Child development: 6-9 months

You and your baby are starting to feel (and act) like separate people. She is starting to sit up, reach
out and act on the world. She worries that you might not come back when you go away from her
and lets you know it. She will really respond to you providing lots of things to look at, touch and
safely put in her mouth.
Time playing on her tummy on the floor will strengthen her back and get her legs into crawling
mode.

Social and emotional development

There are some big emotional and physical developments in your baby that you will notice between
6 and 9 months. Your baby is becoming able to move around and take a much more active part in
family life.

Firstly and most importantly, she begins to realize she is a separate person surrounded by
her own skin [and finishing at her hands and feet]. She no longer experiences floating in a
sea of feelings and needs where the outside and the inside are all mixed together, instead she
begins to feel she has an outside and an inside and to know where the boundary of the
outside is. She will start to understand that you are separate from her, and it will worry her
when she can't see you or feel you nearby.
Secondly, her insides feel more organized to her. She begins to recognize and identify her
own feelings and that they are different. For instance she may know the difference between
feeling hungry and feeling lonely and may be able to give you some clue as to whether she
wants food or a cuddle. She knows this because you have helped her to recognize different
feelings by responding to her hunger with food and her loneliness with cuddles etc.
She will begin to have desires of her own, simple things she knows she wants, like wanting
to hold an object or wanting to be picked up immediately. Her desires may not always be
the same as yours and for the first time you may feel yourself clash with her tiny will!
She will, in the course of these months, come to recognize the important, familiar people in
her world and therefore become sensitive to strangers. By 9 months she will be shy with
strangers, and for a while she might not even want to be too close to people she knows, such
as her grandparents. However, it is a very sociable age and she will love to be talked to and
played with.

Physical development
He will put everything in his mouth. His lips and tongue are the most sensitive part of his body and
will give him lots of information about texture, shape and taste. Also, you can swallow some bits of
the world but not others and he is just learning this!

He will start to take some mashed solids around this time, and later some soft finger food
such as toast, [under your supervision].
At first it is hard for him to work out the eating action because he is used to sucking, so
keeping the food inside his mouth can be a challenge!
Just because the mashed pumpkin gets spat out does not necessarily mean he hates it, he just
may not yet have got the hang of keeping it inside his mouth. The different textures feel
very strange to him at first.

The topic 'Feeding your baby' has more ideas about helping him to learn to manage these different
tastes and textures.

Moving
At some time during these four months he will be able to:

roll over, front to back and back to front

sit alone for a few moments when you put him into a sitting position, then manage to sit by
himself without falling over

do push ups when on his tummy, ie lift his head and chest off the floor and support himself
on outstretched arms
then start to move while on his tummy, first 'commando' style ie pulling himself along on
his arms, then crawl on all fours
reach for a rattle and shake it
swap a toy from one hand to the other
find his feet, play with them and put them in his mouth.

Seeing
His eye muscles will be working well and he will be able to focus on small objects. He also
develops a perception of depth and therefore can be afraid of heights and falling. By 9 months he
can not only see a drop but understand that it is scary.

Hearing

He will turn towards familiar sounds and voices and want to make sounds himself, not only
verbally but by banging objects together.

Speech and language

While she has been cooing and babbling for many weeks her sounds will now take on a closer
resemblance to real words.

She enjoys making sounds and she knows that she has made them.
She will experiment with, and copy different sounds like clicks and lip bubbles as well as
her word-like sounds.
She will use lots of different sounds to express different emotions; frustrated grunts, squeals
and chortles of delight are all in her repertoire.
She will listen to you carefully when you speak to her, and she will try to talk back to you
using her babbling sounds.
She will probably be putting a vowel and a consonant together as in "muum", or "bubbub".
She might say 'ma-ma-ma' because she can, rather than because she understands that this
sound is a word she can use when she wants her mother. Even though it may still be
accidental these same sounds will be repeated as she works out how to make the noises.

