Developmental Factors
Your little girl is growing by leaps and bounds during her first year. Every day she surprises you with something brand-new she has learned, often more than one thing. Your heart almost bursts with joy as you observe her curiosity about all kinds of new things. You hardly dare blink for fear you'll miss something. In fact, when you consider just how much she will develop during the next twelve months, you feel like just placing her on a blanket on the floor, watching her all day long, and letting a camera record every little detail.
As you soak up your daughter's quick advancement, you want to be attuned to the four main areas that are the most noticeable.
Essential
The best advice for any parent is to be alert, aware, and proactive. Whenever a new possible threat to a child is mentioned in the media, take the warning seriously. For example, examine your little girl's crib now. Several brands have recently been found to be unsafe (check for recalls on the Internet). Also look at the crib at your baby's caretaker's place, if your child spends nap/sleep time away from home.
Ability to Move Around
Around the age of six months, your baby girl can lift up her head and roll over. She can sit up if you support her back, bounce, and begin to put some weight on her legs.
Six months later, your little girl can crawl, perhaps pull herself up to a sitting then standing position, and take a step. After another half year has passed, she can walk, pick up a toy she dropped, and proceed up some steps if you hold her hand.
Your daughter's development from a helpless baby to one who scoots around so fast you can hardly keep up with her passes so quickly that you have what seems like a new miracle occur almost daily. More miracles occur in regard to her sight and hand movement.
Vision and Fine-Motor Skills
By the time your baby girl is six months old, she is able to follow a moving object — whether it is a twirling toy or you — with her eyes and can reach for an object. Once she manages to grab that object, her aim will be to bring it to her mouth. At the age of one year, she can grasp a small object and let go of it with ease. She can pick up a rattle with each hand and whack them together. Six months later, she can pile a few blocks on top of each other, turn a page in a big book, and start to show a preference for using one hand over the other.
Besides her growth spurts in locomotion and vision, your baby daughter also attains many new milestones in her auditory ability, her comprehension, and her oral communication skills.
Hearing and Speaking
At around six months of age, a baby girl can recognize her parent's tone of voice. She will turn her head to track where sounds come from and say her vowels. What is especially touching to observe is that now she can not only smile but also laugh, chuckle, and squeal with delight. Six months later, she knows her name, knows basic household objects and their use, and can babble to herself in her own language. She may even say a few recognizable words. At eighteen months, she can understand short sentences and has a vocabulary of up to twenty words. That burgeoning ability to interact verbally with others helps your little girl in the last big area of her development.
Alert
Although all babies exhibit the acquisition of their most important skills in a similar order — for example, babies learn to roll over before they sit up — the speed at which these skills are gained can vary enormously. A sudden change in the baby's environment can also slow her developmental rate.
Playing and Socializing
While at the age of six months your baby can be shy around strangers, she enjoys looking at herself in the mirror and playing peek-a-boo with you. Before long, however, she will learn to wave goodbye, clap her hands, and look for a toy that is hidden, thereby exhibiting the first signs of developing a memory. At one year, she will enjoy dropping objects or putting them into a box. She will like playing patty-cake and being around you and any other adult she knows and can snuggle with. Six months later, she will set out to explore her complete living quarters, use a spoon and cup, and alternate from being too clingy to wanting to be set down on the floor — now.
Be sure to take your little girl to her regular checkups and have her get the recommended immunizations. Always take a small notepad that is filled with questions that occur to you, dealing with your daughter's development, and even more important, to record what the pediatrician tells you. Many parents are in such a rush at the doctor's office that they do not remember later what they were told. A few pertinent notes will keep you on track.
Fact
There are several causes for what is called developmental delay, meaning a baby has not mastered the expected new skills within the normal time frame. Some causes are a lack of bonding with the parent, a lack of stimulation, and the existence of a physical problem ranging from vision disorders to hearing loss and other impairments.
As you can tell, the various skills cited under the four broad developmental areas are only a partial list. Many more and complex abilities need to be mastered by your baby girl and you, the parent or caregiver, want to be able to assist her in that process. How? It is simple — just tune into your daughter's world.
