Milestones For Infant Development

Your Child’s Development — Month by Month

Month by month, your child will develop gross motor skills. At this stage, her head control is improving, so she may be able to lift her head when placed on her tummy. She might even start turning from side to side. She’ll also begin reaching for toys and grabbing at them. During this time you may notice that she’s starting to roll over from her tummy onto her back as well.

What are Typical Developmental Milestones For an Infant?

Developmental milestones record

• Able to drink from a cup.
• Able to sit alone, without support.
• Babbles.
• Displays social smile.
• Gets first tooth.
• Plays peek-a-boo.
• Pulls self to standing position.
• Rolls over by self.

As your baby grows, they will develop gross motor skills. Gross motor movements involve large muscle groups, including the arms, legs, and torso. The first skill your baby develops is lifting their head when on their tummy. By the time they’re one month old, your child will begin to hold their head up for a few seconds during tummy time.

At one month old, your baby will start to spend more time on her tummy. Her neck and muscles are still very weak, so she won’t be able to hold up her head for long. You can help her by holding her upright when she’s allowed to lie on her tummy. At two months, your baby might be able to hold up her head for a few seconds when you hold or prop it up!

1 month: Your new baby probably doesn’t roll over yet and won’t rate highly on a developmental checklist, but he can suck his thumb, startle at loud noises, frown when he’s cold, and give you an anticipatory smile when he sees you coming.2 months: By now your baby can lift his head while lying flat on his back (if only briefly); look around when you rock him; maybe bounce or wave his hands; and hold objects like a rattle or soft toy in one hand.3 months: Babbling becomes much more frequent as your baby recognizes familiar sounds — that’s right! He’s talking to you now! And he may have discovered something new — the fun of looking at things upside down!4 months: Learning to sit up without support is one of their major achievements at this age. By four months, most babies are sitting with support 4 months-5 months – babies are busy figuring out how to make LEGO bricks float

Your baby will continue to develop a sense of balance and coordination with tummy time. You may notice that your baby holds her head up just a bit higher when lying on her back than before. This is called the “dip reflex” and it won’t last long. Once your baby can hold her head in place, she’ll be able to look around more easily, because she’ll better understand why her view keeps changing.

Your infant will likely be more active than calm at this point. He’s likely to spend a lot of time on his stomach, arms and chest supported by his hands and knees. At this stage, your baby may be able to turn over from front to back but not yet roll from side to side. He may also begin reaching for or grasping small objects.

Baby Milestones Month By Month

From helpless newborn to active toddler: It takes just 12 short months for your baby to undergo this incredible transformation. Babies grow and change at an astounding pace, and every month brings new and exciting developments.

New moms and dads often wonder what to expect next and how to know if their baby’s development is on target. Instead of focusing too much on developmental milestones, however, it’s important to remember that babies all develop at their own pace. There’s a fairly wide “window” for when it is normal for a baby to reach a particular developmental stage.

“If your baby reaches one milestone sooner, she may reach another one later, because she’s so busy perfecting the other skill,” says Jennifer Shu, MD, pediatrician and co-author of Heading Home with Your Newborn.

Some babies may say their first word at eight months, while others don’t talk until a little after the one-year mark. And walking may start anytime between nine and 18 months.

Keeping those kinds of variations in mind, here’s what your baby may be doing during each three-month stage of the first year.

Baby Development: One to Three Months

During this first development stage, babies’ bodies and brains are learning to live in the outside world. Between birth and three months, your baby may start to:

• Smile. Early on, it will be just to themselves. But within three months, they’ll be smiling in response to your smiles and trying to get you to smile back at them.
• Raise their head and chest when on their tummy.
• Track objects with their eyesand gradually decrease eye crossing.
• Open and shut their hands and bring hands to their mouth.
• Grip objects in their hands.
• Take swipes at or reach for dangling objects, though they usually won’t be able to get them yet.

Baby Development: Four to Six Months

During these months, babies are really learning to reach out and manipulate the world around them. They’re mastering the use of those amazing tools, their hands. And they’re discovering their voices. From 4 to 6 months old, your baby will probably:

• Roll over from front to back or back to front. Front-to-back usually comes first.
• Babble, making sounds that can sound like real language.
• Laugh.
• Reach out for and grab objects (watch out for your hair), and manipulate toys and other objects with their hands.
• Sit up with support and have great head control.

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Baby Development: Seven to Nine Months

During the second half of this year, your little one becomes a baby on the go. After learning that they can get somewhere by rolling over, they’ll spend the next few months figuring out how to move forward or backward. If you haven’t baby-proofed yet, better get on it!

• During this time period, your baby may:
• Start to crawl. This can include scooting (propelling around on their bottom) or “army crawling” (dragging themselves on their tummy by arms and legs), as well as standard crawling on hands and knees. Some babies never crawl, moving directly to from scooting to walking.
• Sit without support.
• Respond to familiar words like their name. They may also respond to “No” by briefly stopping and looking at you, and may start babbling “Mama” and “Dada.”
• Clap and play games such as patty-cake and peekaboo.
• Learn to pull up to a standing position.

Baby Development: 10 to 12 Months

The last development stage in baby’s first year is quite a transition. They aren’t an infant anymore, and they might look and act more like a toddler. But they are still a baby in many ways. They are learning to:

• Begin feeding herself. Babies at this developmental stage master the “pincer grasp“ — meaning they can hold small objects such as O-shaped cereal between their thumb and forefinger.
• Cruise, or move around the room on their feet while holding onto the furniture.
• Say one or two words, and “Mama” and “Dada” become specific name for parents. The average is about three spoken words by the first birthday, but the range on this is enormous.
• Point at objects they want in order to get your attention.
• Begin “pretend play” by copying you or using objects correctly, such as pretending to talk on the phone.
• Take their first steps. This usually happens right around one year, but it can vary greatly.

Your Baby’s Development: When to Talk to a Pediatrician

What should you do if you think your baby is not meeting growth or developmental milestones, when they should? First, says Shu, trust your instincts. “If you really feel like something’s wrong, then talk to your doctor about it because if there is a problem, we want to catch it as soon as we can,” she says. “Early intervention is best, and you know your child better than anyone.”

Remember, however, that it is not exactly when your baby sits up by themselves or says their first words that is important; it’s that they are moving forward in their development. “Don’t look at the time as much as the progression, and see that your child is changing and growing,” says Shu. “It’s not a race. Nobody’s going to ask on a college application when your child first walked or said ‘da-da.’”