6 month old baby: his psychomotor development
Your puppy is no longer a newborn, but a small child. In fact, he has grown a lot and has acquired many skills in the last period. Every day he conquers more and more stages of psychomotor development and seeing him grow at his best is a joy and a great satisfaction for the parents.
In this article you will be able to discover in detail the psychomotor development of the 6-month-old baby to understand the stages he reaches at this age. In addition, I will explain the warning signs to pay attention to in order to immediately discover a delay in development.
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 see in detail those that are acquired in the 6 month old baby.
Motor development
The 6-month-old baby now loves spending time on his tummy during Tummy Time and can support himself perfectly in the prone position, extending his elbows and resting his palms.
During the previous month, he should have learned to roll easily from lying on his back to his stomach and back again, as well as to roll over in a tummy position to reach objects on his sides. If he hasn't already, he'll likely acquire these skills this month.
In addition to the rolling and pivoting phase, crawling may begin in the sixth month. In fact, this stage involves approximately 25-45% of children who have had sufficient experience in the prone position during the 6 months.
However, not all babies necessarily go through this stage, some go straight to crawling, despite the Tummy Time practiced in the previous months.
How to encourage crawling?
First of all, to encourage crawling it is essential to avoid having the baby sit for too long and to make sure that he wears comfortable clothes.
Furthermore, it is crucial to continue practicing Tummy Time regularly, as it has been scientifically proven to help the newborn reach important motor milestones, or stages, from birth.
To encourage crawling, we can place the toys in front of the baby, at a certain distance, instead of laterally as previously to encourage his rotation. Curiosity and the desire to reach the toys will push him to move towards them, taking his first steps forward.
Another effective strategy to promote crawling (if the baby has not yet started crawling) is to slightly bend one or both of his legs forward and hold them in this position. This encourages the contact of the baby's thighs and knees with the floor, thus encouraging forward movement through the push of the legs.
However, not all babies necessarily go through this stage, some go straight to crawling , despite the Tummy Time practiced in the previous months.
Don't abuse the sitting position
Usually, around 6 months, we start to let the little one taste something by having him sit at the table with company.
Here, this should be the only time dedicated to sitting. In fact, the muscle tone that children have at about six months is almost always sufficient to start complementary feeding and keep the child sitting in the high chair for those 20-30 convivial minutes of the meal. However, the child struggles to remain seated without support and, if we place him sitting alone on the mat, he tends to strongly arch his back forward or fall sideways, proving that he is not ready for this position.
If overused, the sitting position limits (and blocks) the development of muscle tone in the arms, torso, legs and the coordination necessary to correctly continue our motor development path.
In my video course “ From Zero to Hero ” you will discover how to best promote the motor development of your little one with the right activities from birth until independent walking.