During the first year of life, a baby goes through important stages of neuromotor development. We present the basic milestones of neuromotor development during the first year of life, with recommendations on how to stimulate your baby through play and age-appropriate activities. We focus on practical advice that will empower you, as a parent, rather than cause concern. If necessary, contact a professional for individual advice and empowerment in your parenting capacity.
0–3 months: Initial head control and reflexes
Milestones:
- Primary reflexes present (e.g. Moro, grasping).
- On the back: the baby turns his head left and right, adopts a head-centered position. Raises his arms above his body
- On the stomach: head control develops, initially lasting a few seconds, and as the baby gets stronger, the time increases to several minutes. At this age, support is provided by the forearms.
Recommended activities:
- Tracking objects by looking left and right.
- Place toys at eye and chest level to avoid slouching.
- “Tummy time”: a few minutes several times a day to strengthen the neck and back.
- If it is difficult for the baby to raise its head at first, use an oblique position – on your chest or an oblique pillow (inclined about 70-80°). it will be easier for the baby and it will be stronger to resist even on a flat surface later.
- Skin-to-skin contact: In addition to emotional connection, this helps regulate the nervous system and calms you down.
- Use baby handling. Once you master a couple of movements and how to lift your baby through the rotation, it will quickly become a natural way of handling and will provide stimulating experiences for your baby.
4–6 months: Grasping and turning
Milestones:
- Keep your head in the middle – this is what the baby learned in the first 3 months of life and can now keep his head in the middle and raise his arms
- On the back: raises the arms and legs – a sign of a strong torso.
- At 5-6 months of age, rotation begins – the first rotation is from back to stomach, then from stomach to back.
- On his stomach, she/he begins to turn around the axis (pivot) and rests on outstretched arms and open palms.
Recommended activities:
- Place toys on the side of the body to encourage turning.
- Gently rocking the body left and right encourages controlled turning – hold your baby’s arms and legs together and rock her gently to her side.
- Offer toys with different textures to encourage hand motor skills.
- Don’t sit your baby down until he or she can sit up on his or her own – the torso isn’t ready yet.
- Encourage pivoting with toys on the side of the body while on the stomach. At first, it will seem that the baby has no idea how to reach the toy, but this is when the organization of the movement occurs. The activities become more demanding and coordination of the trunk with the arms and legs needs to be established.
7–9 months: Sitting and crawling
Milestones:
- Sits independently – The first sitting begins by pushing off the side of the floor with the hands or from a four-legged position and rotating the bottom to one side. The baby sits in a side sitting position and leans on his hands.
- Grabs toys from a side sitting position, activates the trunk.
- The baby begins to crawl – military style (on his stomach) or on all fours (on his knees and palms). All fours crawling is an extremely good activity, requiring the activation of the core muscles, the organization of the arms and legs, which must work alternately and synchronously to make the crawling as efficient as possible.
- Develops a pincer grip (thumb and index finger).
Recommended activities:
- Encourage sitting up through side reaches
- Crawling space: Provide a safe environment with plenty of room to explore and move around. Small pillows, boxes, and toys are interesting and encourage exploration, and will encourage getting up from the surface, crawling, and the next stage – kneeling.
- By offering toys, encourage the transition from supporting yourself on your arm to sitting.
- Provide objects to practice fine motor skills – e.g. blocks, pieces of food.
- Remark: Some babies start sitting first, while others start crawling. Both cases are part of normal development and depend on the experience and motivation that they have during that period as an incentive for certain movements.
10–12 months: Standing and walking
Milestones:
- Raising to a kneeling position prepares for standing.
- From kneeling to standing, the baby is raised by pulling with his hands or by taking a step forward. Taking a step forward is the correct way to stand up, but it is possible that at first the baby may pull himself up against the furniture with his hands. This is normal, but it should not persist and be the only way to stand up.
- Walks sideways, holding on to furniture. The baby becomes more stable and needs less and less support – then he lets go and takes his first steps.
Recommended activities:
- Encourage kneeling by placing interesting objects at different heights. This organization of the play space provides experiences of different heights and hardnesses of surfaces on which the baby moves, and in addition to motor experience, he also acquires sensory experiences that affect the balance center and sensitivity to different materials.
- When your baby is standing next to furniture, place toys on the left and right to encourage lateral walking.
- Encourage lowering from a standing position through play – squatting is an important step.
- When walking independently, gradually increase the distance between furniture as the child becomes more confident.
Conclusion:
When we read these guidelines, we become aware that the first year of a child’s life is a year of intensive development, which is most evident in motor skills. However, along with motor skills, other pre-skills and abilities are also developed and prepared, so follow your baby’s signs, play and enjoy everyday moments and developments. In the first year, or in the first three years, the child’s brain has the greatest opportunity to develop neural pathways that enable faster and better performance of various activities, from motor to cognitive. Keep in mind that in order for a child to be ready to learn, they need to feel safe in their environment, and the parent is their safe harbor. If the sea is rough in that harbor, empower yourself so that you can provide your child with peace and love, because when we feel safe we can dedicate ourselves to tasks that are challenging for us! Every baby progresses at their own pace, do not compare children and enjoy the maturation process.
Author: Ema Jandroković; Master of Physiology, NRT Bobath