Discover A Handy, New Baby Milestone Rule Of Thumb
Here we'll be looking at the baby milestone and physical
abilities and skills your baby typically develop at specific ages. But
first...
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| Simple milestone exercises
such as this, or simply sticking feet in his mouth are essential to
prepare the pelvic area for crawling... and eventually walking. |
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What I like about using milestones is it gives me a Measuring Tool to understand
how well a baby develops – compared to scientifically accepted standards. And it
gives me the ability to know what skills my child should be developing at a specific
age.
I also know that Nature helps me and my baby to learn and master a specific
skill much faster if s/he learns it at the right time.
So, by using this information I only have to choose the right activities and toys to encourage and
improve those skills that my baby should be learning right now.
What Makes Milestones So
Useful?
2 Things make baby milestones
useful, namely...
-
They tell you what skills your baby should master, and…
-
The specific age (weeks or months) by when your child should be
able to do these things
So, milestones are scientifically standardized records of baby development. They
are used as a measuring tool… measuring baby development and progress. But what
they can also be used for is to tell you what skill your baby should next
master. And by when this must be achieved. It’s a kind of “look ahead”.
In short, you can quickly and
accurate use this tool to tell how your baby develops. It’s a way of visually
measuring and checking your child’s progress.
Also keep in mind, it's much
easier for you to see that your child cannot, say, walk than it is to know
that her hearing ability may be impaired. And in many cases the inability to
master a specific noticeable skill also highlights the need for stimulation and
attention in another more subtle area... should there be one.
What Are The Major Physical Baby Milestones?
Everybody usually talks about
only 4 major physical development milestones, namely sitting, crawling, standing
and walking. But I’ve been using 2 more milestones which are very clear “first
targets” for your child’s development. These 2 are head control and rolling.
The
6 major milestones every baby simply MUST reach, are...
-
Develops head controls at around 3 months
-
Masters rolling at 4 months
-
Learns to sit at roughly 6 months
-
Begins crawling at 7-11 months
-
Stand alone for short periods at 13 months, and...
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Starts walking around 13-15 months
Of course, there are many other skills babies must master, but these 6 are the
main easily noticeable ones.
For more information on what exactly your child should be doing month-by-month,
please go to
http://www.babydevelopmentnews/1styeardevelopment.html, or alternatively,
click here
for another more detailed resource.
Other development areas are described
heree.
Why Milestones Are Important for Future Success
other erroneous
beliefs. What most do not realize is that development of your child’s future
physical, emotional, social and perceptual skills build on the ones developed now and in the past.
Let’s look at a sketch to illustrate this::
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| This baby development milestone
sketch can also be used as a quick guide for focusing child
activities. Your child of 2 years is more likely to be interested in
running, climbing and moving around than in coloring pictures or
learning about numbers, colors and shapes. |
During your child’s first 2 years, most noticeable development is in
the area of gross motor skills
like walking, standing, crawling and running.
During the next 2 years (from 2-4 years old), most of the gross motor
development and skills should already have been mastered. So, the next main
noticeable area of development is that of fine motor (hands and fingers) and perceptual
(insight) skills.
From about 4 years on most noticeable development now takes place learning the skills to
read, write and do mathematics.
Another important part of this sketch is that skills build on previously
mastered skills. Like fine motor skills typically develop after gross motor
skills have been mastered. What this means is that there is little point in
stimulating and encouraging your child to master activities such as stringing
beads while s/he can't yet walk or stand properly. At this age the main focus
should rather be encouraging development of the gross motor baby milestones.
Let’s look at a typical example:
Many parents believe their child will progress
faster and eventually be more skilled if they’re given complicated and advanced
toys and playthings at a very early age. It’s almost like giving a 12 month baby
a fancy construction toy like Lego in the hope of speeding up his development.
Now, giving a baby of 12 months a construction toy, like Lego, means that we’re
hoping to stimulate fine motor and perceptual skills – which is what Lego is
great for.
But since our baby has not developed all the gross motor skills, s/he would
gain more benefit learning to develop activities like standing and walking
rather that focusing on fine motor activities. Of course, this does not
mean that fine motor development should not be done... only that the main aim is
to
First Master The Most Needed Skills Right Now
Also, your baby will most likely gain very little learning benefit playing with this toy
rather than with a more age appropriate toy. In short, Lego at this age is just too
complicated for the skills level of our baby.
At this stage our baby needs different toys to encourage the skills that matter
most – right now!
Easy-To-Use Baby Development Patterns
There is a pattern to baby development and therefore also baby milestones. Here
is a handy "rule of thumb".
The direction of development starts from your baby's head downwards to her
feet. And from her midline to finger tips.
Here is how this rule of thumb works and how to apply it to baby milestones:
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Your baby first develops head control (plus, of course, hearing, vision,
etc.)
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Further noticeable development is her upper body, learning how to roll
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Next is development in the lower body areas learning how to sit and crawl
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Also, only once skills in the center body area are mastered will fine motor
skills really be developed
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Last noticeable development is in the lower limb areas, learning how to
stand, walk and run

In the graphic Baby MilesTM shows that
during the first 3 months (yellow) the main baby milestones are in the head-neck
area. During the next 3 months a lot of development takes place in the upper
body area (blue), followed by the lower body area during months 6-9.
A lot of fine motor skills develop during months 6-12, while learning to
stand, walk and run takes place from about 9-18 months.
The Baby MilesTM development pattern gives
you a quick visual means of checking baby milestones and other development. But
the real value and power of this visual aid comes in when choosing
age
appropriate toys for any baby. Just check out the baby learning toys
mentioned, and see how this can be used not only to check your child's
development, but also to select the most suitable toys for her age.
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