Your baby development the first year is extremely exciting, for both him and you. Not only will he be learning something new every day, he will fast be transforming into a little person of his own with distinct likes and dislikes. Adapting to your baby development can be dodgy because as soon as you begin getting used to one phase of his growth, you will be surprised, and perhaps even flabbergasted, to find that he’s already moved on to another.
Baby Development: The first three months
To you babies may only look like a crying, sleeping; pooping machine, your baby also comes equipped with the ability to communicate feelings and needs through gestures and expressions. Your positive response to these actions will help your confidence in each other to grow. These first “conversations” are an important part of your baby development.
In the first four weeks of your baby development, don’t be confuse or bothered if your baby prefers to be quiet and calm, especially if he is born prematurely. Touch is an especially important method of communicating with your baby. Your baby may even make little “ah” noises when he sees your face or hears your voice.
At four to six weeks of baby development, be ready to capture your baby’s first real smile in response to your face and voice–a penetrating, disarming toothless grin that has nothing to do with reflexes or the satisfaction of passing gas. From six weeks onwards of baby development, she will respond more actively to play and bath time, waving his arms, kicking his legs as well as squealing more readily when tickled.
By week twelve of baby development, your child will be reacting quickly to all sorts of stimuli such as a mirror image and the voices of other adults. He may stop sucking his thumb or bottle to listen to or watch these stimuli.
Baby Development: Three to six months
Your baby development at this stage, music can have a profound impact on your child. As babies are open to anything, don’t restrict your child’s options–babies have been known to enjoy music. The more varied the choices, the richer the impact on your child’s love for music. Part of baby development at this stage is he begins to develop his preferences.
Apart from baby music, your child will also become more socially aware at four to five months of baby development, beginning to sort out who’s who in his life and showing a preference for some people over others.
It will be a great treat and a social boost for him at this stage of baby development to join in during family mealtimes. He may even eat more as a result of watching you eat together. Unlike newborns, your five-month-old may laugh at funny expressions, express displeasure at having his toys removed and show a strong attachment to you by raising his arms to be carried at this stage baby development.
Towards six months of baby development, your baby will have more control over his movements, and enjoy playing with objects he can hold such as a rattle or soft toy. He will enjoy kicking, bashing, grasping and chewing objects. As baby development continues to be visible, this is the perfect time to introduce objects of different sizes and textures such as rubber balls, plastic spoons and wooden blocks.
Baby Development: Six to nine months
This is the baby development stage that is a good time to begin teaching sounds and turn-taking, allowing your baby to be the leader with you mimicking his vocalizations. When it is your turn to lead, teach your child animal noises like quack, bow-wow, moo, meow and so on.
As part of baby development, she will also begin to recognize objects and what they stand for such as a bib for food or a rubber duck for bath time. This is when your baby may start testing authority–not as a sign of willfulness, but from sheer curiosity to see how you will react. It is therefore, the stage of baby development that is good time to start using a short but firm “no”.
By eight month of baby development, he may start recognizing phrases like “Daddy’s home” or “lunch time” and start throwing kisses at people he likes. He may even repeat actions if applauded and uses social skills like waving goodbye.
Watch out however for signs of separation anxiety, which is known to begin around this age. As part of baby development, he may become extra clingy or upset when you are out of sight. Let your baby know that you will be back when you leave him and return soon to develop his trust in you.
Baby Development: Nine to twelve months
By nine months of your baby development, he is ready to explore the world, either by crawling or shuffling his bottom. Some babies may even begin walking at this age.
This is an ideal time of baby development to improve his verbal word recognition skills by using simple words instead of long sentences. For example, saying “spoon” instead of “here’s your spoon, let’s put it in your hand” can help your child to identify and name objects more easily.
At this age of baby development, your child may be able to repeat some words from nursery rhymes or songs so it’s a good idea to start expanding your music collection. Children of this age may also enjoy being read to at bedtime, using simple board books. More disturbing news about this stage of baby development: it is also natural for ten and eleven-months-old to begin resisting the confines of a stroller or car seat!
Towards twelve months of baby development, she may start feeling fear towards sounds or objects that weren’t frightening to him before. These feelings are normal as a baby’s knowledge of his surroundings starts to expand.
Baby Development: The twelfth month
Around your baby’s first year, your child will be reasonably armed with sufficient social and emotional skills to relish being on the move, using newfound words and charming his audience, especially you as part of his twelfth month of baby development.
It’s important to make sure that physical or mental growth is not taken for granted at this stage of baby development. It is also never too early to promote two-way communication by reading together or discussing the day’s activities at this stage of baby development. Doing this ensures that you are no longer just the reader or speaker and he the listener.
Take things easy, watch your baby development at his own pace and watch his remarkable journey of discovery unfold!You may also try making a baby development chart to observe your baby development every week!