Babies need play time on their bellies to help strengthen their muscles, develop body awareness, and aid their overall development. Although not all babies love tummy time at first, with your support and gentle guidance tummy time can become meaningful bonding time.

In this article:

• What is tummy time?
• When should I start tummy time?
• Why is tummy time important?
• Why does my baby hate tummy time?
• Tummy time by age: tips and activities
• When should I stop tummy time?

What is tummy time?

Tummy time is the term for the supervised time your baby spends awake playing on their belly. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends tummy time for all babies while they are awake and being watched. 

Tummy time doesn’t have to be on the floor: It can happen on a parent’s body, a play gym, an exercise ball, a yoga mat, or a blanket at the park. Give your baby belly-down play time on a comfortable, firm surface, with only baby-safe materials and objects within reach. Stay close and supervise your baby during tummy time, and make sure your baby’s play surface is firm enough that their face doesn’t get buried in soft material or pillows. Incorporate tummy time into your baby’s daily schedule along with play in other positions, including on their back and lying on their side.

When should I start tummy time?

Child development experts recommend tummy time for healthy, full-term babies starting at birth. As a newborn, your baby may prefer tummy time on your chest at first, with their body at an incline. You can start tummy time on the floor once their umbilical cord stump has fallen off. 

Start tummy time with your newborn by giving them just a few minutes on their belly, on your chest or on a blanket on the floor. Then slowly build up to longer periods of time on their tummy. 

If you didn’t start tummy time right away when you came home from the hospital, don’t worry—your baby will still get the many important physical and cognitive benefits of tummy time. Give them a bit more practice on their tummy every day and they’ll become accustomed to it.

Why is tummy time important? 

The most obvious benefits of tummy time are improved head control, upper body strength, and muscle development. But tummy time play has countless other benefits as well. From sensory skills to physical growth, tummy time benefits almost every aspect of your baby’s development. 

Motor benefits of tummy time:

• Stretching the flexor muscles in the front of your baby’s body
• Strengthening your baby’s shoulder and back muscles 
• Helping your baby develop head control 
• Strengthening your baby’s chin, mouth, and oral muscles for rooting, sucking, and swallowing.  

Sensory benefits of tummy time:

• Supporting your baby’s proprioceptive sense, or sense of their body in space
• Supporting your baby’s vestibular sense, or sense of movement and balance

Emotional benefits of tummy time:

• Encouraging your baby’s ability to regulate their emotions (with your help)

Other developmental benefits of tummy time:

• Facilitating your baby’s digestion by putting slight pressure on the stomach and intestines
• Supporting respiration by strengthening the muscles needed for breathing 
• Reducing plagiocephaly, or head flattening

Large-scale studies in a variety of countries have shown numerous benefits of tummy time for motor development. In fact, babies who have routine sessions of tummy time are more likely to develop motor skills earlier, including rolling, crawling, sitting, and pulling to a standing position. 

We know that it’s safest for babies to sleep on their backs, which means your baby spends up to 16 hours a day lying on their back while sleeping. This is why tummy time is so important: Babies need to play belly-down when they’re awake in order to develop their neck, back, upper body, and core muscles, all of which are key to later skills like rolling, scooting, crawling, sitting, and even eating solids. 

The Tummy Time Course Pack

Gain a firm understanding of what tummy time looks like at different stages, how often to offer it and for how long, and how to make tummy time a happy, stress-free experience.


Learn more

Why does my baby hate tummy time?

It’s common for babies not to find tummy time enjoyable at first. One study of parents found that over half (56%) reported that their babies cried, attempted to squirm, or seemed to feel frustrated during tummy time. So if this is your family’s experience, know you’re far from alone

As physically challenging as tummy time may be at first, it’s also a fascinating way for your baby to explore their world. Giving your baby multiple opportunities to practice tummy time throughout their day will eventually help them learn to tolerate and even enjoy it.

What to do if your baby cries during tummy time

The best thing to do if your baby cries during tummy time, according to Lovevery pediatric occupational therapist Rachel Coley, is “respond, soothe, and connect”—exactly as you would any other time your baby cries. As with many parenting situations, responsiveness is key to helping your baby during tummy time. 

Offer your baby tummy time every day, but don’t feel like you need to force your baby to continue tummy time if they’re obviously uncomfortable, especially if they’re crying. By being responsive and respectful with your baby during tummy time, you can help make it a positive experience. Fuss-free tummy time means rolling your baby out of tummy time when they become agitated or tired—in other words, giving your baby a break when they need it.

When they’re crying, babies don’t benefit from tummy time anyway—their muscles are tightened in response to stress, and they’re not working on motor control patterns or exploring different movements. By responding to your baby and soothing them when they cry, you’re reinforcing your baby’s trust in you and supporting their emotional regulation.

What to try if your baby hates tummy time

If your baby continues to struggle with traditional tummy time on the floor, try some of these tummy time alternatives:

Use the “football hold.” Hold your baby belly down in your arms, with their head and belly resting on your forearm. Tuck your baby’s arms so that their elbows are underneath their shoulders—this way, your baby can use their shoulder muscles to help lift their chest and head.

Movement is helpful in this position: You might walk around or stand in front of a mirror while holding your baby in the football hold and talking or singing to them. Feel free to gently sway or bounce, too. Keep noticing your baby’s cues about whether they like this movement. If your baby gets visibly tired or frustrated, make the position easier for them by moving your arm so that their body is at an incline.

Place your baby on an incline. Raising your baby’s shoulders higher than their hips makes it easier for them to lift their head, and may feel a bit more comfortable as they’re building upper body strength for tummy time. Try positioning your baby with their upper body on a nursing pillow, a folded blanket or towel, or a firm throw pillow. Placing your baby on your chest, face-to-face with you, is another great inclined tummy time position that research associates with reduced fussing and increased head lifting for many babies. Remember never to leave your baby alone with pillows or blankets.

Think frequency, not duration. The key for babies who don’t sustain long periods on their tummy is increasing the frequency. Offer your baby lots of short rounds on their tummy whenever they’re awake and it’s practical. 

Tummy time for babies with reflux

Tummy time can be tricky for babies with reflux, and comfort should be your first goal. Here are some ways to manage reflux symptoms and discomfort during tummy time:

Stay calm and present: While your baby is in tummy time, take slow, deep breaths, and speak to them in an even, gentle voice. Use plenty of eye contact and offer a soothing touch. These actions all help you and your baby co-regulate your emotions. Imagine yourself as a flight attendant exuding calm during turbulence to help passengers regulate their responses—that’s the same type of co-regulation you’re providing for your baby.

Time it right: Set your baby up for success by practicing tummy time at least 20 to 30 minutes after feeding to minimize their discomfort. Careful timing for belly-down play is especially important for babies with reflux

Lift their upper body: Try lifting their upper body slightly with your hands positioned on either side of their upper rib cage or under their armpits. You can also place your baby in tummy time over your lap, leg, or a nursing pillow, with their weight supported on their upper chest and their belly lifted.

Do tummy time at an incline: An inclined position limits the amount of pressure on their belly, which can be easier for babies with reflux. Placing your baby in tummy time on your own chest while you sit slightly reclined can be a great option—keep a burp cloth under them to catch any spit-up.

Take breaks: If your baby has reflux, it’s especially important to be responsive to your baby during tummy time. There’s no need to force tummy time while they’re crying. When your baby cries, help them gently out of the position, soothe them, and try again once they’re calm. Even if each instance results in only a few seconds on their tummy, frequent repetition can help your baby learn to self-regulate and find comfort in tummy time.  

Tummy time by age: Tips and activities

Tummy time looks a little different at each age. If you practice tummy time routinely, you’ll begin to notice how your baby’s skills and abilities change from month to month—or even week to week. Here are some tips for tummy time success at every age, as well as activities and suggestions for making the most of tummy time at each stage of development.

Tummy time tips for success

Time it right: When your baby is well-rested and not hungry—like right after a nap or a diaper change—they’re likely to be comfortable and alert enough to benefit from tummy time. It’s best to wait about 20 minutes after your baby has eaten, since the pressure on their abdomen might cause them to spit up. And avoid kicking off tummy time when your baby has been awake for a while and will be ready for a nap soon. The exertion of tummy time can push an already-tired baby into fussiness. 

Position your baby with support: Position your baby with their arms tucked underneath their shoulders to make it easier for them to push through their forearms to lift their head and chest. Your baby might not have the strength to hold their chest up for long, but providing some support by keeping their arms tucked can help. In addition to using their back and neck muscles to lift their head up during tummy time, your baby uses their upper body muscles to lift their chest off the floor, which in turn helps prepare them for rolling and crawling. 

Make eye contact:You are your baby’s favorite toy, and this is especially true during tummy time. Getting down on your baby’s level and making eye contact can make tummy time more enjoyable for both of you. In fact, in addition to encouraging your baby to lift their head, this eye contact may even help you and your baby become more in sync and connected. Research shows that when babies and their caregivers gaze into each other’s eyes, their brain waves synchronize. By focusing on your baby’s sweet face, tummy time can become meaningful bonding time.

Introduce toys: Tummy time isn’t meant to be an activity in itself but a position for playtime. Adding toys or objects of interest to tummy time makes it more enjoyable for your child while helping to spark different aspects of their development.

RELATED: How to use high contrast for happier tummy time

For example, newborns might enjoy looking at the Simple Black & White Cards propped up in a Standing Card Holder during tummy time with their head turned to one side. Once your baby is older and can hold their head up a bit during tummy time, you can offer playthings like the Silicone Rattle, the Tummy Time Wobbler, or the Spinning Rainbow. These toys offer ways to keep your baby engaged and discovering new skills during tummy time.

How long should tummy time be?

As your baby grows, they’ll be able to tolerate longer and longer stretches of tummy time each day. At first, try doing shorter durations of tummy time throughout the day—five to seven sessions that last 1 to 5 minutes each, for example. 

Tummy time recommendations by age

Read on for more tummy time activities and playthings to introduce at each age, or jump to specific recommendations by age below:

• Tummy time for newborns to 2 months
• Tummy time for 3 to 5 months
• Tummy time for 5 to 7 months
• Tummy time for 6 to 10 months

Tummy time for newborns to 2 months

For newborns, tummy time is about helping your baby become comfortable on their belly. Your newborn’s body weight is heavily concentrated at their head and upper body at birth, so in tummy time, your newborn or young baby may:

• Round their back slightly
• Bend their arms and tuck them close to the body with hands near shoulders
• Bend their knees under their hips

• Mostly have their head down
• Be able to lift and turn their head briefly with great effort

• Make crawling or pushing motions with their feet
• Be comfortable with either cheek down

Tummy time activities for newborns through 2 months

With your tiny newborn, tummy time may be very short—just 1 to 2 minutes at a time—but aim to try it several times a day. At this stage, the easiest way to do tummy time may be to lay your baby on your chest while you lie on your back or sit semi-reclined. This position may be more comforting for your newborn, since they can stay in close contact with you and see you face-to-face.

You may also like to try a different version of tummy time by carrying your baby in a “football hold” across your forearm, with their head turned to one side and resting in your palm. This position also keeps your baby close but still provides the developmental benefits of tummy time.

Tummy time for 3 to 5 months

At this stage, the goal of tummy time is strengthening your baby’s head, neck, and upper body muscles. The muscles that were naturally flexed as a newborn are now lengthening, including their hip flexor muscles. This allows your baby to shift their body weight further down their body and makes it easier for them to arch their back without tipping forward. In tummy time, your baby may:

• Straighten their legs so that their lower belly touches the surface beneath them
• Use their elbows for stability, either under or in front of their shoulders, getting closer to straightening their elbows by 5 months of age

Lift their head to a 45-degree angle and hold it briefly without bobbing, getting closer to 90 degrees by 5 months of age

• Turn their lifted head to fully look left, right, and straight ahead
• Turn their head to place the opposite cheek down

Tummy time activities for 3 to 5 months

Once your baby can reach or grasp toys, anything that’s safe to mouth is perfect for tummy time. Here are a few of our favorite playthings for tummy time:

Mirror play: Prop the Framed Mirror against a chair near your baby’s tummy time spot. The mirror may motivate them to lift their head and chest to see that interesting baby in the mirror.

Where’s the sound? While your baby is in tummy time, move the Crinkle Bag or Wooden Rattle from side to side to encourage her to turn her head and hold it turned for a few seconds. Use a cushioned mat and be on the lookout for potential rolling here—where your baby’s head goes, their body just may follow

Reach for the toy: When your baby is lying on their tummy, shake the Rolling Bell just above their eye level and slowly lift it above their sightline. Looking up at the toy will help motivate your baby to push up on their hands and reach for it. 

Tummy time for 5 to 7 months

For your 5- to 7-month-old baby, the goal of tummy time is to continue to strengthen their muscles and grasp nearby toys through new movements. In tummy time, your baby may:

• Press through their forearms with straight arms to lift their upper chest

• Demonstrate the “Landau Reflex,” where they lift their arms and legs off the floor and rock back and forth, or appear to be “swimming” or “flying”

• Use open hands to reach for, then eventually grab and play with enticing toys placed immediately nearby
• Bring their knees under their hips briefly or dig their feet into the floor in an alternating pattern
• Begin to rotate their body, or “pivot,” on their tummy to reach for toys to their side, closer to 7 months

Tummy time activities for 5 to 7 months

At 5 to 7 months, babies crave exposure to different sights, sounds, and textures, so try mixing up tummy time with sensory play. 

If your baby is “swimming” on their tummy, place playthings underneath your baby’s hands. This may encourage them to push through their hands: 

• Place the Framed Mirror under your baby’s hands and knock on the mirror to gain their attention.
• Put the Soft Book under your baby’s hands and crinkle the book to make noise. 
• Use a playmat with various textures and sounds, like The Play Gym.

Use playthings that encourage reaching while they are on their tummy, which leads to weight shifting and eventual rolling or pivoting:

• Use the Spinning Rainbow to encourage reaching to spin the plaything.
• Turn the Magic Tissue Box on its side with the Magic Tissues facing your baby to encourage reaching to pull a tissue out.

Encourage pushing through straightened elbows:

• Elevate their favorite playthings to at least eye level to encourage pushing through extended elbows to get a better look.
• Roll up a small towel to pre-position your little one with extended elbows, with the Framed Mirror in front of them to encourage looking up.
• Practice prop or tripod sitting to strengthen their arms in an extended position.

Tummy time for 6 to 10 months

For your 6- to 10-month-old baby, the goal of tummy time is experimenting with different forms of movement. Your older baby may:

• Belly crawl to rotate their body, or move forward or backward

• Get up fully onto their hand and knees
• Do planks on their knees or feet, lifting their belly and hips slightly off the floor

• Transition from their belly to a sitting position, often using their hands and knees, closer to 9 months of age

Tummy time activities for 6 to 10 months

During the 6- to 10-month stage, your baby might be more active and mobile during tummy time. They may be able to reach for playthings while on their tummy, crawl, or put weight on their hands and feet. This can be a great age to introduce more playthings or props to keep tummy time interesting:

• Board books: Sturdy board books can be set on the ground at face level for tummy time. Your baby can hold or manipulate them without fear of tearing. They are also great for mouthing and for little hands that are still building motor coordination. 
• Block towers: Engage your baby during tummy time with a game of knock-down blocks. Your baby will likely be fascinated by the cause-and-effect action of the blocks falling over. 
• Textured cards: Encourage your baby to rotate or pivot on their belly by placing the “Things I See” Texture Cards around your baby while they are on their tummy. 

If your baby is moving on their tummy, now is the appropriate time to babyproof your home if you haven’t already.

When should we stop doing tummy time?

Consider your baby’s skills, not their age

If your baby is consistently rolling out of tummy time, and you want to know whether your baby is ready to graduate from it, Lovevery pediatric occupational therapist Rachel Coley recommends assessing their skills. Check to see if your baby can:

• Push up through their hands and lift their upper chest off the floor
• Turn their head fully in both directions while pushing up in tummy time
• Press down through open palms (instead of fists), stretching and strengthening their finger muscles

If your baby doesn’t have these skills yet, they may be rolling out of tummy time because the position is hard for them. Plenty of unrestricted floor time, both on their tummy and in other positions, will help them get there.

How to encourage your baby to stay on their tummy:

• Position your baby chest down on a curved nursing pillow. This will make it harder for them to roll out and also encourages them to press up on their hands.
• If your baby has good head control, try doing tummy time on an exercise ball. Place them belly down on top of the ball, holding them securely around their torso. Keep the ball stationary or slowly roll it slightly forward and backward or from side to side. Movement can be helpful in increasing a baby’s tolerance to tummy time and initiate a head lifting response. 
• Hold them. Lay your baby facing you on your belly or chest as you lie on your back or across your lap as you sit up.
• Play airplane. Lie on your back and hold your baby securely on your shins with their belly down. Slowly bend your knees toward your chest, lifting your baby as you hold them.
• Keep them engaged with all of their favorites: playthings, books, mirrors, and funny faces.
• Adjust as needed. When your baby seems tired, give them additional support by helping keep their arms tucked underneath their shoulders. Switch to shorter sessions of tummy time with increased frequency throughout the day.

The post Tummy Time appeared first on Lovevery.

From tackling a complex project at work to figuring out how to manage your busy schedule, every day you use problem solving skills like critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity. How did you learn these skills? Just as your child will: through exploration and play. Support their problem solving skills through activities that let them independently try new things, learn from their mistakes, and test out different ways of thinking.

In this article:

• What is problem solving?
• What are examples of problem solving skills?
• When do children develop problem solving skills? 
• Why are problem solving skills important in child development?
• Problem solving games & activities for babies and toddlers
• Problem-solving and frustration tolerance
• Developmental concerns with problem solving

What is problem solving?

