baby’s developmental milestones from 9-12 Months

Explore the entire collection of articles: Baby Growth And Development

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