Our Baby News

A favorite parent game is the one where you try to predict what your baby will be like: her hair color, her eye color, and whether she’ll be a lefty or a rightly.

All of these questions should start getting answers between six and eight months. In terms of motor control, she should be an equal opportunity employer until at least six months. Sometime after that, she may show a preference by holding a favorite toy or feeding herself a cracker in what will be her dominant hand.

If she is obviously favoring one side over the other earlier than this, consult with your doc. It may be a significant indicator of weakness on the side being ignored.

As children refine their motor skills, they are able to help themselves by completing daily activities independently. For example children between the ages of 2 and 3 are able to put on and take off simplistic articles of clothing.

Nothing lasts very long when it comes to babies. As soon as you’ve got him in a good playpen routine, he wants more. Now he can feed himself a Cheerio or a cracker, or he may want to spoon-feed himself.

He can stand up, holding on to the rim of the playpen; he can get to sitting from his stomach; and will start crawling/cruising along furniture.
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Everything he sees will register one question in his mind: How do I get this into my mouth? There are a number of corollary questions such as How can I get there to get it in my mouth?

And How do I fit this huge thing in my mouth? But there is never any hesitation over the big issue, namely that it does go in the mouth.

You may notice the pattern at work: Muscle control develops from the center of the body outward. The earliest tasks have to do with mastery over trunk muscles.

Mastery then travels down toward the elbows and knees, and finally hits the hands. After she learns to clap and grasp with her hands, she focuses on how to use those five fingers sitting at the end of her paw.

She starts raking objects toward her with her fingers, or resists a toy or other object from being pulled out of her hand.

Transferring from hand to hand suddenly becomes a very interesting game. Lie her on her tummy and she excitedly pushes a toy out of reach—only to go look for it.

Once she can roll this way and that and can sit without support, she will pull herself up to stand and, when lying down, enthusiastically kick her legs, especially when she’s happy or excited.

At four or five months, the range of tasks she can accomplish has broadened to include supporting her body weight with her hands on straight arms, grasping a rattle placed in her hands, and reaching for objects.

These milestones are the first major photo-ops. Not only has she grown into her face a little more and can smile for more than a split-second, but she can do all of these cute, photogenic things.

It used to be that rolling over was a near-certainty at four months, but it is occurring later these days.

The difference is sleeping on the back: Babies used to be put to sleep face down, and the push off from the arm accomplished the rollover.

These days, it is recommended that babies sleep on their backs to reduce the risk of SIDS, and they don’t have the same advantage, which makes learning this new task considerably harder.

Motor Development: 10-12 Month

The cruising, mobile pre-toddler is just on the verge of walking independently. He waves bye-bye and picks up small objects neatly.

As you anxiously await the moment of his first steps (camcorder constantly at the ready), you’ll see him standing independently more and more often and for longer periods.

Then he’ll try a step and plop forward. Sometimes, all they need at that stage is an object to stabilize themselves.

Put a large ball in his hands as he gets ready to try it again. The shift in his center of gravity may be enough to keep him from falling down.

And once he’s taken his first baby step, the rest come easily.

At this age, the range of variation from baby to baby is enormous. The rate at which one baby acquires new skills is necessarily different than the rate at which his best friend is picking up milestones.

Motor Development: First Skills

As baby grows, the head grows, and the size  of the brain grows because it is continually expanding the interconnections between these nerve cells. These links are the conscious and unconscious signals that make up our mind.

At the time of birth, a vast network already exists. It is expanded with each muscular task. When he first learns to put his thumb in his mouth, his brain establishes a link between two neurons that is reused each time he does it—and thus he learns to satisfy himself. These pathways become the “memory” of movements: They go from an accident to a skill.

Some early motor skills include propping himself upright on his elbows, bringing his hands together, keeping his head up when he’s propped to sit, visually tracking an object from side to side.