Problem solving is the process by which your child spots a problem and comes up with a solution to overcome it. Your child uses problem-solving skills in all sorts of contexts, from figuring out how to get a ball out of a cup to interacting with a child who took their toy. 

Children don’t inherently understand different approaches to solving problems—these skills develop gradually over time, starting in the earliest days of life. As your child gains experience, tests out strategies, plays with various materials, and watches people around them, they learn how to problem-solve. 

What are examples of problem-solving skills?

Think about strategies you might use to tackle a project at work—for example, creating an outline, breaking the project into steps, or delegating tasks. With your help, your child will develop problem-solving skills like these:

• Breaking a large problem into smaller steps
• Persevering through challenges or setbacks
• Using creativity to think “outside the box” about different solutions
• Being resourceful by using available items as tools to reach a goal 
• Taking the initiative to try a possible solution and see if it works
• Seeking help when you get stuck
• Using compromise or negotiation to help resolve a conflict
• Using critical thinking to discover what the next step should be

When do children develop problem-solving skills? 

As early as 8 to 11 months, you may see the earliest signs of your child’s problem-solving skills at work. If you hide a toy under a blanket or basket, for example, they may use basic problem-solving to try to uncover it. 

As a toddler, your child will grow more experienced with different types of playthings and the challenges they offer. They’ll also develop more focus and patience to work through problems on their own. Support their emerging problem-solving skills by observing their efforts—without stepping in right away to help. It’s tempting to intervene when you see your toddler struggle to fit the pieces of a puzzle, align blocks so they won’t fall, or get a stuck car out of the Race & Chase Ramp. Banging, rotating, failing, and trying again are all important parts of the process. Your toddler gains more problem-solving experience with every attempt.

RELATED: Subtle signs of your toddler’s developing focus

By 3 years of age, your child will have more skills to help them solve a problem. They’ve learned how to communicate and follow directions. They also have more control over their emotions and their body. Not only are they ready to solve more complex puzzles and games, they’re  learning how to solve social problems, like working through conflict and negotiating with peers during play.

Why are problem-solving skills important in child development?

If your child is accustomed to tackling problems, they’re more likely to at least attempt to get the cup they need off the high shelf, or try to buckle those tricky sandal straps. Practicing problem-solving can help your child overcome challenges, try flexible ways of thinking, and become more confident and independent in the process.  

Problem-solving skills are also crucial to your child’s cognitive development. They encourage your child’s brain to make new connections and process information in new ways. This is why so many of the best games, toys, and activities for young children stress some element of problem-solving, critical thinking, or creativity. 

Your child can develop better social skills when they practice problem-solving, too: Understanding how to resolve conflicts and compromise with peers is a crucial problem-solving skill they’ll take with them into preschool and beyond.

Problem-solving activities & games

You don’t need elaborate planning or fancy equipment to help your child develop these skills. Many problem-solving activities for kids can be incorporated into daily life or during playtime.

Problem-solving activities for babies

It will be years before your baby is ready for advanced problem-solving skills, like compromising with others and project planning. For now, they’ll experiment with different ways to solve simple problems, showing initiative, perseverance, and creativity. Here are a few activities that help spark your baby’s problem-solving skills.

Reaching for a toy: Setting a goal is the very first step in problem-solving. Once your baby can sit independently, place toys one at a time in front of them, behind them, beside them, between their legs, or on a nearby shelf. This allows them to practice setting a goal—get the toy!—and making a plan to achieve it. 

Emptying a container: Dumping objects out of containers sounds like a mess, but it’s a valuable skill for babies to learn. Place a Wood Ball in a Nesting Stacking Drip Drop Cup and show your baby how to tip over the cup to empty it. Then, put the ball back into the cup and let your baby figure out how to get the ball out of the container on their own. 

Finding hidden objects: Your baby practices problem-solving with the Sliding Top Box every time they work to figure out how to slide the top to reveal the ball inside. This also builds fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

Posting: The Wooden Peg Drop lets your baby experiment with “posting,” or fitting an object into its container, a much-loved fine motor activity. The tab release is an engaging problem-solving task for your baby, as they discover how to press down to release the pegs from their slots.

Explore playthings that encourage problem-solving

The Thinker Play Kit

The Thinker Play Kit encourages your 11 – 12 month old baby’s curiosity as they start solving problems, working on hand strength and investigating everything in their path.

Learn more

Problem-solving activities for toddlers

At 12 to 18 months, your toddler’s problem-solving skills are still taking shape. But you may begin to see them work to figure out more complex problems, like pulling toys around obstacles or getting objects “unstuck.” Encourage your toddler through play with activities that challenge their creative thinking.

Object interactions: What happens when you push a squishy ball through a small opening? How does a bendy thing react when it hits something hard? Understanding how different objects interact helps your child learn to use tools for problem-solving. 

As you play with your toddler, demonstrate different ways playthings can interact. Two blocks can be banged together, stacked, or lined up side by side. The insects from the Fuzzy Bug Shrub can be stuck to the outside of the shrub or put inside. Give your child pieces from different playthings and see how they can make them interact. Perhaps the balls from the Slide and Seek Ball Run and the rings from the Flexible Wooden Stacker can interact in some new, fun way?

Asking questions: Once your toddler learns how to push the Carrots through the Carrot Lid for the Coin Bank, the question becomes how to get them out. Ask your toddler simple questions to spark their problem-solving skills: “Where did the carrots go?” or “How can we get them out?” Encourage your child to explore the Coin Bank and give them time to discover a solution on their own.

Simple challenges: Your toddler may be ready for some problem-solving challenges with their playthings. For example, when your toddler can pick up a toy in each hand, offer a third toy and see if they can figure out how to carry all three at once. Or place parts of a toy—like the rings for the Flexible Wooden Stacker—in different locations around the room, so your child needs to plan how to retrieve the pieces. Pack as many Quilted Critters as will fit in The Lockbox  and let your toddler discover how to get them out. This type of challenge may seem simple, but your child has to problem-solve how to navigate their hand into the box to pull out the Critters. 

Cause and effect: Your toddler may discover how to pull on a string attached to a toy to make it move. They understand that the toy and the string are linked, and use simple problem-solving skills to test—and re-test—what happens when they move the string differently. This type of problem-solving can be supported by pull toys such as The Pull Pup. As your toddler encounters different obstacles—like the corner of the couch—with The Pull Pup, they’ll have to problem-solve to keep the toy moving.

RELATED: Pull toys are classic for a reason

Puzzles

Puzzles are a classic childhood problem-solving activity for good reason. Your child learns  how things fit together, how to orient and rotate objects, and how to predict which shape might fit a particular space. Puzzles come in such a wide variety of difficulty levels, shapes, sizes, and formats, there’s a puzzle that’s right for almost every stage of development. 

Lovevery co-founder Jessica Rolph explains how Lovevery puzzles are designed to progress with your child’s problem-solving and fine motor skills:

Babies can begin exploring simple one-piece puzzles around 6 to 8 months of age. Puzzles that have round slots and easy-to-hold pieces with knobs, like the First Puzzle, are ideal for this age. Around 13 to 15 months of age, they can try simple puzzles with several pieces in the same shape, like the Circle of Friends Puzzle.

By 18 months, your toddler is probably ready to work with puzzle shapes that are geometric, animal, or organic, like the Community Garden Puzzle. This reinforces your toddler’s newfound understanding that different shapes fit in different places. As they progress, they may start to enjoy stacking and nesting puzzles, like the 3D Geo Shapes Puzzle. This type of puzzle requires problem-solving on a new level, since your child may have to turn the shapes in different directions to orient and place them correctly.

As your toddler approaches their second birthday, they may be ready for classic jigsaw puzzles. Puzzles with large pieces that are easy for your toddler to hold, like the Chunky Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle, are a great place to start. At this age, your toddler may also find 3D puzzles, like the Wooden Posting Stand, an engaging problem-solving challenge. Since the dowels are different diameters, your child will likely use trial and error to determine which size fits in the correct slot. At first, you may have to guide them a bit: Point out that the dowels need to go in straight in order to fit.

How to encourage puzzle play for active toddlers

Depending on your toddler’s temperament, they may love to sit quietly and work on a puzzle—or they may be constantly on the move. Highly active toddlers may seem like they never sit still long enough to complete an activity, like a puzzle or building with blocks. Here are a few ways to combine their love of movement with puzzle play:

• Play “hide-and-seek” with toys (or puzzle pieces) by placing them on top of furniture that’s safe to cruise along or climb on.
• Place puzzle pieces in different places around the room, so they have to retrieve them one by one to solve the puzzle. 
• Place the puzzle pieces on stairs or in different rooms so your toddler has to walk or climb to find them.

Stacking toys

Stacking toys such as blocks or rings engage babies and toddlers in a challenging form of problem-solving play. Your child’s skills are put to the test as they plan where to place each item, work to balance their stack, and wrestle with gravity to keep the stack from toppling.  

You can introduce your baby to stacking play around 9 to 10 months with playthings that are easy to work with, like the Nesting Stacking Drip Drop Cups. Stacking takes coordination, precision, and patience, and if they try to stack items that are too difficult to keep upright, they may become frustrated and give up. 

You can also make basic blocks easier to stack by using a larger item, like the Little Grip Canister Set, as a base. Demonstrate how to stack a block on top of the canister, then knock the tower down. Hand a block to your toddler and allow them to try stacking and knocking it down. As their movements become more controlled and purposeful, introduce another block to stack.  

Stacking a tower with the pegs from the Wooden Stacking Pegboard is a fun way to introduce goal-setting, an important aspect of problem-solving. The pegs nest together securely, allowing your toddler to build a higher, more stable tower than they could create with regular blocks. You can gently suggest a goal for your child—“Can we stack it higher?”—and see if they’re ready for the challenge. Then, sit and support them as they try to solve any problems that arise: “Is the tower too tall? Can we make it wider so it won’t fall so easily?”

Hide-and-seek

The classic childhood game of hide-and-seek offers your toddler many problem-solving opportunities. Your child has to use reasoning to figure out what would be a good hiding spot. They also use the process of elimination when they think about where they have and haven’t looked. They might even use creative thinking skills to discover a new place to hide.

The game doesn’t always have to involve you and your child hiding. When your child is around 12 months, you can introduce them to the concept using toys or other objects. Hide a small ball in one of two identical containers that you can’t see through, like upside-down cups. Make sure your child sees you put the ball under one of the containers, then mix them up. Lift the empty container to show your toddler that the ball isn’t inside and say, “Where is the ball?” If your toddler looks at the other container, say, “Yes! The ball is under this one.” Let your toddler lift the second container to find the ball. 

Your toddler might enjoy a game of hide-and-seek with The Lockbox. Hide a small toy, like one of the Quilted Critters or a small ball, inside The Lockbox. This activity challenges your toddler’s problem-solving skills on two levels: figuring out how to unlock the different mechanisms to open the doors, and feeling around inside to discover what’s hidden. Add another layer of fun to the challenge by letting your child try to guess the object just by touching it—no peeking.

Using tools to solve problems

Around 17 to 24 months of age, your child may begin using tools to solve simple problems. For example, if you ask your child to pick up their toys, their hands may become full quickly. You can model how to load toys into a bucket or bag to carry them to another spot. This might seem like an obvious choice, but the ability to use a tool to make a task easier or solve a problem is an important cognitive skill.

Here are a few ways you and your toddler can explore using tools to solve a problem:

• Show your child how to make a “shirt bowl” by using the upturned edge of their shirt as a cradle to hold toys or playthings.
• If a toy gets stuck behind the sofa, model how you can use a broomstick to push the toy to a place where you can reach it.
• Provide a child-size stool that your child can use to reach the sink or counter.

The Transfer Tweezers are a simple tool that your toddler can use to pick up other items besides the Felt Stars. They could try picking up the animals from the Quilted Critter Set or other child-safe items. Whenever you model how to use tools in everyday life, your child learns to think about new and different ways to solve problems.

Pretend play

Pretend play supports your child’s problem-solving skills in many ways. Research suggests that children’s pretend play is linked to different types of problem-solving and creativity. For example, one study showed that pretend play with peers was linked to better divergent problem-solving—meaning that children were able to “think outside the box” to solve problems. 

Pretend play is also a safe place for children to recreate—and practice solving—problems they’ve seen in their lives. Your 2- to 3-year-old may reenact an everyday challenge—for example, one doll might take away another doll’s toy. As practice for real-world problem solving, you can then help them talk through how the dolls might solve their issue together

Pretend play may help children be more creative and open to new ideas. In pretend play, children put together play scenarios, act on them, and develop creative solutions. A 3- or 4-year-old child might be ready to explore creative problem-solving through pretend play that uses their playthings in new ways. Help your child start with an idea: “What do you want to pretend to be or recreate — a favorite storybook scene or someone from real life like a doctor or server at a restaurant?” Then encourage them to look for playthings they can use to pretend. Maybe a block can be a car or the beads from the Threadable Bead Set serve as “cups” in your child’s pretend restaurant. As your child gains practice with creative pretend play, they may start to form elaborate fantasy worlds.

Even if you don’t think of yourself as creative, you can model creative thinking by showing your child how a toy can be used in many different ways. Research finds that parents who model “out of the box” ways to play can encourage creative thinking and problem-solving in their children, starting in toddlerhood.

Problem-solving and frustration tolerance

It can be difficult for young children to manage their frustration, but giving your child opportunities to solve problems on their own helps build both confidence and frustration tolerance. Research suggests that the ability to set goals and persist in them through challenges—sometimes called “grit”—is linked to school and career success. Here’s how you can play an important role in helping your child develop problem-solving persistence.

Model persistence. You know your toddler closely observes everything you do A 2017 study shows that young children who watch their parents persist in their own challenge were more likely to show persistence themselves. Allow your toddler to see you attempting an activity, failing, and talking yourself through trying again. While playing with blocks, try stacking a few off balance so they fall. Notice aloud what went wrong and continue to narrate as you move slowly to carefully stack the blocks again.

Give them time. A little frustration can go a long way toward learning. It can take enormous restraint not to point out where to put the puzzle piece or how to slot the peg in place—but try to give them time to problem-solve on their own. You’re helping them feel capable and confident when faced with new challenges.

RELATED:  11 ways to build your toddler’s frustration tolerance

Ask questions to encourage new strategies. If your toddler gets frustrated with a problem, encourage their problem-solving process by asking questions: “Are you trying to race the car down the ramp but it got stuck? Is the car too long to go down sideways?” This may help your child refocus their attention on their goal instead of what they have already unsuccessfully tried. With a little time and creative problem-solving, your child may figure it out on their own.

Developmental concerns with problem-solving

Problem-solving skills are just one component of your child’s overall cognitive development. By around 12 months of age, you should see signs that your child is attempting to solve simple problems, like looking for a toy under a blanket. By about 30 months, your child may show slightly more advanced problem-solving skills, like using a stool to reach a high counter. Their attempts might not always be successful at this age, but the fact that they’re trying shows they’re thinking through different options. If you don’t see signs of your child trying to solve problems in these ways, talk to your pediatrician about your concerns. They can assess your child’s overall development and answer any questions.

The post Problem Solving appeared first on Lovevery.

For most of the first year of life, “out of sight, out of mind” is a literal truth. If an object or person is hidden or leaves their field of vision, your baby can’t understand that it still exists. Starting around 6 to 9 months, though, your baby develops an important cognitive skill: object permanence, an essential building block for working memory, language development, and emotional attachment. And playing peekaboo just got a lot more fun, too

In this article:

• What is object permanence?
• When does object permanence develop in babies?
• Why is object permanence important? 
• Object permanence and separation anxiety
• Tips for coping with separation anxiety
• How can I help my baby with object permanence?
• Games that teach object permanence
• Toys that teach object permanence
• Developmental concerns with object permanence

What is object permanence?

Object permanence is the concept that objects or people exist even if they’re out of sight. When your baby goes to look for the rattle you hid under a blanket, or looks for you when you leave the room, that’s object permanence at work.

Very young babies have not yet developed this concept. If you hide a toy from your 3-month-old, for example, there’s a good chance they won’t go looking for it because for them, the object no longer exists. When babies start to remember objects from one appearance to the next, they learn that just because something can’t be seen at the moment, that doesn’t mean it’s gone forever. 

When does object permanence develop in babies?

Babies generally develop a concept of object permanence around 6 to 9 months of age. You may begin to notice it emerging naturally as part of your daily routine of feedings, care, and play. If the family pet trots off, your baby may want to see where they went. If a plaything rolls under a chair or into a basket, they will likely try to go find it. If food falls off their high chair, they may start looking to see where it fell (particularly if that food is purposely dropped, after your baby develops the skill of voluntary release around 9 months). These are all clear signs that the concept of object permanence is taking hold in your baby’s brain.

Why is object permanence important? 

Object permanence is important in your baby’s cognitive development because it shows their growth in working memory as well as their progression in symbolic understanding. Here’s what those terms mean, and why they matter:

Working memory is what helps us keep information in mind while we’re working on a cognitive task. As your baby develops the concept of object permanence, they’ll begin to store a mental picture of a plaything, object, or person in their working memory while they look for it. Working memory is what allows them to remember the object or person still exists even when they’re not physically present.

Symbolic understanding helps your baby know that symbols or mental representations can stand for real-life objects. This knowledge is ultimately one of the factors that helps your baby learn language. Language is a symbolic concept—words are the symbols for tangible objects. When your baby develops object permanence, they are able to symbolically hold the image of an object or person in their mind. 

Object permanence and separation anxiety

One challenging aspect of your baby developing object permanence is that it sometimes comes with an increase in separation anxiety. Separation anxiety emerges for many babies around 6 to 10 months of age—right as they’re developing the concept of object permanence—and it may look like a dramatic change from their previous behavior. Your baby may cry when you leave, cling to you, or be reluctant to stay with another caregiver when they know you’re leaving. 