Activities for the 6-9 month old

He loves to touch and grasp and to 'make things happen', ie make things shake or bang or move
towards him. These activities are not only great fun but also help him to understand that he has an
effect on the world, he can DO things to it. If we want our children to be able to act in the world
when they are grown up, this is very important.
Conceptually he is learning about up and down as well as coming and going and he will love to
play games that act these things out.
He will love to:

have you talk to him

have you look into his eyes
lie on his back and grab his feet
lie on his tummy and reach for a brightly coloured toy or piece of paper
have you play "here is your nose - here is mummy's nose"
drop his toy from the highchair or pusher endlessly and delight in watching you pick it up
play 'ahh boo' as you bring your face quickly down to his tummy.
play 'peek-a-boo' as you hide your face behind a book or cloth and say his name when you
come out.

At this age, although they want things that they can hold and shake and drop, and put into their
mouth, babies still need most of all to be with and to interact with people, especially their parents
and other people who are close to them such as their brothers and sisters and grandparents. People
are much more interesting than things.

Alert!
You should check with a health professional, if by nine months your child is not:

sitting up without help by 8 to 9 months

smiling and laughing out loud
grasping, holding and shaking things
reaching out for objects and putting them into their mouth
turning towards you when you call their name
beginning to try some 'solid' foods
making lots of different sounds.

Your child may be progressing quite normally, but most babies can do these things by 9 months.

Summary
Social emotional
A baby usually:

knows familiar people, starts to withdraw from strangers

begins to turn around when is name is called
starts to become anxious if primary caregiver is out of sight
stretches up her arms to be picked up
initiates gestures such as cough, poking out tongue.

There may be a problem if a baby:

o
o
o

does not show pleasure when she sees familiar people

is not making eye contact
cannot be reassured by mother or close carer.

Motor skills
A baby usually:

sits without support by 8 months

starts to move around by 8 months (rolling, creeping)
tales objects to mouth by 6 months.

There may be a problem if a baby:

o
o
o

is not sitting by 9 months

holds his body stiff and cannot be put in a sitting position
is not interested in, and reaching for, objects by 8 months.

Daily activity
A baby usually:

can hold a bottle to drink

can start to drink from a cup, which is held by an adult, by 6-8 months
holds a spoon - but cannot use it, by 7 months
begins to try some 'solid' foods.

Understanding
A baby usually:

looks for a fallen object by 7 months

plays 'peek-a-boo' games
cannot understand 'no' or 'danger'.

There may be a problem if a baby:

o
o

does not recogise mother

does not show interest in surroundings.

Speech and language

A baby usually:

babbles by 6-7 months making one and two syllable sounds eg 'dada'
listens to a person speaking, then 'answers' in babbling sounds.

There may be a problem if a baby:

o

does not babble or make other sounds when someone talks to him.

Child development: 9-12 months

Your baby is moving around now and the pace of life has quickened somewhat. This may suit you
if you found the tiny baby stage restrictive. He will be 'talking' and making recognisable sounds
and he will really love you talking to him and repeating single words clearly.
He may be clingy and wary of strangers but he is forming special relationships with family
members and his personality will be becoming clear to you.

Social and emotional development

It is usually in these three months that your baby begins to understand his very special relationship
with you, and with friends and relatives. He starts to know that when you go away, you will come
back again, and that you are still there even when he cannot see you. No wonder 'peek-a-boo' and
'hiding' are favourite games because they play out in a simple way the comings and goings of
people that your baby has come to recognize and depend upon. He also has some understanding
that you see him and that he can hide from you, although he still thinks that if he can't see you, you
can't see him. He starts to understand that he is a person, and he can recognise himself in the mirror.
He will have developed some definite ideas about what he likes and does not like. He may kick and
resist nappy change time or other restrictions on his freedom.
He will smile and babble and try to
engage you in a conversation and
copy simple hand games like 'clap
hands' or 'bye bye'. In other words he
is becoming aware of himself as a
social creature. He understands the
meaning of "no", although he is
going to spend the next eighteen
months checking its meaning
exactly!
The down side of all this is that he is frightened when you leave him and will cling and cry, and
[very sensibly] be wary of strangers.

