Language, Cognitive, Social Emotional, and Motor Developmental Benchmarks to Look Out for in Your Little One Post-birth
The first 6 months with your baby is often a whirlwind of joy, amazement, and dirty diapers. From the first sounds of your baby's laughter to crawling all over the house, developmental milestones are an exciting time. Maria Dennis, Acenda Motherhood & Family Advocate, has put together a comprehensive guide for everything you need to know post-birth for the first 6 months with your baby.
Newborn Milestones: Birth to 1 Month
Language Development
Within the first month, it's all about sounds! Your baby will be able to tune into the sound of your voice and even recognize sounds and voices they have heard in the womb. They may even begin to turn toward the sound of your voice, respond to familiar sounds, react to loud noises, and begin to prefer soft/peaceful sounds. You will also notice that your baby will make simple sounds like “eh” or gurgles when they are awake. Babies this young may cry up to two hours a day, but each cry is a different way of telling you what they need.
Cognitive Development
Cognitively, your baby will begin to trust their new world and find comfort in the scent of familiar caregivers. Visually, they will be able to follow a slowly moving person with their eyes, like black-and-white pictures and toys, and like to look at your face. Your baby may even begin to look around minutes after they're born! They will also bring their fist to their mouth, copy you when you stick out your tongue or pucker your lips, and be hungry every few hours.
Social Emotional Development
Your baby will begin developing social and emotional responses immediately. They will be able to trust that someone will meet their needs, smile when they see you, stop crying when you hold them (some of the time), respond to touch, sense your mood, and show their temperament.
Motor Development
As far as motor skills go, your baby will be able to lift their head up for a short time, but be careful! It will be wobbly and still need support. Your baby will likely keep their head steady when you hold them at your shoulder, move their arms and legs, react to sudden noises (they may jump or be startled), comfort themselves by sucking, have a variety of reflexes, and gradually transition from reflexes to voluntary reactions.
Infant Milestones: 1 to 3 Months
Language Development
From 1 to 3 and a half months of age, your baby will be able to listen and turn to sounds around them, prefer the human voice and find it comforting, and look for the source of a familiar voice. They will also make sounds with their saliva, begin cooing (making vowel sounds like “ehhh” “ahhh” and “oooh”), and take turns making sounds with you.
Cognitive Development
Cognitively, your baby will like to see and feel new things and hear new sounds. They may look at and study their hands, use both hands to bat, grasp, and handle toys, and follow moving people and things with their eyes. Your baby may learn best during their “quiet awake” times.
Social Emotional Development
This is an exciting milestone for your baby! They will begin to smile, recognize you and other family members, show excitement when they see or hear you or another caregiver, cry to tell you something, calm themselves by sucking, and copy the faces you make.
Motor Development
Physically, your baby will have more control over their head and body movements, lift their head when lying on their stomach, and move their head from side to side. They may also kick and push with their legs, bat at toys with one hand, bring both hands together, study faces, track moving objects, and enjoy your touch and be calmed by it.
Infant Milestones: 3 to 6 Months
Language Development
From the first 3 to 6 months of your baby's life, expect them to be able to listen and respond to sounds around them. They may react when their hear their own name, know your voice and learn from your “parentese”, like to hear the sounds they make, practice their sounds even when they're alone, and gurgle and coo when they're happy (making vowel sounds like “aaah” “eeee” and “ooo”). Keep an eye out if they seem to have trouble hearing, as they may have an ear infection.
Cognitive Development
Cognitively, your baby will be able to examine small objects with their hands, fingers, and eyes. This is when babies begin to put things in their mouth to feel and taste, bat or kick things that are dangling close to them, stare at nearby faces or objects for up to a minute at a time, and listen and respond to sounds and voices.
Social Emotional Development
During these months, your baby will respond when they see you by smiling, laugh, and interact with family members and friends. Hopefully, during these months your baby will stop crying when they see you coming and learn to fall asleep by themselves in bed.
Motor Development
Expect to see your baby roll from side to side, lift their head and chest using their forearms for support, turn over from tummy to back and from back to tummy, and sit with help. They will still bring toys to their mouth, hold and turn over toys with two hands, reach for toys, like to move in many different ways, like kicking their feet up.
Acenda Cares for Moms
The first 6 months with your baby is an exciting time! Our team of Motherhood & Family Advocates provide pregnancy and child development resources for new and expectant parents from prenatal care through kindergarten. We're here to help answer your questions and provide useful pregnancy and parenting support when you need it most. Best of all, our resources and support services are completely free for all families. For more information about our specialized pregnancy and child development services, please call 856-431-4180.