What’s going on? Your baby’s working memory has made a big leap. They can hold a picture of you in their mind even when you aren’t physically present, which means they may feel anxious when you have to leave to go to work, or even just leave the room to get a drink of water. Because they don’t understand time yet, they have no sense of when you’ll return, which can be scary for them. When you “disappear,” your baby knows you still exist—but doesn’t know when you’ll be back.

While this may sound a little bit sad or stressful for your baby, the good news is that object permanence plays a key role in your baby’s emotional development. Over time and with practice, your baby will begin to understand that you do come back, even if you are separated for a while. In this way, they learn that they can rely on you for support and care

Tips for coping with separation anxiety

Practice “away” and “back.” A helpful habit to get into when your baby is in the thick of the separation anxiety phase: make your own comings and goings extra clear. Say, “Mommy is going to the bathroom and coming back,” and when you return, say, “Mommy came back!” If you need to step into another room, you can use your voice to let your baby know you’re close by even when you can’t be seen: “I’m in the kitchen getting a glass of water. I’m coming back soon.” Through lots of practice and repetition with separations, your baby learns that their grown ups will reliably return.

Validate your baby’s emotions. If you need to walk away for any reason, let your baby know what’s happening, and validate their feelings if they get upset. You can say something like, “I’m going to get a drink of water and then come back! I see that you’re sad that I’m walking away. I am going to get water and be right back.” Showing that you understand their emotions, along with demonstrating that you always come back, helps your baby understand that you’re a reliable source of comfort. 

RELATED: How to ease your baby’s separation anxiety

Have special goodbye rituals. You may want to set up a simple, quick goodbye ritual that you do each time you leave, like a kiss, a hug, or a special toy that only comes out when you have to separate. While it may seem easier to “sneak out” when your baby seems distracted or otherwise occupied, your baby is likely to be even more upset when they discover your absence. Try to keep transitions brief, clear, and positive: Say goodbye and tell your baby what’s happening. “Mommy is going to work. I’ll see you at bath time. Daddy will take care of you. I love you!”  Give your baby your full attention, be cheerful and upbeat, and try not to linger—it just prolongs your departure. 

Play games to practice. Games like peekaboo (both face-to-face and in a mirror) can help your baby grasp that you always return even if you’re gone for a while. Practice saying hello and goodbye whenever possible—you can do this during daily routines like changing a diaper, for example, saying “Goodbye!” to a dirty diaper and “Hello!” to a clean one. 

How can I help my baby with object permanence?

Your baby develops object permanence on their own unique timeline, but there are activities and games that may help the process along. Through play, you can help your baby understand that objects still exist even when they are hidden.

Games that teach object permanence

Hiding toys in a bag or Treasure Basket, or containing objects within other objects (like hiding a ball in the Sliding Top Box) can help make the concept of object permanence more tangible to your baby.

Starting around 6 months of age, your baby may begin to love the game peekaboo. With the concept of object permanence emerging, this game takes on a whole new meaning for your baby. Since they’re beginning to understand that you’re still present even when your face is hidden, they may giggle with delight when you pop out from behind your hands or a blanket.

Momentary separations (like in peekaboo) followed by happy reunions also help build trust and may help reduce separation anxiety

• Sit within arm’s reach of your baby.
• Cover your face with a Magic Tissue, cloth napkin, or scarf.
• Ask, “Where’s Mommy?” or “Where’s Daddy?” to help them build an association between your name and face.
• Pause for a moment before revealing your face with an animated, “Here I am!”
• Give your baby a turn. Hide their face behind the tissue or napkin and say, “Where’s baby (or your child’s name)?” Remove the tissue and say, ”There you are!”
• Continue to alternate to help your baby learn the important social skill of taking turns. 

Toys that teach object permanence

Toys and playthings can be wonderful tools to help your baby learn about object permanence. Although most object permanence toys seem simple to adults, you might be surprised at how engaging they are for your baby. 

The Ball Drop Box is a perfect example of simple plaything that engages your baby’s curiosity and illustrates the concept of object permanence. Your baby pushes the ball through the hole and it briefly disappears… only to reappear a second later on the platform. Your baby begins to see how an object is still there even if it can’t be seen momentarily.  

Explore The Ball Drop Box and more toys that teach object permanence

The Inspector Play Kit

The Inspector Play Kit exposes your 7 – 8 month old to the world with detailed sensory experiences by exploring texture, practicing nesting and stacking, and learning about object permanence.

Learn more

A slightly more advanced version of the Ball Drop Box is the Sliding Top Box. With this plaything, your baby has to search a little harder to find the hidden ball. The ball drops in the hole and then disappears behind a sliding door. Your baby has to use their problem solving skills to discover how to slide the top to uncover the ball. Peekaboo, they see the ball!

RELATED: How the Sliding Top Box helps build your baby’s working memory

Developmental concerns with object permanence

Each child develops along their own developmental trajectory, and age ranges for milestones such as learning object permanence are based on averages. If your child reaches 12 months of age and you’re concerned that they may be lacking object permanence understanding, discuss your concerns with your pediatrician. 

It can be helpful to know that different aspects of your child’s development are linked. Some evidence suggests that the age at which your child learns to sit up may influence the development of object permanence. Once children can sit, they can use their hands to investigate objects more closely. Additionally, sitting up allows children to view objects from varied angles which may help with understanding that objects still exist even when they’re hidden. You may see a noticeable leap in your child’s interest in peekaboo games and toys after they’re able to sit up independently or with support.

The post Object Permanence appeared first on Lovevery.

You wait patiently for months to hear your baby’s first words, but what will they be? You might assume “Mama” or “Dada,” but there are other common first words that might surprise you. Here’s what to know about your baby’s language development, including how to encourage those first words.

In this article:

When do babies start talking?

Babies often say their first word between 12 and 14 months. By the time they’re 15 months of age, they may have learned between one and three words. 

Long before they’re able to say recognizable words however, babies babble and use gestures to communicate, such as pointing, reaching, and clapping. Babies also develop receptive language skills—the ability to understand words and language—before expressive language skills, or the ability to communicate and express their thoughts, needs, and emotions. 

By 12 to 15 months, your toddler may understand between 20 and 100 words. Even earlier, at 5 to 9 months, your baby may show they understand what you’re saying by turning their head or looking when they hear their name.

What are the most common first words?

Common first words for babies include people (Mama, Dada, Nana), greetings (hi or bye-bye), food-related words (yum or nom) or names for items they use often, such as bottle or ball (bah-bah or ba).

Why do babies tend to learn these words first? Research suggests that babies’ earliest words use sounds they can easily see and hear how to pronounce. Think about the words “mama” or “ball:” As you say them, your top and bottom lips meet to form the “m” and “b,” known as bilabial sounds. Your baby can see how your mouth makes the sound, which may make it easier for them to reproduce it. Findings from the study of languages including French, Swedish, and Japanese suggest that words with these bilabial sounds are among the first words babies learn.

You may wonder what “counts” as a word when your baby is first learning to talk. Experts suggest that if your baby uses a word or word approximation consistently and on their own—not imitating someone else—it counts as a word in their emerging vocabulary. For example, if your baby consistently uses “bah-bah” when pointing to or indicating a bottle, that is their “word” for a bottle.

Lovevery co-founder Jessica Rolph shows how to use the ‘Things I See’ Texture Cards to encourage your baby’s first words:

Explore the ‘Things I See’ Texture Cards with The Inspector Play Kit

The Inspector Play Kit

The Inspector Play Kit exposes your 7 – 8 month old to the world with detailed sensory experiences by exploring texture, practicing nesting and stacking, and learning about object permanence.

Learn more

How can I encourage my baby to talk?

You play a key role in supporting your baby’s language development—your baby learns to talk through the process of listening and interacting with you. Try these ideas to encourage them:

Narrate your day. Talk to your baby often, using a slow, higher-pitched voice. You can talk about anything, from everyday activities to favorite playthings. Studies show that the number of words a baby understands relates to how often they’ve heard high-frequency words that describe everyday things—objects, people, places, and actions. As much as you can, get down to your baby’s eye level and show interest in what they’re doing, looking at, and playing with—and label it.

Listen and respond. Tune into your baby’s vocalizations and attempts to communicate by responding as if you understand. This process helps establish a strong serve-and-return relationship with your baby. Even at this young age, they’re beginning to learn how back-and-forth conversational patterns work: You say something, and then they respond. Your baby’s response may be a smile, a raspberry, a movement, a facial expression, a coo, or a babble. Playfully mimicking your baby’s babble can accelerate their language skills.  

Say it again. Repeat key words like “up,” names of family members, “uh-oh,” and favorite foods.

Fill in the word. Tune into your baby’s cues and teach them the word they want to say. For example, if they say “ba, ba, ba” while looking around, and you think they might be looking for their bottle, ask them and repeat the word. For example, “Do you want your bottle? I see your bottle right here. Here’s your bottle. Bottle.”

Give them opportunities. Offer a choice between two favorite playthings and ask which one they want, giving them the name of each item. If they point or make a sound rather than saying the word, give them the plaything and repeat its name. Or sing a familiar song and pause at the end of phrases to elicit a sound or a word— “Twinkle, twinkle, little…”

Read often. Reading to your baby supports their language development, even if story time only lasts a minute or two. Don’t feel like you need to finish a book or even read every word; instead, follow your baby’s lead. Describe a particular picture they’re interested in rather than finishing the book. Label the picture with a word or two, then wait, giving your baby a chance to try to repeat the word.

Can sign language help babies communicate before they start talking?

Babies who learn sign language develop pathways for communication sooner than they would otherwise, research suggests. According to speech and language experts, your baby’s signs can be included in their early word count—as long as they’re used consistently and in the appropriate context.

Signing helps support your child’s ability to communicate before they develop solid verbal language skills. Your baby’s use of sign language may also help reduce frustration because it gives your baby more ways to communicate with you. Signing can help support your baby’s fine motor skills as well. 

Tips for introducing your child to sign language:

Experts recommend that families use the real sign language used by Deaf people in their region—for instance, American Sign Language (ASL). This way, your baby’s early signed words can develop into real language.

Start with functional words. When introducing sign language to your baby, start with a few basic, functional signs that they can easily copy. Choose signs for everyday objects or activities in your baby’s routine, like “eat,” “milk,” “more,” “help,” or “all done.”  

Say it while you sign it. When you say the word as you model the sign, your baby can associate signs with the corresponding spoken words. For example, when you say the word “eat,” also use the sign for “eat” at the same time. 
Be consistent. Like any other language, learning to sign takes patience, repetition, and practice.

Lovevery child development expert Rachel Coley explains how to support early sign language in this video from The Lovevery App:

How does bilingualism affect language development?

Bilingualism doesn’t contribute to speech delays, research shows. Bilingual children may say their first words slightly later than children who speak only one language, but within about the same age range of 12 to 15 months. 

If your baby is being raised in a bilingual home, they aren’t any more likely than monolingual babies to have difficulties with language learning. Early on, bilingual children often know fewer words in each of their languages than children who only speak one language—for example, an English-Spanish speaking child may know fewer words in English than a child who only speaks that language. But when you count words across both languages, bilingual children commonly know about the same number of total words as their monolingual peers. They also tend to develop grammar along the same patterns and timelines as monolingual children. 

Between birth and age 3, your baby is hard-wired to absorb language, so if you would like your child to be bilingual, it’s best to expose them to multiple languages even before they can talk. Your baby won’t become confused; rather, their brain will pick up on the differences between the languages and begin building connections to support each of them. Bilingualism benefits your child in more ways than just their expressive language ability, or what they can say. For example, bilingualism can help their brain processing become faster and more efficient.

Tips for supporting bilingualism in your child:

Speak to your baby often. Narrate your baby’s experiences and what’s happening in the world around them, making sure to provide consistent exposure to both languages. Practice responding to their vocalizations as though the two of you are having a conversation.

Read books in multiple languages. The more your baby is exposed to language and emotionally responsive interactions, the better. Some research even shows that babies adjust their babbles and intonations in response to the language being used by their caregivers.  

Sing or play music. Like bilingual books, music lets your baby hear words in both languages. You can try singing simple songs in each language. Eventually, your child will be able to mimic some of the words of the song.  

Child speech expert Veronica Fernandez, PhD, explains the benefits of learning two languages—and how bilingualism may support speech development:

Language development milestones by age

Language development is a complex process that involves cognitive, social, and even physical skills. From your baby’s first day at home with you, they’re listening to words all around them. 

Although each language is unique, all the world’s languages have a set of basic elements. Each of these elements or sounds are what researchers call phonemes. For example, there are approximately 44 phonemes, or distinct sounds, within the English language. Your baby’s brain is primed to pick out these phonemes, or sounds, while interacting with you or others. As your baby grows, they watch your mouth movements and listen for phonemes to understand and mimic language sounds, until at last they are able to say their first words.

Here’s what to listen for as your baby’s language and communication skills develop over time:

Language development from newborn to 3 months

From the first hours of life, your baby is working out how to communicate their needs and preferences through crying and small sounds. During this stage of language development, your baby may:

• Make sounds when they’re comfortable or content (0 to 3 months)
• Cry when they’re hungry or uncomfortable (0 to 1 month)
• Start making sucking sounds (0 to 1 month)
• Make sounds other than crying, like squeaks and grunts (1 to 2 months)
• Squeal (2 to 6 months)
• Make cooing vowel sounds, like “oooooh” and “aaaaaah” (2 to 4 months)
• Respond with sounds when you talk to them (2 to 4 months)

When do babies start cooing?

Your baby may begin cooing around 2 to 4 months of age. A typical coo consists of a single-syllable, open-vowel sound like “ahh” or “ohh.” These sounds require hardly any rounding of the lips. 

After a couple of months, your baby’s sounds will progress to closed-vowel sounds, such as “oooo” or “eeee,” where the mouth is not as wide or open. If your baby isn’t cooing yet, there are a few activities you can do to encourage this skill:

Allow mouthing. Let your baby mouth safe objects and their hands. Mouthing may aid in later language development by strengthening the jaws and lips for speech.

Start the conversation. Start the cooing “conversation” by sitting face-to-face with your baby and making a sound like “ahh” or “ohh.” They may repeat it or make their own sound. Either way, repeat it and add another sound. Try to use exaggerated lip movements and a high-pitched tone. Give your baby several seconds to respond—it takes a little longer for their brain to process new input. Diaper changes and bath time are great opportunities to practice these “conversation” skills.

Make eye contact. Research shows that babies vocalize more when they gaze into an adult’s eyes. Smile and gaze back at them while talking softly, and watch their cues—when your baby starts to avert their gaze, they’re ready for a break. 

Mimic or respond. Mimicking your baby’s sounds is one of the most effective ways to promote early language skills. Focus on making eye contact, smiling, and imitating your baby when they start cooing. Your baby will be motivated to continue vocalizing if they get a consistent response from you

As your baby coos more and their jaw, tongue, and lip control improve, they’ll progress to diphthongs, which are vowels that go from one sound to another, such as “ahh-ooh.”

Lovevery child development expert Rachel Coley demonstrates how the Black & White Card Set can help you “talk” with your baby:

Explore more early language play with The Charmer Play Kit

The Charmer Play Kit

The Charmer Play Kit is designed to let your 3 – 4 month old baby explore with their mouth, eyes, and hands as their personality emerges and their social awareness grows.

Learn more

Language development from 3 to 6 months  

This phase of your baby’s development brings some exciting and adorable additions to your baby’s language skills. In this stage, they’re working on discovering their voice and communicating with you through a variety of sounds—cooing, squealing, and babbling. During this stage of language development, your baby may:

• Squeal (2 to 6 months)
• Make cooing vowel sounds, like “oooooh” and “aaaaaah” (2 to 4 months)
• Respond with sounds when you talk to them (2 to 4 months)
• Take turns making sounds with you (2 to 6 months) 
• Blow “raspberries” (4 to 6 months) 
• Babble or make various sound combinations, like “ba,” “da,” or “ma” (4 to 7 months)
• Make a high-pitched squeal when happy or excited (4 to 6 months)
• Use reduplicated babbling with consonant sounds, like “mamama” and “bababa” (5 to 9 months)

When do babies understand their name?

Your baby may start to recognize their name around 6 to 7 months of age—you may see your little one smile or look up when you call their name. This is a skill that develops over several months, so if your 6-month-old baby doesn’t respond to their name yet, be patient.

To help your baby know their name, try to use it often as you talk to them: “Sara, here’s your bottle,” or “Here comes the ball, Charlie!”

When do babies start to babble?

Many babies start to babble “baba-baba” around 6 months. Around this age, your baby will discover their own voice and the fun (and loud!) sounds they can make. 

You might be surprised to learn that your baby has different types of babbling. As they become more accustomed to vocalizing, they’re able to articulate different combinations of sounds: 

Chain babbling (commonly starts between 4 and 6.5 months): You may hear a consistent string of single-consonant and single-vowel sounds, such as “babababababa,” as your baby works on coordinating their lips, tongue and jaw movements. Encourage these vocalizations by smiling and responding with similar babbling sounds.  

Babbling double consonants (may start between 5 and 8 months): Once your baby learns better breathing control and coordination of their mouth, they may begin double-consonant babbles such as  “baba” and “mama.” During this phase, try incorporating fun double-consonant words into your interactions: say “bye-bye” when your pet leaves the room, for instance. You can also try imitating your baby’s babbling chains, but intentionally shorten them: if they say “bababababa,” respond with “baba.”

Babbling with others (often starts between 5.5 and 6.5 months): As your baby’s babbling progresses, they may begin to babble back and forth with you, almost like a real conversation. Encourage their babbling by responding—even if it feels silly You can repeat their sounds or respond as though you know exactly what they’re saying: “Oh, really? I can’t believe it!” All of this reinforces the idea that talking is a way to communicate with others.

