What are the developmental milestones for babies from 6 to 9 months?
The six to nine month part of development is all about mobility. This is when we usually talk to parents about safety proofing because the six-month old develops quickly going from sitting up without support, to when they are on their stomach and start scooching backwards or rotating around on their stomach and becoming mobile. And then eventually, around eight months, more development in learning to get their knees underneath them, sitting and then starting to crawl. Once that crawling starts, beware as anything in the house is accessible to them. So mobility development starts around eight months with crawling. This is also when their grasp develops and becomes more refined. It starts to become more of a pincer and two fingers and they start picking things up. As a result, this is around the time where we start finger foods, because for the first time they can pick things up with two fingers. At first it is going to seem like a claw and then two fingers. And this is also when hard consonant babbling starts, at around eight to nine months. So, the 'da, da, da', the 'ma, ma, ma' and the 'ba, ba, ba'. And remember, the 'da, da' is a little easier, so for mothers out there, don't be upset if 'da, da' comes first, as 'ma, ma' will come. So hard consonant babbling, crawling and a lot more refined motor abilities signal development.
