Cognitive Development

Your Baby’s learning process of thinking, memory; language and reasoning are the cognitive skills that develop in this period.
Your baby will be beginning to focus her vision and is learning to recognise your voice. In the first 4-6 weeks you may even be lucky enough to get a smile from your baby!
Language skills start to develop by about 6-8 weeks, your baby will begin to ‘babble’ or ‘baby talk’ which in fact is her new ability to listen, understand and recognize the names of people and the things around her.
Your baby will start showing interest in what is going on around her and can recognize you and other close family members and familiar people.

Physical Development

Most parts of your Baby’s body are still immature. In the first few months the digestive system develops to work efficiently. You will often notice that your baby seems quite pre-occupied with what is actually happening inside her. She may focus intently when doing a poo, for example!

Your Baby’s fontanel (soft spot) closes by the 2^nd month. Her eyes will begin to move together in unison, known as binocular vision.

Her legs may appear slightly bowed but this is perfectly normal and nothing to be concerned about, her legs will gradually straighten as she gets older. She will cry with real tears. Your Baby’s skin is quite sensitive and is easily irritated so it is important to use natural products with no perfumes etc.

Towards the very end of this period her teeth may begin to show with her upper and lower front teeth (incisors) coming in first. This may cause her to drool more and you may notice some redness and swelling to her gums. She may be irritable as her teeth ‘cut’ through and want to chew on objects.

Her ‘baby fat’ may start to appear with little fat rolls on her neck, upper arms and thighs. Her true eye color is established around the 6-8 month period.

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Motor Development

Your Baby’s motor skills are the movements she makes; these movements combine to produce a smooth, efficient action. Her rooting and sucking reflexes are well developed but her swallowing reflex and tonguemovements are still quite immature so she will be unable to push her food to the back of her mouth until the end of this period. She may be able to chew her food from about five months.
At about three months your baby will look at her own hands and fingers and play with them.
Your baby’s grasp reflex will gradually disappear, her muscle control is improving and she will hold things with her entire hand but not be strong enough to hold items until towards the end of this period, she will then be able to hold her own bottle. She is getting stronger and her earlier jerky movements are becoming smoother and more controlled.
Your baby’s neck muscles are also getting stronger and she will turn her head from side to side when lying on her back and eventually be able to hold her upper body and head upright when on her tummy.
Around the 6 month period your baby may be able to sit up unassisted with her back straight and her head up, with her legs stretched out and her arms forward for support, mind you there will be a lot of toppling over while she practices her balance.

Social Development

During this stage, your baby is developing bonds of love and trust with you. Your social interaction with your baby is particularly important, the way you hold and cuddle her and the way you play with her will set the foundation for how she will relate with you and others.
Your Baby will watch your face when being talked to from four to eight weeks and you’ll see her first smile around the five to seven week mark.
She will be laughing out loud anytime from two to four months and will giggle and kick her legs when being played with by four months.

Important Note:
Please understand that all children are individual and unique. They all develop in their own time and often at different rates. Please use this information as a guide only. If you are worried about our child’s development or their development seems vastly different to his/her peers, you should seek the advice of a health professional. The earlier any kind of issue is detected the sooner you can start helping your child. Please remember that the most important thing you can do is to support your child in a positive way.

Have you heard of baby sign language and wanted to know more about it?.