Ways to support your baby’s language development at 3 to 6 months: 

“Parentese” (4 months): You know the high-pitched, singsong, exaggerated voice that many of us instinctively use with babies? Research suggests that it’s highly beneficial for language development. Known as “parentese,” this engaging speaking style is effective at grabbing a baby’s attention and helping them learn words faster. 

A great time to use parentese is when you’re reading with your baby. Sit down together and look at the Wooden Book. Your slow, exaggerated sounds and varied pitch will make them think: “This book is exciting! I love that fish!” Don’t be surprised if they try to imitate your speech with a coo or squeal.

Slow-paced “conversations” with your baby (4 to 10 months): Around 4 to 10 months of age, your baby is beginning to comprehend that words represent actual objects and events. To your baby, adult conversation sounds something like this: “Areyouhungrywanttoeat?” Your adult brain is able to insert space between the words, but your baby’s brain can’t do that yet.                  

This is why it can be helpful to speak at a slightly slower pace. Your baby will be able to hear the separation between words and sounds more easily. Enjoy these “conversations” with your baby by responding to the sounds they make. As you’re headed out together for the day, narrate your actions step by step, saying, “Now we’re going over to the door. I’m going to touch the handle and open it. I’m opening the door with my hand. Oh, do you feel that? There’s a little breeze outside. Do you feel the air on your face? I can feel it on my face. The sun is shining, too.”

Reinforce language with touch: Boost receptive language—words they understand before they can say them—by naming parts of the body. Start by looking through the “Parts of Me” Book together, naming and pointing at body parts in the pictures and then on your baby’s body. Reinforce this by touching the Organic Cotton Rainbow Ball to each body part on your baby again. Rub it against your baby’s leg as you say, “leg,” then touch it to your baby’s hand and say, “hand.” This is a great way to link auditory and tactile input to language. 

Watch Lovevery child development expert Rachel Coley demonstrate how to teach language through sensory play:

Language development from 6 to 9 months 

At this stage of development, your baby is becoming more aware of the world and people around them. This growing awareness is also evident in their language skills. Your baby is beginning to recognize their own name more often and possibly even recognize the names of others. Their babbling may start to take on new clarity, and you may begin to have “conversations” with them as you respond to their babbling. During this stage of language development, your baby may:

• Babble consonant sounds, like “mamama” and “bababa” (5 to 9 months) 
• Turn their head or look when they hear their name called (5 to 9 months)
• Lift their arms to ask you to pick them up (6 to 9 months) 
• Look to find familiar people or pets when asked, “Where is ____?”  (6 to 9 months) 

New babbling skills at 6 to 9 months
Babbling is a pre-speech skill that develops in stages. The second of these stages is known as reduplicated babbling, and you’ll hear it as simple double-consonant sounds such as “baba” and “mama.” 

You may wonder if those babbles have meaning, but they don’t yet.​​ That said, babbles do play an important role in language acquisition. When your child babbles, it strengthens and builds coordination in their lips, tongue, jaw, and voice box, so they can articulate sounds more clearly. Between 11 and 14 months, your baby may “Dada” or “Mama” on purpose

Did you know that the way you respond to your baby’s babbling can actually shape the way they communicate? In a 2014 study, researchers found that babies whose parents responded to their babbles frequently and sensitively showed an increase in new consonant-vowel vocalizations (“baba, mama, dada”) that sounded more and more like discernible words. The babies also began directing their babbling at their caregiver, indicating a more advanced understanding of how social communication works.

Ways to support your baby’s language development at 6 to 9 months:

Respond to your baby’s babbling: Try to figure out what your baby is babbling about and respond supportively. If your baby is playing with the Spinning Rainbow, you might say, “Wow! The rainbow is going so fast. Do you see all those colors fly by?” This helps your baby understand that words have meaning and can be used to describe their experience.

Repetition really matters: When it comes to developing your baby’s vocabulary, repetition really helps. One study found that babies who heard the same repeated words were better able to understand their meaning. By age 2, those same children also had stronger vocabulary and language comprehension.

• If an object or person attracts your baby’s attention, repeat the words for those things. For example, if you see your baby stare at a dog, you can say, “You’re looking at the dog. Dog! Woof-woof!” 
• Slow down and emphasize the word that you’re trying to teach.
• Use a new word in different circumstances and contexts. This can help reinforce and deepen your baby’s understanding of a word. 
• Repeat your baby’s babbles. Try to figure out the real word your baby may be trying to communicate and say it aloud. 

Up-close connection: Get face-to-face while playing, eating, or exploring. This allows you to share the moment and encourage your baby’s communication attempts.

Wait for it: Instead of rushing to give your baby something they want, place it farther away or hesitate so you create an opportunity for them to ask for it with a gesture, sound, or first word.

Give details: Use clear and simple language and vary the structure. For example, don’t just ask questions (“Do you want the car?”) but also label (“That’s a car”), add detail (“It’s a big, blue car”), narrate (“We’re driving in the car”), and exclaim (“The car is going so fast!”).

Fun sounds: Incorporate sounds and words that are fun to hear and make like “boom,” “yuck,” “yummy,” “beep-beep,” or “ouch!” Pair these with exaggerated voices or facial expressions so they’re easier to remember and understand.

Playful imitation: Imitate your baby’s actions, facial expressions, sounds, and words to let them know they’re communicating effectively. 

Reading: Books are great for introducing sounds, vocabulary, and ideas. Take your time and enthusiastically emphasize different words and concepts.

Language development at 9 to 12 months

As your baby approaches their first birthday, they may not be able to say real words yet. However, they’re able to understand a lot more than they can say. For example, your baby may pause sometimes when they hear the word “no,” indicating they know what this word means. 

Many parents underestimate how many words their babies or young toddlers already understand. Try watching closely for non-verbal signals to get a better idea of what your baby knows. 

By about 9 to 14 months, your baby may respond to what you say by turning their head, lifting their arms, or using other body language. You may notice your toddler turn toward a family member when asked, “Where’s Papa?” or lift their arms when you say, “Would you like up?” These are indications that their receptive vocabulary—the collection of words they understand—is expanding. Ask them questions or make simple requests: “Where’s the dog?” or “Hand me the spoon, please.” Watch how your toddler responds to see what words they may know. 

During this stage of language development, your baby may: 

• Babble consonant sounds, like “mamama” and “bababa” (5 to 9 months)
• Lift their arms to ask you to pick them up (6 to 9 months) 
• Look to find familiar people or pets when asked, “Where is ____?” (6 to 9 months) 
• Call you or another caregiver by a special name, like “Mama” or “Dada” (10 to 12 months)
• Pause sometimes when they hear the word “no” (10 to 12 months)
• Repeat sounds or try to imitate words (10 to 14 months)
• Wave “bye-bye” (10 to 12 months) 

Ways to support your baby’s language development at 9 to 12 months:

Play imitation games: Imitate your baby’s gestures, sounds, and words. When they babble and smile at you, babble back. Pause to give your baby a moment to respond and repeat. 

Notice what your baby notices: If you’re out for a walk and your baby calls out, stop and see if you can guess what has caught their attention. You could say: “I heard you shout! What do you see? Oh! Is it the dog?”

Describe what they see: If your baby is looking toward an object, you can describe what you see: “I notice you are looking at the cups! Here, let me help you reach them.”

Lots of labeling: Label items in your environment. Point to an object or pick it up, and call it by name. For example, at mealtime, hold a banana at eye level and say, “Here is your banana! Yum!” If you are playing with your baby on the floor, hold up two toys, “Look! I have a ball (move it toward them) and a book (move the book toward them). I wonder which one you want?” Watch to see which your baby looks at or reaches for. Name their choice: “Oh! You picked the ball!” 

Narrate your day: Narrate throughout the day to bring awareness to what your baby and you are doing. You can say things like “I see you banging those balls together! Bang, bang, bang!” “I’m pouring milk into your bottle!”  “I’m going to clean your bottom. Oh, sorry, the wipe is cold!”

Language development for toddlers from 12 to 24 months

As your child reaches their first birthday, their language skills may become more obvious. Their receptive language is developing, so they may understand your questions and respond with gestures, head nods, or pointing to communicate with you. They may also start to say their first words between 12 and 15 months of age.

Your toddler may also use non-verbal communication to ask for what they need: They may shake their head “no,” nod their head “yes,” or clap when they’re excited. This shows they know these actions carry meaning, and they’re using them to tell you something. 

During this stage of language development, your child may:

• String together babbles with inflection and gestures as if talking (12 to 24 months)
• Use gestures like pointing to get something they want or communicate (10 to 15 months)
• Say one to two words or word approximations, like “ba” for “bottle” or “woof” for dog, in addition to whatever they call you (12 to 15 months)
• Follow a simple direction combined with a gesture (“Bring me the ball” as you point at a ball) 
• Wave hello or goodbye in social encounters, after some practice (9 to 14 months)
• Understand one-step verbal directions without the help of gestures to communicate meaning (15 to 18 months)
• Say around three or more words or word approximations, like “ba” for “bottle” or “woof” for dog (15 to 18 months)
• Say the word or shake their head to say “no” (15 to 18 months)
• Identify at least one body part by pointing to or touching it when named (13 to 24 months)
• Point to things in a book in response to a simple question, like “Where is the moon?” (15 to 24 months)
• Put two words together, like “More milk” (18 to 24 months)
• Identify up to two body parts by pointing to them (18 to 24 months)
• Use several gestures in addition to waving and pointing (15 to 24 months) 
• “Sing” or use gestures to familiar rhymes and songs (12 to 24 months)
• Ask “what that” or “that?” while they point to things in the environment (18 to 30 months)

When do babies say “Mama”? (or “Dada”)

Around 12 to 14 months of age, babies usually say their first word. Often, one of these first words is the name for their caregiver, like “Mama” or “Dada.” Although your baby may have babbled something that sounded like “ma-ma-ma” or “da-da-da” earlier, by 12 to 14 months they’re probably saying it on purpose and are referring to their special person  

How many words should a 12-month old say?

By the time your child reaches 12 months of age, they may only have mastered one or two words, or word approximations. A few months later, between 15 to 18 months, most toddlers will have an expressive vocabulary of at least three words, not including “mama” or “dada.”

Soon, however, your child will probably experience what scholars call a “language explosion.” By around 18 to 24 months of age, your toddler may be learning up to 10 new words a week. While this explosion of words seems to come out of the blue, your child’s brain has been working on these language skills since birth. Slowly, over time, your child has been figuring out word sounds, learning simple words, and at this stage everything falls into place—and their language learning takes off.

RELATED: The science behind your child’s ‘language explosion’

Ways to support your toddler’s language development at 12 to 15 months

Repeat words often: For instance, if your toddler is eating and wants more food, they may babble or gesture to let you know or get your attention. Model the language with an emphasis on the word they can use to get help. You can say, “You want more pancakes! More! Here you go, here are more pancakes.” Or, if the two of you are playing with a ball and your toddler looks at it, you can say, “Ball! I am rolling the ball! Here comes the ball!”

Simple narration: Talk in simple language about what you see your toddler doing. This brings meaning to their actions.

Reinforce names: Practice using the names of important people. Make a photo album of simple pictures and flip through it with your child, pointing to people’s faces as you say only their names.

Repeat games: Play a game with a repetitive phrase and pause before you say the last word. For instance, during a game of peekaboo, while hiding your face, draw out the first two syllables of the word, “Peeekaaaa…” and wait for your baby to respond with a sound. Then, say “boo!” as you uncover your smiling face. Or, build a tower with simple blocks that your baby can knock down. As you build it, you can say, “Up, up, up, up.” Then, when they knock it down, you can say, “dowwwnnn.”

Language development at 2 years old

Your toddler is expanding their vocabulary and learning to put words together during this phase of development—meaning they’re more likely to be able to express their needs and wants through language. When you hear “Mo nana,” you’ll know they’re asking for more banana. This is also a fun stage as your toddler starts to mimic gestures that go along with songs or rhymes, like “Itsy Bitsy Spider” or “Wheels on the Bus.”

During this stage of language development, your toddler may:

• Point to things in a book in response to a simple question, like “Where is the moon?” (15 to 24 months)
• Put two words together as their vocabulary grows, like “More milk” (18 to 24 months)
• Use several gestures in addition to waving and pointing (15 to 24 months)
• “Sing” or use gestures to familiar rhymes and songs (12 to 24 months)
• Ask “what that” or “that?” while they point to things in the environment (18 to 30 months)
• Say more than 2 words, with 1 action word, like “Doggie run.” (24 to 30 months)
• Say words like I, me, you, or we (20 to 30 months)
• Say at least 50 words (20 to 30 months)
• Talk with you in conversation using at least two back-and-forth exchanges (30 to 36 months)
• Say their first name when asked (24 to 36 months)
• Ask who, what, where, and why questions, like “Where is mommy/daddy?” Usually what and where come before why (24 to 36 months)
• Say what action is happening in a picture when asked, like running, eating, or playing (24 to 36 months)
• Talk well enough for others to understand, most of the time (24 to 36 months)

Ways to support your 2-year-old’s language development:

Expand on your toddler’s words: For example, if your toddler says a single word (like their name) and taps his chest or lifts his arms, you might expand that to two words and continue the thought: “You want to go up!” Also try modeling a questioning intonation, so if your child says “Milk” you say, “More milk?” 

Repeat and add on: Try the same strategy for your toddler’s two- and three-word utterances— repeat back the words, add another, and hypothesize their intent. 

Focus on detail words: Continue to emphasize adjectives, prepositions, pronouns, and verbs as you talk to your child. “Oooh, the washcloth is so wet. Drip, drip, drop. Squeeze it!”

Sing together: Singing songs together can be a fun way to expand your toddler’s vocabulary. “Old McDonald” is a great choice for the opportunity to name animals and use animal sounds, but there are many others!  

Go on a sound walk: Invite your child to listen for sounds as you explore your neighborhood together. As you’re walking, ask them what they hear, and listen with them while they identify the sounds around them. Tell them what you hear: “I hear a bird chirping; I hear a car engine.” 

RELATED: Try a sound walk (and these 3 other activities) to boost your child’s language skills

Should you correct your toddler’s pronunciation?

As your toddler learns to speak, they may make adorable mistakes, like calling blocks “bocks” or trucks “ducks.” These types of mispronunciations are rarely cause for concern at this age. Simply restate the word a few times as you continue to talk, which allows your toddler to hear the correct sounds and watch your mouth move. For example, if your toddler says “nana” instead of “banana,” you could say, “Do you want a banana? Bananas are delicious.” Your toddler may keep saying “nana” for a while as they learn how to put together all the syllables. But once their mouth and mind sync up, you’ll hear “banana” instead. 

Resist the urge to imitate those cute mispronunciations if you can—your toddler’s brain hones in on repetition, so they’ll pick up on patterns of mispronunciation. Imitating their sweet mistakes is tempting, but it may inadvertently reinforce them. Imitating your toddler could also embarrass or frustrate them. Because your toddler hears more sounds than they can say, they may already know their pronunciation is “wrong” or think they are saying the word clearly. 

RELATED: Why not to correct your toddler’s speech—and what to do instead

When do children start talking in sentences?

Generally, children start talking in three-word sentences around 24 to 30 months of age. For example, they may say things like, “Me want ball.” You can help support your child’s use of full sentences through modeling. Modeling language is a powerful tool, especially in these early years. For example, if your child points to a baby and says “ba,” you might say, “Baby! You see a baby.”  

At this stage, they probably won’t use personal pronouns correctly yet. The correct use of pronouns like “I” can develop as early as 27 months but it may not be until your child’s third birthday that they consistently use them. You can encourage full words and sentences through your daily interactions with your toddler. One way to model correct usage of pronouns is to repeat a sentence or phrase back to your child like this: if they say “me want book,” you can say “Oh, you want to read a book? I want to read a book, too. Let’s choose one.”

Language development at 3 years old

Your 3-year-old may be becoming quite an engaging conversational partner. They may have a vocabulary of 300 to 1,000 words and probably have a lot of questions to ask. At this age, who, what, where, or why questions become very popular. This is the stage when the inevitable questions like, “Why is the sky blue,” or “Why is dirt brown” start to emerge. Interacting with you through these question-and-answer sessions, even if you don’t know the answer, helps propel their vocabulary and language development.

During this stage of language development, your child may:

• Talk with you in conversation using at least two back-and-forth exchanges (30 to 36 months)
• Ask who, what, where, and why questions, like “Where is mommy/daddy?” Usually what and where come before why (24 to 36 months)
• Say what action is happening in a picture when asked, like running, eating, or playing (24 to 36 months)
• Say their first name when asked (24 to 36 months)
• Talk well enough for others to understand, 75% of the time (30 to 36 months), correctly using the following word sounds by 36 months: b, p, d, m, n, w, h
• Sing parts or phrases of familiar songs (37 to 39 months)
• Be able to recite the alphabet (37 to 39 months)
• Identify missing parts of a favorite book when you read (3.5 to 4 years)
• Use pronouns such as he, she, and they (3.5 to 4 years)
• Use past tense by adding ‘ed’ to most verbs (3.5 to 4 years)
• Identify missing parts of a favorite book when you read (3.5 to 4 years)

Ways to support your 3-year-old’s language development:

Focus on prepositions: At age 3, your child is working on understanding and using words like under, over, next to, or behind, so use these prepositions in speaking with them: “Your boots are under the table.” Opposites can also help strengthen your child’s understanding of what these kinds of words mean: Please put your book in the basket and take your ball out of the basket,” or “The ceiling is over your head and the floor is under your feet.”

