Child Development

Your baby is on the move—and that means so are you. During these next six months, you will likely see her crawling at top speed, pulling herself up to stand and sidestepping or “cruising” by holding on to the furniture.

She may even take her first steps all by herself! Hang on. It is going to be an amazing ride for both of you. She depends on you to keep her safe—so now is the time to look around the house and take steps to make sure your home is a safe place for your new “little explorer.”

Communicating with your baby at this age is also very important. The more you talk with your baby and the more you imitate her sounds, the more you encourage her to communicate. During this period (generally after nine months of age) she may start to babble “ba-ba” and “da-da” (“ma-ma” is a little harder to say… keep listening.) You may feel funny babbling back to her, but the more sounds and words you give to her, the better. So babble away, sing, and talk about things you see and do together. By her first birthday, she may give you the gift of her first word.

It is likely you will see your baby:

• Smile in delight and giggle when you play peek-a-boo
• Imitate you drinking from a cup, banging a pot or putting a hat on your head
• Cling, cry or try to follow when you say “bye bye” or open the door to leave
• Be comforted by her “lovey” (an object that helps her feel safe such as a blanket or stuffed animal) at naptime and nighttime.
• Respond to her name and simple commands, like ”come here”
• Point, look, move, babble to tell you what she wants
• Make language sounds that seem like words
• Recognize and maybe say a few words like “mama” or “ba”
• Begin to eat infant cereal, soft fruits and veggies (After your baby’s health care provider says it is OK to introduce foods)
• Push, pull, bang, taste, fill up, dump out, turn, and drop objects to learn about them
• Look for dropped or hidden objects; show curiosity about almost everything
• Sit without support
• Crawl
• Pull to standing, maybe start to cruise holding on to furniture or take steps on her own
• Wave bye-bye
• Pick up bits of food with her fingers and eat it
• Go around, over, and under things to reach desired objects
• Repeat actions over and over again
• Explore objects, often by putting them into her mouth

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