Families For Life | 7-12 Months: Baby Development

Your Infant’s Development at This Age

This is an exciting time for you and your infant, as this little bundle of joy becomes increasingly mobile, with motor skills that seem to expand at such a rapid rate! At this point, this precious little one is also likely to be able to express likes and dislikes for certain foods and may even be able to babble certain syllables. During these 6 months, you may feel like things are going at express speed, with numerous new milestones1 every day. Here’s what you can expect.

At 7 to 9 Months

Your infant will be able to push himself or herself up onto the hands and knees and will soon start crawling. The next step milestone would be to follow your movements. Picking up objects will start to be a common occurrence as your infant starts to discover how to use the index finger and thumb to grasp objects.

Ensure your infant is safe while exploring new grasping skills by only offering larger toys with smooth curved handles (such as teething rings) and avoid small objects that may be swallowed accidentally. Toys given to your infant should be intact without small pieces that could break off.

Your infant may get visibly excited and stimulated playing with toys. You may want to choose brightly coloured toys as they will stimulate your infant’s vision as compared to pastel-coloured ones.

This is also a good time to teach your infant the first words by allowing him/her to look at your mouth when you make sounds with the letters B, P, M or W. Your infant will copy your lip movements and start babbling word-like sounds with a variable intonation as if in conversation, which is also known as “baby-talk.”

At 10 Months

Your infant will begin to sit on their own. They will also be able to shift their position from sitting to lying down and from lying down to sitting. They will be able to sit steadily without falling and may also be able to creep on their tummy on the floor.

You will be filled with joy to hear your infant making sounds such as ‘mama’, and ‘dada’ and even waving bye bye to you. He/She may even respond if you ask simple questions such as “Where is mummy?” or “Where is daddy?”.

When you are dressing your infant, he/she may surprise you by holding out an arm or a foot.

At 11 to 12 Months

Your infant will begin to try standing and walking with some support, for example, by holding on to furniture. Soon, your little one will be able to stand without help from you, and before you know it, he/she will be taking his/her first steps! Do consult your doctor if your infant is not sitting unaided by 12 months old.

Your infant will also start copying your lip movements when you talk or sing to your infant to say first words such as “BABY, PAPA, MAMA, WO-WO”. It is alright if the pronunciation isn’t clear, because the aim is to encourage the imitation of new words or word-like sounds. For e.g., your little one might say “—NANA” for banana or “—PLE” for apple. Do consult your doctor if your infant is not making baby-talk or babbling by 12 months old. A hearing test may be needed to ensure that your infant can hear well.

Your infant will also begin to understand simple sentences such as “where is your book”.

Contributed by:
HealthHub