Model correct language: Correcting your child when they use the wrong word or mispronounce a word is reflexive, but try modeling the correct language instead. This is especially helpful for pronouns, which can be tricky for toddlers. For example, if your child says, “Me want to go outside,” you can respond, “Oh, you want to go outside? I want to go outside, too.”

Encourage storytelling and pretend play: You may check on your child in the living room and find them talking to someone—only no one is there. If you can remain unnoticed, you may be lucky enough to hear the context for their story. They may be going through a bedtime ritual with their doll or giving their stuffed bear medicine for an earache. You can encourage this kind of narration by rotating playthings into your child’s environment that inspire storytelling and pretend. Props like a doctor’s kit, firefighter costume, or pots and pans can be an entry point for this kind of creative language play.

Encourage verbal confidence: Between the ages of 2 and 5 years old, many children experience times where they just can’t seem to get their words out. There may be interruptions in the smoothness of their speech or they may stumble over phrases. This is very common. At this age, your child’s sentences are becoming complex, but their thoughts and ideas are even more complex. Your child might speak smoothly, most of the time, but then struggle when they’re overtired, excited, or feel rushed.

You can nurture your child’s verbal skills by asking open-ended questions about things that fascinate them. Engaging in conversation together, even if you have to wait for them to get their words out, will nurture their confidence in speaking.

Developmental concerns with talking 

Every child develops at their own pace. The age guidelines offered here are based on averages of thousands of children, so your child may not follow them exactly. 

In terms of language development, it’s important to consider three main elements: 

1. receptive language (understanding what is being said)
2. pragmatic (or social) language
3. expressive language (the ability to communicate and express thoughts, needs, and emotions) 

Considering all three provides a fuller picture of your child’s progress. Here are some skills to watch for:

• Babbling or making various sound combinations (4 to 8 months)
• Following the gaze of a communication partner/joint attention (4 to 12 months) 
• Anticipating and participating in age-appropriate play (5 to 12 months)
• Pointing, waving, gesturing (9 to 12 months)
• Communicating needs using sounds, gestures, or words (9 to 12 months)
• Responding to basic requests/following one-step directions (12 months)
• Attempting first words (12 to 15 months)

If you have concerns about your child’s language skills, you can review them with their clinician at any wellness visit. 

The post Talking & language development appeared first on Lovevery.

While throwing a ball in the air may seem like a natural motion to you, it’s all new to your baby. They’re still figuring out how to use their hands to grab, hold, and then release an object. Throwing is an early lesson in cause and effect for children, who might practice their newfound skills in some less-than-fun ways at first—like throwing food or toys With support from you, as well as plenty of practice, they’ll learn to throw with increasing accuracy, picking up cognitive and motor skills along the way. 

In this article:

• When do babies start throwing things? 
• Why do babies throw things?
• Why do toddlers throw things?
• What are the developmental benefits of throwing?  
• Activities & toys to practice throwing
• How to stop your baby or toddler from throwing food
• How to stop your baby or toddler from throwing toys
• Developmental concerns with throwing

When do babies start throwing things?

Between 9 and 12 months, your child may accidentally throw an object. They may shake their hands to release a ball they’re holding, and suddenly realize that the ball has been flung to a distance and is bouncing and rolling away. Once your baby discovers how to voluntarily release an object, throwing isn’t far behind.

Around 12 to 14 months, your toddler will begin to explore their newfound skills, flinging a ball by extending their arm from their shoulder. They’re now able to play an early form of “catch” while sitting, intentionally pushing a playground ball toward you with their hands.

Around 15 to 16 months, your toddler may be able to keep their balance while throwing a small ball by extending their arm forward. It’s common for toddlers at this age to enjoy throwing toys—and food. By 16 to 24 months, your child may be able to throw overhand within a few feet of their intended target. 

Underhand throwing begins to emerge a little bit later than overhand throwing, around 23 to 24 months. With practice, your child’s underhand and overhand throwing skills will continue to progress, as they gradually increase their throwing distance, coordination, and accuracy.

Why do babies throw things?

Your baby doesn’t throw things to misbehave or to annoy you. Here are two reasons why babies just seem to love throwing things, once they learn how:

Voluntary release: Babies often end up throwing things on the floor—or across the room—because they’re refining and practicing their motor skills, especially voluntary release. This ability to release an object from their grip takes practice to learn how to control. The voluntary release skill usually develops around 9 to 10 months of age, so you may see your baby start to intentionally throw or drop things around this time, including water from cups or food from their high chair. Your baby may also throw things by accident as they work on learning how to grasp, hold, and then release an item with control.

RELATED: Voluntary release: The motor skill babies love (and parents sometimes hate) 

Cause and effect: Adults know, of course, that if you throw a cup full of water, it spills everywhere. Your baby doesn’t yet understand how this cause-and-effect relationship works—so to them, almost every object they encounter is an experiment waiting to happen. Babies learn so much through hands-on experimentation, and your baby may throw things simply to discover what happens. Your little scientist is learning something new with each throw, as they watch the object move through the air and make a noise when it drops.

Why do toddlers throw things?

You may be surprised to learn that your toddler has some pretty good reasons to throw their food on the floor It may look like limit-testing, but think of your toddler’s tendency to throw objects, food, and toys as part of a process of constant exploration—not intentional misbehavior. Here’s what your toddler is testing when they throw things:

Curiosity: Your toddler is insatiably curious about the world. At times, they may throw things just to see what happens. Why does the ball fly across the room but the paper falls immediately? What happens if I throw something squishy like spaghetti? Sometimes, unfortunately, curiosity gets a little messy. 

RELATED: Are they testing limits or just exploring?

Trajectory schema: At around 19 to 21 months of age, your toddler may become fascinated by how things move through the air, on the ground, or how they can make things move. Their fascination is part of the trajectory schema in their play, one of several play schemas children use to understand how the world works. 

Emotions: Because the part of your toddler’s brain that helps them manage emotions is still developing, your toddler sometimes has strong emotional reactions to seemingly minor events. They don’t yet have the skills to regulate big, overwhelming emotions, so those emotions may find release through physical exertion—like throwing things when they’re angry or frustrated.  

RELATED: Why it’s important to allow your toddler’s big emotions 

What are the developmental benefits of throwing?

Even if catch isn’t your child’s favorite game to play—or yours—throwing can have surprising developmental benefits. 

Gross motor skills: Throwing supports your child’s gross motor development since it uses many large muscle groups. In addition to arm muscles, your toddler also uses their core for stability and their legs to brace themselves when they throw. When your toddler throws, the muscles that maintain their balance have to adjust to prevent them from falling. Also known as postural control, this skill supports future skills like running and jumping.

Coordination: Throwing supports your toddler’s coordination skills as they figure out how to throw in different ways—flinging objects, overhand throws, and underhand tosses all require a different movement pattern. Throwing also offers lots of practice for hand-eye coordination, especially as your child progresses with throwing and learns to aim at a target.

Cognitive skills: While it may not be obvious, throwing has cognitive benefits for children too. Throwing an object helps your child experiment with cause-and-effect relationships, as they begin to understand how the force they use to throw causes an object to fly farther, or how their aim affects the direction of the object. Throwing objects of different sizes and weights is also a hands-on way to understand gravity.

Language development: Throwing brings new opportunities to support your child’s speech and language development. Use your toddler’s interest in throwing by verbally narrating or signing to them. Consider saying “my turn” and “your turn,” “ready set, go!” “1, 2, 3” “wee!” “go!” “throw” or “boom!” when you play. Incorporating language along with movement gives these words meaning.

Activities and toys to practice throwing

You can help your child practice their throwing skills in appropriate ways with a range of activities and games:

Throwing balls

Between 16 and 24 months of age, your child may begin throwing a ball, although intention and precision will come with practice. Here are a few throwing activities to try with your toddler:

Soft throws: When you’re ready to practice throwing, start by showing them how you can throw a soft ball toward a basket. Throwing a ball directly to your toddler may scare them.

Rolling the ball: Although your child may be a little young to understand a game of catch, you can start to introduce this idea. Try sitting close, facing your child, and rolling the ball to them, and see if they pick it up. If they do, say, “You caught the ball!” If they then accidentally drop it, you can take a turn and say, “Mommy caught the ball,” and roll it back to them. 

Knock over the cups: Line up empty plastic cups or empty water bottles to make a DIY “bowling alley” for your toddler. Offer them a soft ball to throw at the cups to try to knock them down. 

Cause and effect activities 

One reason your baby or toddler loves to throw things is because they’re fascinated by cause and effect. Some engaging activities that illustrate this concept:

Ball runs: Encourage your toddler to release objects of different sizes and weights on a ramp or ball run. For example, you might gather a ball, a peg, a block, and a Mosaic Button for the Slide & Seek Ball Run. Let your child decide which objects to test on the spiral slide.

Gravity tests: Show your child how to use gravity to get Magic Tissues or pegs into a large bowl, bucket, or laundry basket. Start by dropping before moving on to tossing. Experiment from different distances, making sure the container is close enough and large enough for your toddler to be successful. Talk with your toddler about how different objects behave differently when they’re dropped: “The tissue was light so it dropped slowly, and the peg was heavier so it dropped fast.”

Up and down: Take your toddler outside or to a room with some space and toss a soft ball up into the air. Watch together as it falls, and say, “First it goes up, then it goes down.”  Use the Opposite Balls, alternating between throwing the heavy then light ball up in the air.

Coordinating both hands: Challenge your toddler’s coordination by giving them two balls to throw at the same time, or choose which ball to throw first. After your toddler throws the two balls, help them notice which ball went further: “Look, the blue ball went further than the yellow ball!”

Trajectory schema activities

Thanks to the trajectory play schema your child is busy exploring in early toddlerhood, they’ll probably love any activity that lets them watch something move—or better yet, lets them make it move.

Falling leaves: Have you ever wondered why young children love playing in piles of dry leaves? This is a great example of the trajectory schema at play. They can throw the leaves up and watch how they fall down in random ways. Your child may also love throwing themselves in the leaves too.

RELATED: The trajectory schema: how your child learns by throwing, dropping, and flinging

Gross motor play: Part of the trajectory schema is exploring the way their own body moves, so provide your toddler with opportunities to tumble, roll, jump, crawl, bounce, swing, and more. 

Learning to aim and throw

While your child may not have control over the direction of the throw yet, around age 2 to 2.5 they may be learning to throw forward using a more accurate overhand or underhand motion.

Aiming at hoops: Set up the Jump-In Eco Hoops as a target for the organic cotton bean bags and model tossing—take turns throwing to make the game fun even if your child is not able to aim well. If you notice your little one flinging or dropping the bean bag, and you want to work more on throwing, you can use a simple verbal cue of “back… and throw!” for underhand, or “up… and throw!” for overhand throwing. See how many bean bags you and your child can toss in the same hoop, and count them afterward.

Aiming practice: Pull a cardboard box out of the recycling bin and reuse it as a target to help your toddler practice their aim. Set the box on a table or chair and cut a large hole in one side. For added fun, decorate the box as a face or a monster with the hole being the “mouth” of the creature. Encourage your toddler to try to throw a felt ball or bean bag into the creature’s mouth—and cheer them on when they make it.

How to stop your baby or toddler from throwing food

Seeing your baby or toddler throw food on the floor is understandably frustrating, even when you know it’s all part of exploring a new motor skill. While most families have rules against throwing food at mealtimes, at this young age your child doesn’t have the cognitive maturity to follow the rules from meal to meal or in different situations. 

Instead, use mealtime as an opportunity to model appropriate ways to handle food. If your child throws food, try to resist showing an emotional reaction. Here’s what to do instead: 

Stay calm and use a neutral tone as you pick up the cup or plate and put it back on your child’s tray. Not making it into a big deal will help prevent it from becoming a game to your child. 

Introduce language to describe what happens when your child throws things at mealtime. You can say, “Bang. Your water made a loud sound. Water is for drinking. I’m going to help you keep your cup on your high chair.“  Or, “Uh-oh, you threw your water. Water is for drinking. I am going to hold it with you.” For a baby or toddler, this is enough of a limit. 

Offer positive reinforcement when they handle their food in a more appropriate way: “Wow! I see you just picked up that piece of banana and got it into your mouth all on your own!”

Redirect their interest in throwing food by having a small bowl on their tray table that they can drop food into,instead of on the floor. You can demonstrate and say, “drop” or “in” as you drop their food in a bowl. 

If your child continues to throw food or drinks at meals, repeat that “Food is for eating,” or try putting fewer pieces of food on their tray at a time. If the throwing doesn’t stop, it might be a sign that they’re done with their meal—simply clean up and move on to another activity. These types of lessons often require many repetitions before your toddler learns not to throw food. As they mature, your positive modeling of mealtime behavior will begin to take hold. 

In the meantime, encourage your child to channel their love of throwing things into more appropriate activities. For example, let them drop and throw objects of different sizes and weights, like a diaper into the diaper pail, socks into the laundry basket, balls into a bucket, bath toys in the bathtub, or crumpled paper or beanbags into a box. This helps redirect your toddler’s throwing behavior—and also comes in handy when cleaning up toys

How to stop your baby or toddler from throwing toys

Throwing is a developmentally appropriate activity for babies and toddlers—it’s a way for your child to try out new motor skills, learn about cause and effect, and test how things move. So trying to prevent all throwing is probably not a realistic expectation. Instead, you can model what items are appropriate to throw and in what settings. 

Practice throwing activities and games. Offering your child plenty of opportunities to practice throwing with appropriate materials may help reduce throwing in other settings. Offer them soft items to throw indoors like the Rainbow Ball. Play games like bean bag toss or tossing dirty clothes into the hamper.

Giving them a target to throw at is a great way to practice throwing, without setting the precedent of throwing toys everywhere. Let your toddler practice throwing playthings into the Lovevery cardboard box or a laundry hamper, or any container large enough to give your toddler a good chance of success. If you notice that your toddler gets excited when throwing makes a big noise, a large pot can maximize the cause-and-effect fun.

Co-regulate when big emotions come up. Your toddler may sometimes throw things when they feel angry or frustrated. When this happens, helping your child regulate their emotions with your support is often the best strategy. Focus on setting a limit on the behavior, such as throwing toys, and not on the emotion itself: “You are so angry that your sister tried to take the toy. I know it’s frustrating. Throwing toys can hurt someone. I’ll hold the toy to keep everyone safe.”

As challenging as it can be to keep your cool when your toddler throws things, try to remember that your child isn’t intentionally trying to have a tantrum—they’re experiencing strong emotions and have limited capacity for managing them at this age. Self-regulation is a skill children work on through most of early childhood. Naming your child’s emotions and narrating what they’re experiencing helps them feel understood, comforted, and seen, and helps establish healthy self-regulating habits. 

RELATED: 5 co-regulation tips to help your toddler manage their feelings 

Use redirection when necessary. When your child acts in a way that you want to discourage, instead of focusing on the inappropriate behavior, try to redirect to an appropriate behavior that might fulfill the same need. If your child reacts physically by throwing an object, you could say something like, “Oh! Your body is so excited. I am going to help you by giving you a hug.” If your toddler is throwing food, rocks, or sand, redirect them to items like light scarves, soft balls, light plastic balls, or small bean bags. If you can, it’s sometimes helpful to change the scenery or activity. Take your child outside for some playtime or a walk, give them an early bath, or move with them to a different room. 

Developmental concerns with throwing

The ability to throw develops over time in your child as well as their skill and accuracy at aiming the throw. Some of your child’s skill at throwing also depends on the size and weight of the ball (or object) they’re throwing. Throwing skills, of course, also improve with additional practice. By around 18 months of age, your child may be able to throw a small ball from a standing position without falling over. At about 2 years of age, your child may be able to throw a tennis ball several feet with either an underhand or overhand throw.

The development of throwing skills, similar to other advanced motor activities like bicycling and kicking, is dependent on a child’s exposure to the activity. If your child isn’t able to throw a ball by 18 months of age or loses their balance easily while throwing, consult your pediatrician. They can assess your child’s development and answer any questions.

The post Throwing appeared first on Lovevery.

If you’re a first-time parent, you may be surprised by just how much your baby cries. For at least the first few months, crying is the primary way that babies communicate with their caregivers—which means they cry a lot.

It can be really hard when your baby’s crying and you don’t understand what they’re trying to communicate. But in time, you’ll learn to decipher your baby’s cries in order to respond with the type of comfort they need, whether they’re crying from hunger, discomfort, or overstimulation. In the meantime, hang in there—your loving care is exactly what your baby needs right now  

In this article:

• Why is my baby crying?
• Hunger crying
• Sleepy or tired crying
• Discomfort or fussy crying
• Overstimulated crying
• Bored crying
• Colic crying
• Why is my baby crying in their sleep?
• How to calm a crying baby
• When to call your doctor

Why is my baby crying?

Babies cry for a variety of reasons: Hunger, fatigue, and discomfort are all communicated through your baby’s cry. Over time, you may learn to distinguish between different types of cries. Your baby may cry differently depending on if they’re hungry, tired, uncomfortable, or overstimulated. These differentiated cries tend to begin at about 3 months, but understanding your baby’s cues will likely take some time and patience.

New parents may be comforted—at least a little—to know that as babies grow, their crying tends to reach a peak and then levels off considerably. Researchers have identified a consistent pattern in how much babies cry during the first few months of life: Your baby may cry frequently until around 8 weeks of age, peaking around 4 weeks of age. During this peak time, babies can cry up to 86 minutes per day on average.

So if it feels like your baby cries all the time and it’s just breaking your heart, know that it won’t always be this way. Your baby will learn other ways to communicate. And you will learn to read and interpret their verbal and nonverbal cues and know how to soothe them. 

