With every passing day you and your child rediscover the world, learn to know each other and the rest of the family and friends, but mainly you - the parents, continue exposing him to new experiences. In the upcoming months, you will notice that he will learn to roll over from both sides (from his back to his tummy and vice-versa), and he will even start crawling. So how will he crawl? Each child and their unique style :) Some children will crawl in the classic way, on their belly, using their hands and feet. Some might drag their tummy on the floor and others might drag themselves on their bottom or even role from one place to the other. It doesn’t really matter how your child moves around, as long as he keeps moving, making him stronger and better at it with each passing day. Remember, try devoting time for tummy play under your supervision daily, it will make your child stronger and will improve his crawl. The improving motor ability will also contribute to his ability to explore the environment and find new games that were out of his reach before. Once he discovers new places you will see that each new object is subjected to a complete investigation, starting from tasting it, passing it through from one hand to the other and even knocking two objects at each other, making playful sounds.
You will be happy to learn that your child mumbles quite a lot, trying to communicate with you, starting to make sounds that are similar to those he hears from you and repeat what you say, as much as he can. Make sure you keep talking to him, the more the merrier, not only “baby talk”, but also in your usual language so that he can learn new words.
Remember, every child is a world of its own, growing and developing in his own pace, and most of the times if he hasn’t reached the milestones mentioned above in the times described, is it not a cause for concern. However, if your child has already reached the age of 9 months and has yet to perform the following activities you should contact your pediatrician:
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Turns from his tummy to his back, and vice-versa
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Crawls (no matter which style)
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Passes objects from one hand to the other
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Knocks two objects at each other
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Makes repeated syllables and sounds that are similar to the language he is exposed to
Last updated: May 2017
Authors - Tamar Sudry BA MED, Dr. Yair Sadaka MD Ph.D., pediatrician, Pediatric neurologist
Sources:
Israeli ministry of health