1 year old child: his psychomotor development
The 12-month period is perhaps the richest in emotions and milestones because it is precisely in this period that the child begins to take his first steps and say his first words.
In this article you will be able to discover all the stages that a 1-year-old baby reaches in his psychomotor development path.
What is psychomotor development?
Psychomotor development represents the child's global growth process. This means that it will include different areas:
- Motor and postural development;
- Socio-emotional development;
- The development of language and communication;
- Cognitive development.
Every child is different and has his own pace, but it is possible to identify some skills that are achieved by the newborn depending on his age.
In this article we will look in detail at those that are acquired by the 12 month old baby .
Motor development
The 1-year-old child, if we have supported his motor development in the best way, should have reached several motor milestones in this period:
- Holds onto furniture/sofa and gets up;
- He remains standing, holding on to the furniture;
- It moves laterally on the furniture;
- Stands alone without support;
- He can begin to take his first steps towards the coveted goal of independent walking.
It will be around the year that he will approach or even reach the goal of independent walking!
In fact, he will be ready to abandon the safe harbor offered by our hands. Initially, the steps will be short, hasty and irregular because the child has difficulty maintaining the balance of the whole body only on one leg while the other moves forward.
How to promote independent walking?
First of all, to encourage walking it is important not to rush the stages. In fact, the moment in which the child will be ready to attempt his first steps forward will come when he has acquired enough experience in moving sideways by holding on to furniture, and will feel safe and stable enough to detach one, or even two hands from the support.
One strategy to help the walking process is to kneel in front of the child, offering him our hands as a point of support. We keep our hands at the height of the child's chest and quite close to him. Slowly, we move backwards as the child takes his small steps forward.
Another way is to position ourselves behind the child, offering him the support of our hands at eye level, so that he can keep his arms stretched out in front or slightly bent at the elbow. We gently follow his movement as he proceeds.
First steps games
When the little one begins to stand, we often immediately turn to purchasing walkers or strollers for the first steps.
However, while these devices are supposed to facilitate learning to walk independently, they may actually have the opposite effect, delaying the process. For example, walkers have been shown to be extremely risky and can negatively impact a child's posture and ability to walk. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics has called for a complete ban on walkers in the United States.
As for the baby walker, it is essential to introduce it only when the child is able to maintain balance, otherwise the risk is that the little one will chase it with uncertain and hurried steps.
Childproof house
The achievement of new stages that allow the child to move freely also leads him to discover the surrounding world with new eyes and a renewed interest in everyday objects such as chairs, lamps and drawers. Precisely for this reason it is important to consider that from now on also risks emerge, since the child does not yet have the ability to discern what is dangerous.
This phase requires parents to make the home environment safe for the child , without limiting their autonomous exploration. Furthermore, it is the adult's task to offer the child a place suitable for free motor skills, based on a relationship founded on safety and emotional support, in line with the Montessori philosophy.
In the video course “ Safe Sleep and Baby Safety at Home ” you will discover how to make your home completely safe to avoid domestic accidents.
Cognitive development of the 1 year old child
As we have seen in the development of the period 7-9 months, in this period the understanding of the concept of object permanence began. Now this is very clear to the child who can also find the toys if we hide them in a box or under the blanket.
The watchword of this period is experimentation . In fact, toys are thrown, banged, studied, shaken to discover the consequences of such action.
In particular, the production of sounds is something that attracts a 12-month-old baby a lot. So, try to make him experiment with different sounds by creating maracas with different materials.
Furthermore, during this period, the terms understood by the child have increased and he is able to understand the name of objects by paying attention when we name them.