When your baby cries, it’s understandable to feel stressed or worried, but know that your presence and love are what matters most. Responding to your baby’s cries lets them know their communication has meaning and importance. The act of cuddling your baby helps regulate their emotions and calms their bodies, while building the foundation of their ability to self-soothe. That’s why it’s impossible to “spoil” a newborn baby with love or attention: Your response helps them learn that they matter, and your comfort helps them learn how to calm down.

Lovevery child development expert Rachel Coley demonstrates how gentle interaction and face-to-face time can help soothe and calm your baby:

Read on to understand common reasons babies cry, how to distinguish different types of crying sounds, and what to do to comfort your baby when they cry.

Hunger crying

Hunger is perhaps the most common reason your baby may cry. This cry is sometimes described as a “Neh” sound. Even before crying, however, they may show nonverbal signs of hunger you can watch for: 

• Chewing fists
• Rooting, or moving their head from side to side as though looking for the nipple
• Lip smacking, or opening and closing their mouth
• Alert and watchful, with their body active

If your baby cries and shows any signs of hunger, it’s best to feed them on demand, especially in the early months. Newborns need to eat every 2 to 4 hours, whether they are breastfed or formula-fed.

Sleepy or tired crying

Since your baby can’t tell you when they’re tired, they’ll cry when they get overly fatigued. Sometimes the sound of a sleepy cry can be an “Owh” sound. Before the sleepy crying kicks in, though, you can watch for other nonverbal signs that your baby is tired, such as:

• Yawning
• Rubbing their eyes (in older babies)
• Pulling their ears (in older babies)
• “Zoning out” and not focusing on you or objects

Newborns can stay awake for about 60 to 75 minutes at a time before needing a nap, although as your baby matures, their wake windows will lengthen. Watch your baby closely for signs of fatigue and you’ll begin to understand their signals.  

You may find it easier to get your baby to sleep if you start the soothing process as soon as you see signs of fatigue. Babies that become overtired may find it more difficult to go to sleep. Have a brief routine before sleep to help your baby relax. 

RELATED: Establishing a baby bedtime routine

Discomfort or fussy crying

Feelings of discomfort such as gas pain, needing a diaper change, or needing to be burped can elicit fussiness and crying. Your baby’s cry may sound like an “Eh” when they need to be burped or an “Eairh” when they’re gassy. 

Your baby may sometimes cry as a way of processing sensory input during a diaper change, during a bath, or when their clothes are changed. Some babies also cry in response to transitions—for example, if long walks and drives in the car soothe your newborn, they may start crying as soon as the movement stops. 

Figuring out how to decipher and respond to your baby’s discomfort may involve a bit of trial and error. When in doubt, check their diaper If your baby is gassy, you can try burping them or laying them on their tummy to help relieve their discomfort. Tummy time on The Play Gym with one or two playthings placed in front of them might distract or soothe your baby. Some babies enjoy motion like rocking, swinging, or bouncing to calm down when they’re uncomfortable and crying.

Overstimulated crying

Babies have limited ability to filter out sensory information, so they can easily become overstimulated. After all, everything your baby is experiencing and learning about in the world is new to them. As much as you adore kissing and playing with your baby, their capacity to enjoy these interactions is limited. Aim for a series of brief, precious moments rather than sustained periods of play or interaction.

Other than crying, signs of overstimulation can be quite subtle. Common nonverbal signs of overstimulation in babies include: 

• Hyper-flexing their fingers (this looks like open palms with fingers stiff and angled backwards)
• Jerky motions
• Averting their eyes or turning their heads away
• Falling asleep in the midst of excitement

If you see signs of your baby becoming overstimulated and fussy, it’s time to bring calm back to your baby’s environment. Consider taking your baby to a quiet, dark room and soothing them with your calming voice and movement such as swaying or rocking. Sometimes the calming sounds of nature and the outdoors can help an overstimulated baby calm down.

Bored crying

Babies’ attention spans are limited, and your baby may only be able to sustain engagement with a plaything or interaction for a minute or two before turning away or getting fussy. Your baby might cry or fuss when they become uninterested in a plaything or activity, which may simply be a sign that they need a break. 

Evidence suggests that by 7 or 8 months of age, babies learn to seek out information that is “just right” in terms of their cognitive needs. In other words, they’re naturally attracted to activities that aren’t too “easy” (too predictable) or too complex to understand. This might be what you see when your baby cries or turns away from an activity or plaything: The activity might fall outside of your baby’s “just right” stimulation zone.

While you don’t need to entertain your baby constantly, rotating their playthings every week or so can help ensure variety and keep your baby at the “just right” level of stimulation. You can also keep playthings like The Soft Book or The Sensory Links in places where your baby might benefit from some engagement or distraction—one on the changing table and another in the stroller, for instance. 

Explore “just right” playthings for engaging your newborn

The Looker Play Kit

The Looker Play Kit welcomes your newborn with tools to help them process the world around them and build brand new brain connections with high-contrast and black-and-white Playthings.

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Keep in mind, too, that some nonverbal signs that signal boredom in an adult are, for a newborn, actually signs of peaceful alertness, such as lying still, looking around, or staring. If your newborn is quietly taking in their environment, that’s a valuable experience for them.

Colic crying

The cry associated with colic may sound different from your baby’s other cries. It can be similar to the cry they make when in pain, but may come on quickly without any apparent reason. Colic cries can also last for hours, despite your best efforts to soothe your baby.

The main factor that distinguishes colic from normal crying is not the sound but the length and frequency of your baby’s crying. Colic is defined by the “rule of three”: three hours or more of inconsolable crying for three or more days per week, for three or more weeks. 

Unfortunately, the causes of colic are still largely a mystery to the medical community. Some theories suggest that colic can be caused by factors like:

• Heightened awareness of surroundings, leading to overstimulation
• Developing digestive system causing gassiness and discomfort
• Growth spurts, which may result in irritability or trouble sleeping
• Being overtired

If you suspect your baby has colic, reach out to your pediatrician. An estimated 10% to 30% of babies suffer from colic, and colic rates are identical across genders, socioeconomic status, gestational age, and feeding methods (formula vs. breast milk). Colic tends to peak around the 6-week mark, and most babies outgrow it between 3 and 6 months. 

Babies with colic may cry for extended periods, and may not be soothed by the usual comfort techniques. These soothing techniques are known to help some colicky babies:

• Walking while holding your baby (or carrying them in a baby carrier)
• Bouncing, swaying or rocking your baby
• White noise
• Using a pacifier
• Give your baby a warm bath
• Try different holding positions (facing your baby toward your or away from you)

Unfortunately, colic crying may continue even with all the soothing you try. If your baby has colic, don’t hesitate to seek out support from family or friends. Having a baby that cries uncontrollably can be stressful. Allow other trusted caregivers to care for your baby at times so you can get a break. If you need to, it’s okay to place your baby in a safe location (such as their crib) and step away. Let your baby cry while you compose yourself. If possible, give your baby to someone else for a bit. Remember you’re doing the best you can, and your best is more than enough. 

Why is my baby crying in their sleep?

Your baby may cry often in their sleep, especially in the early months of life. Newborns are neurologically and physically immature, so they have limited ability to self-regulate and rely on their caregivers to help them. Here are just a few reasons why babies may cry in their sleep:

Hunger: Initially, your baby crying in their sleep is most likely due to hunger. Newborn babies have very small stomachs and need to be fed every 2 to 3 hours. At 6 months, your baby may be physically ready to sleep through the night without feeding, assuming their weight gain has been steady. Before you drop nighttime feedings, check with your pediatrician to ensure they’re not medically necessary. While sleep is a biological need, habits around sleep also form early on. If your baby has always been fed back to sleep, you may need to support your baby to establish different habits so that they can go to sleep without feeding first.

Sleep cycles: Your baby’s sleep cycle is very different from an adult’s. Newborns spend almost the same amount of time in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, also called “active sleep,” as they do non-REM sleep. This means that during this active sleep phase, your baby may make noises, move or cry out briefly in their sleep. 

Developmental leaps: As your baby grows, you may notice that big developmental leaps, like learning to roll over or sit up, can contribute to periods of sleep disruption, sometimes called “sleep regressions.” Your baby may experience more night wakings, restlessness, and periods of nighttime crying right around the time that they conquer a new skill. 

If you notice your baby is working on a new skill such as crawling or pulling to stand, make sure they get lots of time to practice during the day. Sleep disturbances due to leaps usually resolve on their own within a week or so, until the next one pops up There’s no need to make any changes to your baby’s sleep schedule, but you may want to compensate with a slightly earlier bedtime so your baby doesn’t get too overtired to sleep. 

How to calm a crying baby

It’s so heart-wrenching to hear your baby cry. Parents typically have a strong physiological and emotional response to the sound of their baby’s cry. All you really want to know is how to stop your baby from crying, and quickly. Babies can pick up on your emotions, so trying to stay calm can be a good first step. 

RELATED: 5 co-regulation tips for calming your baby

Every baby is unique, and you’ll learn over time which soothing techniques work best for your baby. They may prefer movement or singing, while another baby finds massage more soothing. Here are some soothing techniques to try when your baby is crying:

Skin-to-skin contact: Feeling your skin, your heartbeat, and the rhythm of your breathing relaxes your baby and makes them feel safe.  Skin-to-skin contact also helps maintain your baby’s body temperature and lowers their levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.

Rocking or other gentle movements: The gentle back-and-forth sway of rocking mimics the motion your baby experienced in the womb. To soothe them, try varying the speed and direction of the movement. Some babies also enjoy gentle bouncing while being held to your chest.

Shushing sounds: Mimicking the constant rhythmic noise that your baby heard in the womb can calm and reassure them. It may also do the same for you. In addition to making shushing sounds with your voice, you can also try white noise from a machine or app.

Walking: Babies sometimes cry because they’re understimulated, too. Try a walk outside–or even around your home–to spark their interest and engage their senses. The motion of walking can help your baby calm down as well. Research has shown that babies’ crying and heart rate decreased somewhat when their mothers sat down and held them, but decreased much more dramatically when the mother walked around while holding them. 

The researchers determined that the babies’ parasympathetic nervous system activity—the part of the nervous system that brings the body back to a state of calm—was higher when they were carried.

Infant massage: Facial caresses are both stimulating and calming for infants. You can stroke your baby’s face as you hold them or while they lie in their crib. Sweet spots tend to be the eyebrows and the area from the eyebrow to the nose.

PODCAST: How and why human touch is important for kids

When to call your doctor about your crying baby

If your baby is crying in a way that is different from their typical cries, or if they won’t stop crying after meeting all their usual needs—feeding, diaper change, sleep—it might be a sign that your baby is sick. Although young babies tend to cry a lot, it’s good to be watchful of signs that may indicate illness along with crying. Signs of illness can include:

• Fever (above 100.4℉) 
• Lethargy or weakness
• A cry that is unusual for your baby
• Drinking or eating less than normal
• Changes in breathing patterns
• Rash

If you see any of these signs in your baby, as well as persistent crying, call your pediatrician. 

The post Crying appeared first on Lovevery.

Before your baby can say many words, pointing is one of the main ways they communicate with you. Your baby may point to indicate what they want, like a yogurt from the fridge, or to show you an object of interest, like an active squirrel. But that adorable little finger holds a lot more power than you may think. Pointing is an important early step in your child’s ability to communicate and, ultimately, use language.

In this article:

• When do babies start pointing?
• Why do babies point?
• Why is pointing important?
• How can I encourage my baby to point?
• Activities to help your baby learn to point
• Developmental concerns with pointing

When do babies start pointing?

Babies generally begin pointing with their index finger between 10 and 15 months. Before your baby develops the ability to point, they may communicate their needs through reaching for things they’re interested in—a favorite toy, the family pet, or you Reaching starts around 4 to 6 months of age, while index finger isolation, the motor aspect of pointing, takes a little additional time to develop. Pointing with the index finger requires similar hand development to the pincer grasp, and often emerges around the same time. 

Although pointing seems simple, it’s a gesture that involves many aspects of development, so it isn’t surprising that some babies point earlier than others. Different babies focus on different skills first—some may master walking before pointing and others may point before they crawl.

Pointing comes along with other baby gestures that may develop around the same time. These can include waving, lifting their arms to be picked up, nodding yes or no, and basic hand gestures like clapping. All this gesturing and pointing is a key part of your baby learning to communicate. 

RELATED: 4 signs toddlers understand language even if they aren’t talking much yet

Why do babies point?

Pointing is a simple gesture that can be used in a wide variety of ways to express various emotions or needs. Child development experts make a distinction between imperative and declarative pointing.

Imperative pointing is when your baby points to something indicating they want it. They’re suggesting that they would like you to reach an item for them. This might happen when your baby points to a banana on the counter they’d like to taste or a toy across the room that they want to use.

Other examples of imperative pointing:

• Pointing to something that is no longer there, like a toy that’s not in its usual spot 
• Pointing to a toy they want on a high shelf

Declarative pointing is when your baby points at an object of interest to show it to you. With this type of pointing, your baby is indicating they’ve seen something interesting and they want you to see it too. This might happen when your baby sees a picture in a book that they recognize, or catches sight of an interesting animal they want you to see too.

Other examples of declarative pointing:

• Pointing to something broken (“Fix it.”)
• Pointing to something exciting (“Look at that doggy!”)

Around 15 to 24 months, your child may begin to use declarative pointing in response to a simple question you ask like, “Where is the moon?” They may point to the actual moon or a picture of the moon in a book.

Explore The Adventurer Play Kit

The Adventurer Play Kit

The Adventurer Play Kit is designed with months 16, 17, and 18 in mind and will help build many skills including emotion awareness, problem solving, language skills, and motor skills.

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Why is pointing important?

Learning to point is an important communication skill. At the age your baby begins pointing, typically 10 to 15 months, they probably aren’t saying many words yet, but this doesn’t mean they aren’t working on language and communication. Your baby’s ability to point illustrates that they understand what you’re saying—a receptive language skill—and they’re trying to communicate their needs to you.

Child development studies have connected pointing with the emergence of language in young children, and it’s easy to see how these two skills might be linked. Once your baby understands the concept of pointing, they can point to items for which they don’t yet know the word and you can label them.

Another reason pointing is important for early communication is that it’s a way of establishing joint attention. When you and your child point and look at something together, that’s an example of holding joint attention: sharing knowledge and information, including new words.  Joint attention is one of the best ways you can help your baby learn to communicate

RELATED: The power of playing together 

How can I encourage my baby to point?

Since pointing plays such a crucial role in social and language development, it’s helpful to encourage your baby to start pointing. As with many skills, modeling how to point is the first step in helping them learn to do it themselves. As your baby grows, you can also encourage them to point during story time, through songs and activities that involve pointing, or while simply going about your daily routine together.

Activities to help your baby learn to point

Model pointing: Even before your baby is able to imitate your pointing, they’re busy observing and processing things in their environment. Model for your child how to point out objects and call them by name. At mealtime, for example, you can point and say, “Here’s your banana! Yum!” 

Offer choices to encourage pointing: During play time, hold up two toys and say, “Look! I have a ball and a book. I wonder which one you want?” Watch to see which option your baby looks at or reaches for. Point and name their choice: “Oh! You picked the book!” 

Point out details during story time: While reading a book to your baby, point out images or illustrations that are interesting. Choose images that are easy to identify like toys, animals, parts of nature, or household items. Label the items clearly as you point: “Look at that dog! He’s so fluffy.” Early on, your baby might not be able to follow your pointing exactly, but they’ll engage more with your pointing and reading as they grow.

Explore The Thinker Play Kit

The Thinker Play Kit

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Take a house tour: House tours, where you bring your baby from room to room pointing at familiar things, labeling them, and even demonstrating how they work (“Press the switch: The light is on”) can encourage them to point and to connect objects with words. 

Go on a walk: As you walk along, point out animals, flowers, parks, or other children. If your child is riding in a stroller, be sure to get down to their eye level when pointing out an object so they can see where your finger is pointing. Over time, your baby will learn to follow your pointing and your gaze to establish joint attention with you, and will start to point out objects of interest they want you to see.

Respond to your baby’s pointing: Perhaps the easiest way to encourage your baby to point is to be responsive: If they point at an object, indicating their interest or need for it, respond. Your reaction helps teach your baby that their pointing is effective, that their attempts at communication are worthwhile, and that you will respond to them. Eventually, you may find that your baby starts pointing more often, knowing that you’ll take notice of their interests and needs. 

PODCAST: Baby’s first words: what to look out for

Pointing and naming body parts 

As your baby begins to understand more language, and becomes aware of their own body, you can start pointing and labeling parts like arms, legs, nose, and toes. Even before your child learns to talk, you can name body parts while you play together.

Sing and point: Songs that use pointing and gestures can be a fun way for your child to pick up pointing while teaching names for different body parts, like the classic “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”

Tickle and label: If your baby enjoys tickling, use the Bright & Light Play Scarf to tickle different parts of your child’s body while labeling each one: “I’m tickling your toes.” Point to each body part to make sure your baby connects each body part with its label.

Mirror play: As your child gets better at identifying body parts, add a mirror to make it extra fun. Play in front of the Framed Mirror with your toddler, saying, “I see you in the mirror!” Point to their nose and other parts of their body in the mirror as you look at it together. See if they will play peekaboo in front of the mirror or kiss their reflection. 

Fine motor activities that encourage pointing

Pointing builds your baby’s communication and joint attention skills—but it’s also a physical skill. In order to point, your baby needs to control and coordinate their finger and arm muscles to form the gesture. Here are some fine motor skill activities that can help foster your baby’s ability to point with their index finger:

Popping bubbles: Nothing fascinates babies quite like bubbles, and letting your baby try to pop bubbles with their finger is a fun way to encourage pointing skills. In addition to the pointing motion, they use motor planning skills to direct their finger to the moving bubble, which adds to the challenge.