Moving around

The big break through in motor development

is that she will move all on her own. She
might pull herself along with her arms, roll
around or crawl on all fours. During this time
she will start to pull herself to standing and
support her weight while holding on to you or
to furniture. Some babies will start to walk by
themselves during these months, although
many won't walk for a few months yet.
It's a big thing to see your baby 'standing on her
own two feet', probably holding on and not
walking quite yet, but vertical nevertheless. If
you have loved the tiny baby stage you may
have some sadness when your baby starts to
look like a child or else you may be relieved to
see the promise of some independence to come.

Safety is a big issue when babies start to move around by themselves. You need to baby-proof your
house and make sure all poisons and dangerous items are locked away up high. Put things that she
might break well out of reach too. She can't stop herself from touching anything that looks
interesting. See 'Home safety' and 'Toddlers - keeping them safe'.
Her fine motor skills are improving quickly too. She can pick up an object with her thumb and
fingers rather than grabbing with the palm of her hand. She pokes and points with her finger and
transfers objects from one hand to another. She cannot however control putting things down and
she has to drop to release objects from her grasp. She will still put anything she holds into her
mouth and now that she can pick up small things this can be a risk time for swallowing dangerous
objects or choking. See 'Choking'.
She will be able to sit on her own for quite long times and will enjoy exploring objects and the
sounds she can make with them while sitting on the floor.

She will be feeding herself in her high chair although she may often be more interested in squishing
and feeling than the actual eating bit. She is also able to drink out of a cup with a spout without
help.

Talking

He has got the idea of conversations now and even though he may not have any recognisable words
he will 'chat' away with the right inflexion in his voice. He may be saying simple sounds like
'mumum' and 'daddad'. He recognizes several words and may shake his head for "no''.
He is not making the huge variety of sounds that he was in earlier months because his sounds are
more specific to his native tongue. He begins to drop [for instance] those European sounds deep in
the back of his throat for more English, front of mouth sounds, (if English is his native tongue).
He begins to love music and rhymes and he will bounce and sway to the rhythm and he will love
the repetition of songs that help him to learn that language in itself is a musical thing. Babies can be
very interested in books now (see 'Reading with babies').

Activities for the 9-12 months old

Make her a kitchen cupboard of her own to open and shut the door.
Give her pots and spoons to bang.
Sing songs and repeat phrases.
Bounce her and sing.
Look at simple books with clear pictures in them.
Play 'hiding' behind the couch or curtains.
Talk to her a lot.
Sit her on the floor with her toys.
Encourage her to push a trolley with bricks in it.
Cuddle and roll on the floor.

Children of this age still like being with people best of all, but they are starting to have some
interest in toys that do something, like move or make a noise.

What to watch out for

Seek help from your health professional if your baby by 12 months is not:

pulling himself up to stand

moving around somehow
changing objects from one hand to another
looking up when you call his name
copying simple sounds like "mummum"
showing signs of being especially attached to his parent
smiling, laughing and trying to attract your attention.

Summary

Social emotional
A baby usually:

is well aware of strangers and familiar people and withdraws from strangers
may not even go to familiar people for a while - demanding the primary caregiver
gives cuddles by 10 months
enjoys peek-a-boo games.

There may be a problem if a baby:

o
o

does not show pleasure when she sees familiar people

does not show anxiety when separated from her main caregiver.

Motor skills
A baby usually:

can move around by crawling or bottom shuffling by 10 months

can lean over while sitting without falling over
can pull up to standing by 10 to 11 months
walks with hands held by 10 to 12 months.

There may be a problem if a baby:

o
o

is not sitting by 9-10 months

is not starting to move around by any means.

Understanding
A baby usually:

is interested in small objects and reaches out for them

starts to look at and feel objects before taking them to his mouth
looks in the correct direction for things that have fallen down.

There may be a problem if a baby:

o

is not interested in new objects.

Speech and language

A baby usually:

is putting strings of babble sounds together

shakes head for 'no' by about 10 months
recognises several words including own name (eg looks for daddy if 'daddy' is said)
imitates sounds made by other people.

There may be a problem if:

o

babbling has not become more complex and baby does not babble in 'conversation'
with others.