Poking dough: Playing with modeling dough or baking dough is another favorite activity that fosters fine motor skills. Poking, squishing, or making shapes with the dough all help strengthen the small finger muscles of your child’s hands, which makes it easier for them to point with their index finger when they’re ready.

Exploring texture books or cards: Exposing your baby to new and different textures can be an engaging way to help them learn to point. Try encouraging your baby’s pointing with the “Things I See” Texture Cards. Point to and name the realistic images on the cards to increase your baby’s exposure to common words, and let your baby explore the textured part of the card with their fingers.

Child development expert Rachel Coley demonstrates how to use the ‘Things I See’ Texture Cards to encourage pointing during playtime in this video from the Lovevery app:

Explore The Inspector Play Kit

The Inspector Play Kit

The Inspector Play Kit exposes your 7 – 8 month old to the world with detailed sensory experiences by exploring texture, practicing nesting and stacking, and learning about object permanence.

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Developmental concerns with pointing

Each child matures according to their own individual developmental path. On average, children learn to point around 10 to 15 months of age. However, your child may vary from these averages somewhat based on their unique trajectory.  

If your baby is not pointing, they may do other actions to indicate items they want. They may use their whole hand to gesture (instead of pointing with one finger) or attempt to bring you to the item they want. If your baby is connected and engaged with caregivers, can imitate in play, and makes an effort to communicate their needs and wants but isn’t pointing with their index finger yet, they may just need more time to work on pointing with their index finger in isolation. 

If you feel that your baby isn’t making efforts to connect and engage with others or communicate their needs and wants, discuss it with your pediatrician sooner rather than later. And if your child isn’t showing signs of pointing by around 18 months of age, bring your concerns to your pediatrician. They can answer your questions, assess your child’s overall development and help determine if they need further evaluation.

The post Pointing appeared first on Lovevery.

As with so many skills, learning to stand is a progression. Your baby will learn to bear weight on their legs first with support, then gradually gain balance and strength until one day, they stand all by themselves. The timeline for when babies learn to stand varies considerably, since it’s the final result of many months of skill-building. But once your baby can stand on their own, walking isn’t far behind—so hold on, you’re about to have a toddler

In this article:

• When do babies start to stand?
• How does my baby learn to stand?
• Building leg strength (newborn to 3 months)
• Bearing weight on legs with support (4 to 7 months)
• Pulling up to stand (7 to 10 months)
• Standing with support (9 to 13 months)
• Standing unassisted (10 to 16 months)
• How can I help my baby learn to stand?
• How long after babies learn to stand do they start walking?
• Developmental delays and standing
• How to keep babies safe while they’re learning to stand

When do babies start to stand?

Your baby will figure out how to pull up to a standing position using furniture or your hands between 7 and 10 months. Once they’re comfortable with pulling up to stand, around 10 months, your baby will begin to test their ability to stand without support for a few seconds at a time. Many babies can stand up unassisted—at least briefly—by around 10 to 16 months of age.  

How does my baby learn to stand?

Your baby learns to stand through a developmental progression that begins at the newborn stage. Every month, your baby gets stronger and better able to move and balance their body weight. This work eventually prepares them to stand up—with support at first, and later independently. Here’s what the progression of skills to standing looks like:

Building leg strength (newborn to 3 months)

Standing may seem a long way off when you look at your tiny newborn. But even now, your baby is slowly building the muscle strength they will need to stand up on their own. 

You may have noticed that when your baby is lying down, they extend their legs and push against whatever is next to them—furniture or your hands. You can use your baby’s natural tendency to push with their legs to help them strengthen their muscles.

Bearing weight on their legs with support (4 to 7 months)

As your baby grows and their muscles strengthen, they will try putting weight on their legs. “Standing”’ in your lap may be one of their favorite activities at this stage, especially when rewarded with hugs and kisses from you  

By the time your baby is 5 to 7 months old, they may be able to bear almost all their weight on their legs and bounce when held in a standing position. Give your baby practice standing on your lap while you hold them—this helps them develop control of their leg muscles.

Pulling up to stand (7 to 10 months)

Around 7 to 10 months, your baby may try pulling up to stand using a table leg, couch, low table, or even your legs. 

Initially, this movement requires a lot of physical strength and coordination since your baby needs to use their arm muscles to pull their body weight up and balance on their feet. As they refine this skill, you may see them use a half kneeling position to pull themselves up, where they kneel on one knee with the other leg bent in front of them, foot flat against the floor. You’ll see them start to pull themselves up to stand using horizontal support surfaces like the couch, and then using vertical surfaces like a wall. 

You can encourage your baby to pull up to stand by offering play activities up off the floor. For instance, set one or two playthings on an ottoman or couch (with or without the cushion, depending on your baby’s height) to support their belly while they use their hands to explore. You can increase the challenge of the activity by holding their favorite plaything up near the wall to encourage them to pull to stand.

Getting into standing is a skill that takes months to refine, with most babies pulling up into a standing position without any support by around 12 to 14 months. Once your child is upright, you may see a lot of gentle bouncing and knee-bending—this helps them get used to being on their feet and builds hip, leg, and core muscles. 

Standing with support (9 to 13 months)

After pulling up to stand, your baby will practice standing with support, usually around 9 to 13 months. They may lean onto a low, flat surface while standing, or keep one or both hands on a support to steady themselves. 

You can help your baby practice balancing on their feet to prepare for standing unsupported and eventually walking:

Turn them around. Offer a toy while you stand right behind them. They’ll need to rotate their body to grasp it, which helps them develop the balance and core strength needed to eventually walk.

Support them from behind. Instead of having your baby face a wall or soft piece of furniture, try placing them with their back to the support. This gets them used to the feeling of having nothing in front of them while still having something to lean on. As you stand in front of them, offer their favorite playthings to encourage reaching and briefly lifting their back off the couch, leading to moments of unassisted standing.

Stand away from surfaces. Sit your baby on the floor away from a supportive surface and offer a toy above their eye level, like the Stainless Steel Jingle Keys. Hold your baby’s hand and let them pull themselves up into standing to grab the toy overhead. This gives your baby a new kind of balancing practice with less stabilizing support than they would get by holding onto a table or couch.

Change your support. You can progress your baby’s standing balance by simply changing how you support them with your hands. As they get more stable in supported standing, slowly reduce the amount of support you provide by moving your hands lower on your baby’s body. Try singing or talking to your baby while you are holding their hands in standing, then move your hands down to their tummy for support, then hips, and lastly at their legs. The lower your supportive hands are, the more you’re challenging your baby’s standing balance and strength.

Standing unassisted (10 to 16 months)

Once your baby may has gotten the hang of standing while using a support like furniture or your leg, they may start experimenting with letting go of their support and standing on their own for a few seconds at a time, somewhere around 11 months of age. 

Notice how your baby works hard to balance as they try to remain standing without holding onto anything. At first your baby may only try standing on their own for a few seconds. Be prepared for a few little falls as your baby is practicing standing without support, and stay close. Your baby is making progress toward becoming a walker.

Standing postures

During the first few years of your child’s life, you’ll likely notice a natural progression of standing postures as your little one develops from a curled-up newborn to a toddler on the move. 

Your baby’s flexed positioning in the womb and at birth matures slowly into an upright posture through the development of early childhood motor skills like standing and walking. As a newborn, most babies are born with bow-leggedness (which experts call genu-varum) that gradually straightens out around 1 to 2 years of age, then develops into a knock kneed (called genu-valgum) position around 2 to 3.5 years of age. In fact, your child’s stance won’t fully develop into a mature, adult-like position (known as straight to mild genu-valgum) until around age 6 or 7.

How can I help my baby learn to stand?

To encourage your baby to stand, give them plenty of practice with standing play, which helps them develop the strength and balance they’ll need for walking. 

Create opportunities for standing play by moving objects and activities off the floor and onto sturdy low furniture, such as couches, chairs, and tables. If your sofa has removable cushions, you can take them off so your baby can pull up to stand on the frame of the couch.

Activities to encourage your baby to stand:

• Place favorite toys on a low table or couch to give your baby an incentive to pull up to a standing position.
• Secure the Framed Mirror on your wall to encourage your baby to look at themselves while standing.
• Have your baby sit on a small stool and hold one or two hands as they practice transitioning from sitting to standing, a simple leg strengthening exercise.
• Tape the Magic Tissues along your wall to encourage your baby to stand and pull them down; babies love pulling sticky notes off of surfaces.
• Try placing the Treasure Basket on the floor and the Wood Ball Set on the couch or ottoman. Model transferring the balls to the basket and back up again to promote squatting and standing, helping to develop the muscles and skills they’ll eventually use to walk.

Please supervise your baby at all times during these activities to ensure they do not mouth stickers and sticky notes. Small items like these could become choking hazards, so put them safely away when play is done.

When baby gets stuck standing up

Babies learn to pull themselves up into standing before they learn how to get down from standing without falling Sitting from a standing position requires leg strength and coordination, and pulling up to stand may be easier for your baby to learn than lowering back down, which babies usually figure out sometime between 9 and 11 months.

Getting down from standing is more challenging than pulling up because it requires learning to hold on to a support surface while lowering their body with control. As your baby gains practice and coordination with lowering themselves down from standing, they’re also strengthening their leg and core muscles in preparation for walking.

If your baby hasn’t quite learned how to sit back down after pulling up to stand, you can help them get unstuck. Lovevery Pediatric Occupational Therapist Rachel Coley shares these tips to teach your baby how to start learning to get out of a standing position on their own: 

Encourage “standing to sitting” play. Sit cross-legged in front of a low surface like a coffee table or sofa with the cushions removed. Place a toy on the table or sofa to entice your baby to pull up to stand. Once they’ve been standing for a minute or two, gently guide their hips down into your lap, so they get used to the motion and feeling of sitting down. Try to offer as little support as you can—they’ll mostly need help with balance. 

Practice mini-squats. When your baby is already standing and holding onto a surface, offer them a toy or an inviting object at thigh or knee level, just below their reach. This encourages them to do a “mini-squat:” holding on with one hand, they bend their knees and lower themselves just enough to grasp the object. Use playthings and activities with built-in repetition, like placing multiple objects into a container. Doing “reps” up and down helps them build strength.

Offer opportunities for full-squat play. Once your baby can do mini-squats more easily, start offering toys at floor level. For balance and support, make sure they’re standing at a stable surface that’s easy for them to grip.

How long after babies learn to stand do they start walking?

Learning to stand is a significant step on your baby’s path toward walking. Each baby is unique, and some learn to walk soon after standing while others take a bit longer. Research suggests that on average babies tend to walk about 2 to 2.5 months after they learn to stand unsupported. Remember, there’s no rush—your child builds skills gradually as their muscles and balance improve. 

To support your child’s transition from standing to walking, try these activities:

Standing play. Place toys, board books, and other high-interest items on a surface just high enough for your baby to reach once they’ve pulled into a standing position. Couches (with the seat cushions removed if possible), ottomans, and sturdy low tables work well for this.

“Squat to stand” play. Sit on the floor with your baby on your lap, just in front of a low surface they can pull up on, such as a coffee table. Help guide their hips into a standing position, then help them back down. This can teach your baby how it feels to go up and then down again, which may strengthen the muscles they’ll use for walking.

Kneeling play. Try encouraging a “tall kneel” in front of a low surface. A tall kneel means kneeling with your baby’s bottom lifted off their heels. Playing in this position can work your baby’s core muscles and can help them practice balancing. Offer a fun toy on a nearby surface and help your baby reach for it while lifting their bottom off of their knees.

RELATED: Standing play helps develop pre-walking skills

Developmental delays and standing

Each child’s developmental path is unique and there is a wide range of when milestones like standing can develop. If your baby isn’t bearing weight on their legs by the time they are 12 months old or if they are showing signs of any muscle weakness, consult your pediatrician. They can answer any questions, assess your baby’s developmental path, and recommend a physical or occupational therapist if needed. You may also reach out to your state’s early intervention program to see if your baby is eligible for services.

How to keep your baby safe while they’re learning to stand

While your baby is learning to stand, it’s important to stay close by even if they seem fairly stable while standing. Babies who haven’t yet learned to walk can still be wobbly on their feet. 

Your baby’s protective reflexes are also just developing at this age. The instinct to hold out their arms to brace for a fall, also known as the parachute reaction, typically develops when babies are about 8 to 9 months old. This means that if they tip over after pulling up to stand, they may not have the instinct to hold out their arms to brace their fall. So it’s always a good idea to stay near your baby while they’re standing or hold their hand so you can support them if they fall.

Once your baby begins to stand, walking isn’t far off—so prepare your home now for a baby that’s on the move. Here are a few safety precautions to consider once your baby is standing:

• Ensure that any furniture your baby may use for pulling up (couch, bookshelves, chairs) are weighted or secured to the wall so they cannot pull furniture over onto themselves.
• Only allow your baby to stand on safe surfaces like the floor or ground, not any elevated surfaces.
• Clear the floor of any stepping hazards that your baby might step on—small toys, sharp objects, slippery surfaces.
• Use baby gates to block off stairs.
• Cover sharp corners (like coffee tables or fireplace hearths) so your baby cannot get injured while standing.

The post Standing appeared first on Lovevery.

Learning to sit independently gives your baby a whole new perspective on their world, which up until now they’ve mostly viewed from your arms Once your baby learns to sit up on their own, they can use their hands to explore playthings, foods, and objects within reach. Learn what pediatric physical therapists and child development experts recommend—and discourage—as your child explores this skill.  

In this article:

• When do babies sit up? 
• How do I know when my baby is ready to sit up?
• How can I help my baby sit up?
• Sitting stages and progression by age
• Sitting with support (4 to 5 months)
• Prop sitting or tripod sitting (4 to 6 months)
• Wobbly sitting (5 to 7 months)
• Independent sitting (6 to 8 months)
• Functional sitting (7 to 11 months)
• How can I help my baby get in and out of a sitting position by themselves?
• Troubleshooting with sitting: folding forward or flinging backward
• What is W-sitting?
• Developmental concerns with sitting
• Safety considerations for sitting babies 

When do babies sit up? 

Your baby may begin trying to sit up, leaning on their hands for support, around 4 to 6 months of age. By around 5 to 9 months, your baby may be able to sit up on their own briefly before needing help. 

Like all developmental milestones, sitting is a progressive skill. As your baby gets stronger and learns to balance their weight, they’ll be able to sit for longer. Most babies can sit independently for several minutes by about 6 to 9 months of age and get into a sitting position by themselves by 9 months. 

Child development expert Rachel Coley explains when babies learn to sit up, and the skills your baby develops on the way to sitting:

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Sitting is a skill that babies work on across a wide range of ages. Keep in mind that developmental milestones are based on averages, and every baby develops on their own unique timeline.

How do I know when my baby is ready to sit up?

Babies learn to sit up in stages as their muscles strengthen and their balance improves. In order to sit up, your baby first needs to develop head and neck control, as well as core and upper body strength—so give them lots of time playing on the floor to build a solid foundation for sitting. Tummy time, side-lying play, and playing on their back all help your baby build the motor skills and muscle strength they need for sitting up.

One prerequisite skill for sitting is head control. To sit without support, your baby needs to be able to maintain their head upright without bobbing, and easily turn their head in both directions. 

More signs that suggest your baby is almost ready for independent sitting include:

• Bearing their weight on straight arms during tummy time, with their hands on the floor
• Grabbing their feet while lying on their back
• Rolling in both directions

Tripod sitting

A clear sign that your baby is getting ready to sit up independently is when they begin sitting in a tripod position, usually around 4 to 6 months of age. In a tripod sitting position—also called “prop sitting”—your baby sits upright while leaning forward on their hands for support. Pushing through extended arms is a skill your baby can practice during tummy time that will help them support their weight while tripod sitting.

When your baby first tries tripod sitting, they may seem a little wobbly—and that’s okay. Wobbling a bit is an important part of developing balance while seated. Tripod sitting helps your baby practice their balance with support from their hands.

You can offer light support by putting your hands on your baby’s torso to help them remain stable and prevent them from toppling over—their protective reflex to prevent falling hasn’t quite developed yet. Hold a favorite plaything in front of your baby at chest or eye level while they’re seated to determine the best way to offer support: Do they need your hands at their upper rib cage, their lower rib cage, or down at their hips to keep from falling over? 

Progressing from tripod sitting 

Once your baby can maintain the tripod sitting position for at least 30 seconds, you may begin to see these signs of progression in their sitting skills:

• Your baby’s hands may slowly move closer to their body, changing their base of support as they get stronger.
• Your baby will briefly lift their hand to reach for a toy in front of them.
• Your little one may wiggle their body and dance while sitting

As they practice the skill of reaching while sitting, offer toys that can be grasped with one hand, like the Spinning Rainbow or Magic Tissue Box (both from The Senser Play Kit). You can also wrap a nursing pillow around their front, which encourages a more upright position with arm support.

How can I help my baby sit up?

You can help your baby prepare for sitting with activities that strengthen their muscles, build head and neck control, and let them practice movement and balance. Floor time, tummy time, supported sitting practice, and limited time spent in baby seats can all help your baby learn to sit up independently.

Floor time

Give your baby plenty of time to play on the floor in a variety of positions. Floor time allows your baby to explore and learn how their body moves. This freedom of movement can help your baby develop:

• Body awareness: An understanding of the position and movement of their body, also known as proprioception
• Spatial awareness: Knowledge about how their body interacts with the world around them, and where they are in relation to objects and other people
• Balance: Control of body stability using core strength and trial-and-error experience.
• Cause and effect: Discovering the effects of their body’s movement through every kick and reach.

Try to give your baby supervised floor time throughout the day with an exploration toy like The Play Gym, the Tummy Time Wobbler, or the Rolling Bell. Brief floor time sessions several times a day can lay the foundation for many skills to come.

Tummy time

Tummy time is helpful for so many aspects of your baby’s motor development, including sitting up. Daily sessions of tummy time can help strengthen your baby’s neck, shoulder and arm muscles, all of which they eventually use to sit upright on their own. Research shows that babies who get routine tummy time sessions may develop certain motor skills earlier, including rolling, crawling, and sitting up. 

Surrounding your baby with a few fun playthings during tummy time is a great way to inspire pivoting as they play on their tummy, which can build core strength and body coordination. Place your baby on a mat on their tummy, then arrange the Spinning Rainbow, Tummy Time Wobbler, and Organic Cotton Rainbow Ball (all from The Senser Play Kit) in a semi-circle around them. Let your baby move freely from one plaything to the next. 

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Supported sitting

As your baby’s core muscles get stronger, giving them opportunities to sit with support will help build their strength, body control, balance, and confidence—all of which will eventually help them to sit up independently.  

Supporting your baby while they practice sitting can take many different forms—here are a few examples of what supported sitting can look like: 

• Sitting behind your baby with a leg on each side as you explore a book together
• Protecting them from a hard tumble by surrounding them with a nursing pillow or throw cushions
• Placing them in the corner of a couch where the back meets an armrest
• Putting them in a laundry basket surrounded by pillows.
• Putting a couch cushion in front of them so that they can prop-sit with their arms on a higher surface

In all these scenarios, it’s good to let your baby wobble—a little. Research shows that wobbling offers important feedback for a baby learning to sit independently. Just be aware that your baby hasn’t mastered protective reactions yet, so they won’t be able to catch themselves when they tumble during sitting practice. This is why you’ll want to stay close, and create a safe landing area away from hard surfaces and onto something soft. Remember never to leave your baby unsupervised with blankets or pillows.

Limited time in baby seats

While baby seats can be convenient, they don’t help babies learn how to sit up. In fact, some seats put your baby in an unnatural sitting position, causing them to round their back, and making it harder for them to engage their core muscles.

If used too often, baby seats can actually get in the way of your baby learning to sit up. Baby seats also don’t allow for the natural movements that occur during sitting, like transitioning to a side-sitting position to grab a toy outside of their reach. This is why pediatric physical therapists recommend minimizing the use of baby sitting devices that don’t give babies opportunities to learn balance through wobbling.

It’s best that your baby spend as much time as possible unrestricted by confining gear like baby seats. If your baby does use a baby seat or activity seat, try to limit seat time to 20 minutes or less per session.

There are many baby seat products on the market, but unfortunately, their design is not always supported by research or best practices for your baby’s development and physical needs. Baby seats are considered a type of container that can be used to free up your hands while your baby is safely in one spot, but aren’t essential for your baby’s sitting development. If you decide to use a baby seat in your home, consider the following:

• Upright posture: Your baby’s back should be upright and not rounded. 
• Hip positioning: Your baby’s hips should have plenty of room to spread and fall to the side in a “ring” position. Some seats restrict movement and keep a baby’s legs in a narrow position, which is not optimal for healthy hip development. 
• Body positioning: Your baby should sit with their weight distributed equally between their hips, without leaning to either side.

Sitting stages and progression by age

You can help your baby prepare for sitting with activities that strengthen their muscles, build head and neck control, and let them practice movement and balance.

Sitting with support (4 to 5 months)

At first, your baby will need plenty of support from you while sitting. Place them in your lap or on the floor in front of you with your hands holding their ribcage.

As your baby becomes more stable, you can gradually offer less support. Place your hands slightly lower on their trunk and hold them a little less tightly. Offer them a variety of toys to grasp, mouth, and play with in this supported seated position.

Prop sitting or tripod sitting (4 to 6 months)

When your baby uses their hands to balance, they’re “prop sitting” or tripod sitting. Offer them toys to look at rather than grasp at first, since they need both of their hands for support in this position. Hold the toy in front of their face, moving it from side to side so your baby looks up and around while sitting. Place a baby-safe mirror like the Framed Mirror in front of your baby to encourage them to lift their head in this position.

If you notice your baby folding forward in this sitting position, wrap a nursing pillow around their front, or put a couch cushion in front of them to encourage a more upright position while pushing through their arms. 

Once they start to lift one hand while seated, using their other hand to stay balanced, give them simple grasping toys.  

Wobbly sitting (5 to 7 months)

When your baby first begins to sit up on their own, they may be wobbly—and that’s okay. Wobbling is the primary way your baby figures out how to balance without using their hands. 

New and wobbly sitters typically have a brief period of keeping their arms in a “high guard” or field-goal position while they work on maintaining their balance in this new way of sitting.. You’ll need to spot them during this stage, as they haven’t yet developed protective instincts to counter a fall. For safer wobbling, you can sit behind them with your legs in a V, using your arms and legs as a boundary.

Try the following to support this stage, always remaining at arm’s reach:

• Wrap a nursing pillow behind your baby’s hips and back to offer low, gentle support—and a soft spot to tumble when they tip over
• Put them in an empty laundry basket with throw pillows on all sides. 
• Offer playthings to your baby at their chest level to keep their center of gravity low, like the Spinning Rainbow or Magic Tissue Box from The Senser Play Kit. 

Remember never to leave your baby unsupervised with pillows or blankets.

Independent sitting (6 to 8 months)

Your baby is considered an independent sitter once they can sit unsupported for at least 30 seconds. Once they’re stable in an unsupported sitting position, you can offer them new way to build their skills. Place toys around your baby to encourage them to turn their head, twist their torso, and reach in different directions while maintaining their balance. Offer small and large toys to practice transferring objects between hands and lifting with both hands—both will challenge your baby’s sitting balance. 

Supervising your baby closely, try suspending toys above them—from The Play Gym or tucked between couch cushions—so they need to reach up and grab them. You can also place toys on the floor at a diagonal, just barely out of reach. This encourages your baby to reach with one arm and then return to an upright position, a great core strengthening activity.

Once your baby becomes confident sitting independently with their legs in a “ring” or circular position, you may see them exploring a new movement, called side sitting. Side sitting is when your baby has one knee bent in front and the other one knee bent behind. This position is important for transitions, because it makes it easier for your baby to get out of sitting onto their tummy to prepare for crawling.

Functional sitting (7 to 11 months)

Functional sitting means your baby can transition on their own from their belly or from crawling into a sitting position, and back down again. Most babies can get into a sitting position from the floor by themselves by 9 months of age. Offer toys, books, and other playthings spread out around the room to encourage their exploration and to keep practicing those transitions.

How can I help my baby get in and out of a sitting position by themselves?

Getting out of a sitting position

Babies get themselves out of a sitting position and onto the floor by supporting their upper body with their hands and slowly walking their hands forward until they’re on their tummy. This transition takes upper body and core strength to control their slow descent to the floor. 

To help your baby practice this movement, place toys just out of their reach that encourage them to support themselves with one arm and reach with the other. Your baby might also move their legs from a ring position to a side-sit position, since this change in leg position makes it easier to balance while getting a better reach. 

While your baby is learning how to control their body’s movement down to the floor, you may want to place a folded blanket in front of them or use a padded mat to cushion any falls.

Getting into a sitting position

For your baby, getting into a sitting position is more challenging than getting out of sitting, partly because the movement itself is more complex, and partly because they’re moving against the pull of gravity. 

There are two common ways babies make this transition: from tummy to sit, and from back to sit. 

Tummy to sit: Babies get into sitting from their tummy by rotating their hips, lifting one hip off the floor, and walking their arms back to bring their body into sitting. If you see your baby rotating and lifting their hip, help them along by guiding their lifted hip to the floor and support under their opposite armpit as needed.

Back to sit: Babies get into sitting from their back by rolling to their side and pushing their body up with their hands, bringing their top hip down to the floor. It may feel instinctive to hold your baby’s hands to help them pull up into sitting as you did when working on their head control; instead, you will want to help them push through their arms rather than pulling, which teaches them how to do this on their own. To practice this movement, roll your baby to his side, lift under their lower armpit and gently pull their top hip down to the floor. Once your baby has sufficient head control, you can practice this movement each time you pick your baby up from the floor or after every diaper change.

Your baby may find one movement pattern that they’re strongest in and stick to it, while slowly developing the other. It’s not expected that your baby would learn both of these patterns at the same time, so there’s no need to worry if one pattern is stronger than the other. Most babies learn how to get into a sitting position from the floor by 9 months of age. 

Troubleshooting with sitting: folding forward or flinging backward

Learning to sit in an upright position requires your baby to balance the effort of their core and back muscles. Some babies fold forward while sitting, while some fling their body backward, both of which limit their ability to play and learn while sitting. Either way, you’ll want to stay close to them for support.

If you notice your baby folding forward while sitting, wrap a nursing pillow around their front or place a removed couch cushion in front of them to push up from. Place their favorite toys at or above their chest height to encourage a more upright posture. 

If you notice your baby flinging backward while sitting, they are likely overpowering their sitting with their back muscles. You’ll want to include activities that engage a downward gaze and forward reaching, so place their favorite toys below their chest height—ideally toys that can’t easily be picked up, such as the Spinning Rainbow or Magic Tissue Box (from The Senser Play Kit). Set up pillows behind them, but not touching them, and support them by their legs instead of supporting their back.

RELATED: Supporting your new little sitter

What is W-sitting?

Once your baby learns to sit unsupported, you may sometimes see them use a W-sitting position. This is when your child sits with their bottom on the floor, their knees forward, and their feet pointing back and legs to the sides. Looking at your child from above, their legs form a W shape. 

It’s not uncommon for babies and toddlers to use the W-sitting position. For many children it provides a comfortable sitting position for the following reasons:

• Stability: W-sitting gives babies a wide, stable base of support, which allows more precise fine motor control.
• Transition: W-sitting provides a quick, easy transition from crawling that doesn’t require torso rotation, a complex motor skill.
• Flexibility: Children can comfortably sit in this position, so it’s more available to them than it is to most adults.

Is W-sitting bad?

Overall, research doesn’t support the notion that W-sitting is inherently detrimental to children’s development. Some children have an increased twist in their thigh bone (called internal femoral torsion) which allows them to W-sit very easily. This twist usually disappears without intervention as children grow. Research shows that the W-sitting position does not contribute to a greater chance of hip dysplasia.

If your baby uses a W-sitting position occasionally, along with other sitting positions, it is generally not a cause for concern. Reach out to your pediatrician about consistent w-sitting if your baby:

• Doesn’t sit well or for long in other positions, like with legs criss-crossed in front of them or legs extended straight
• Has known orthopedic issues like hip dysplasia
• Has been identified as having low muscle tone or gross motor delays

Developmental concerns with sitting

Babies develop at different rates for a variety of reasons, including genetics, temperament, experience with different skills, and many other factors. Research from a variety of countries around the world shows that most babies learn to sit up unassisted by 9 months of age. If your baby reaches 9 months of age and is not yet sitting up, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends reaching out to your pediatrician.

If your baby shows other signs of muscle weakness, or prefers to use only one side of their body, this should also be discussed with your pediatrician. They can assess your baby’s developmental path and recommend a physical or occupational therapist if needed. You may also reach out to your state’s early intervention program to see if your baby is eligible for services.  

Safety considerations for sitting babies

Once your baby has mastered sitting up unassisted, greater mobility is just around the corner. To prepare for having a baby on the move in your home, think about these safety measures:

Lower your baby’s crib mattress. Now that your baby can sit upright, they may soon begin pulling up using the crib rail. Keeping the mattress low helps prevent accidental falls.

Never leave your baby sitting unsupervised on a raised surface such as a countertop or bed. Even if your baby has strong sitting skills, they can still fall easily from a high surface.

Stay close. As your baby builds sitting stability, be sure to surround them with pillows or a soft surface, and stay close in case they wobble or fall.

Keep your baby secure. If you use a high chair or baby seat, use the safety straps to secure your baby. 

Start babyproofing, if you haven’t already. Now is a good time to look around your home for potential hazards such as chemicals, loose strings from window coverings, electrical outlets, and stairs. Secure any items that are unsafe and install baby gates and outlet covers.

RELATED: Why and how to babyproof early

The post Sitting appeared first on Lovevery.

There’s nothing better than the sound of your baby’s giggles. Laughter is an early form of communication, a moment of connection and social bonding that brings you and your baby closer. Once you hear that first irresistible laugh, you’ll want to hear it again and again. Learn how to encourage giggles, when to expect the first big belly laugh, and how your child’s sense of humor develops.

In this article:

• When do babies start laughing and giggling? 
• When do babies become ticklish? 
• How can I encourage my baby to laugh? 
• Why is my baby laughing in their sleep?
• Why is my baby not laughing?
• How does my child’s sense of humor develop?

When do babies start laughing and giggling? 

Your baby will likely giggle for the first time somewhere between 3 and 4 months of age. Laughing happens when babies combine a vocalization with a social smile. Your baby’s first laugh may be short and quiet. But over time, it will develop into full belly laughter

At first, it won’t be something funny that causes your baby to laugh—they don’t experience humor the way adults do. Instead, they’ll giggle because of something new or unexpected, or in reaction to you. 

When do babies become ticklish?

By around 6 months of age, your baby will respond to tickles with giggles and laughter.

As young as 4 months, their sense of touch is sensitive enough to identify when someone touches their foot or their belly, but they may not react as though they’re being tickled. Why doesn’t a 4-month-old show signs of being ticklish, even though they’re aware of a light, tickling touch? It may be because young babies have a limited visual understanding of their own bodies. They can feel their body being touched but may not be able to link that sensation to who or what is touching them. 

Being tickled isn’t just a sensory experience—it’s a form of social interaction, too. Your baby needs enough social awareness to understand the nonverbal cues that come with tickling, such as smiling, laughing, anticipation, and eye contact. They also have to learn how to connect the physical sensation with the person doing the tickling. So while your 4-month-old can feel your foot stroke or belly rub, they simply haven’t pieced together all the sensory components to giggle at a tickle…yet.

How can I encourage my baby to laugh?

To encourage that first giggle, try playing peekaboo. When your baby is very young, they don’t understand that you’re still there when they can’t see you. So when you hide your face and reveal it again, they’re delighted by the surprise. Making funny faces while looking in a mirror together might also make them laugh. 

When it comes to getting laughs from your baby, physical touch is especially effective. Try rubbing noses or kissing their belly, back, or neck. Funny sounds, like laughing, blowing raspberries, fake sneezes, and silly songs can also be a winning combination. Babies may also giggle at anticipation games, like “walking” your fingers up their belly while you gaze into their eyes. Follow this with a playful surprise, like a funny sound or face—pause to wait for their response. 

The key to getting laughs is to make eye contact and connect with your baby in fun, gentle ways. Always gauge their reaction while you play. If they become fussy, look away, or start to hiccup, it’s time to take a break. With a little experimentation, you’ll discover what your baby likes.

Why is my baby laughing in their sleep?

If you’ve seen your baby laughing in their sleep, you can probably tell it’s not a social laugh but more of an involuntary action. Researchers aren’t completely certain why babies sometimes laugh in their sleep, but it may be related to their sleep cycle. 

Like adults, newborns and older babies experience cycles of active sleep—also called Rapid Eye Movement or REM sleep—and quiet sleep, which is also called Non-Rapid Eye Movement or NREM sleep. But your baby can still move their muscles during REM sleep, while an adult can’t. Scientists suggest this may be why babies can laugh, smile, or twitch during their sleep.

Why is my baby not laughing?

Your baby may laugh easily, or not so easily, depending on their personal characteristics. Every baby has their own unique personality and temperament. 

If your baby is not yet laughing at 4 or 5 months of age, look for other signs of interaction. Do they vocalize and connect with you in other ways? Do they smile, initiate eye contact, and seem to enjoy playing with you? If so, there’s likely no cause for concern. Keep engaging in back-and-forth “conversations,” imitate your baby’s sounds and expressions, and enjoy lots of face-to-face time.

If your baby hasn’t laughed by 9 months of age, experts suggest talking with your pediatrician. 

How does my child’s sense of humor develop?

Laughing is an early sign of your baby’s developing communication and social skills. As they mature, you’ll begin to see more socially playful interactions—this is how you know they’re starting to develop their sense of humor  

By about 8 to 12 months of age, your baby may start their own game of peekaboo or even repeat something that made you or another person laugh. Your willingness to be silly and playful with them encourages their budding sense of humor. So when you find something that makes them laugh, do it again and again—babies love repetition.

Starting between 12 and 18 months, your toddler may begin to notice what is normal and what is unexpected or out of the ordinary, and find humor in contradictions. You can encourage their laughter by doing something silly. For example, pretend to drink from their bottle or cup, or try to balance a ball on your head and let it fall. 

As your child gets older, what they find funny changes along with their growing understanding of the world. Their sense of humor gives you a peek into the ideas they understand. For example, in toddlerhood, your child begins to know that many items have a certain place or use, and they often find “out of place” things funny. For example, they know that mittens go on your hands and socks on your feet. If you try to put a mitten on your foot or one of their shoes on their head, your toddler will probably find it hilarious. Later, as their language skills develop, your child will start to see the humor in wordplay or puns.

RELATED: Your toddler’s on top of the world when they make you laugh

Humor may support an important aspect of brain development because it engages both sides of the brain. The left side lights up when your child thinks of jokes, while the right side of their brain is activated by the social-emotional response to humor—laughing and appreciating the joke. 

Neuroscientists believe that hearing another person laugh triggers mirror neurons that make the listener feel like they’re laughing themselves. When you see a person laugh, mirror neurons fire that prompt you to imitate that action yourself. This is why laughter is contagious These same mirror neurons are the ones that prompt you to show empathy toward someone. Laughing together with your child may help their brain “practice” this empathy.

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