Your darling baby is growing quickly and is now 6 months old! Where did the time go?!
By 6 months your baby is learning a whole new skill set of emotional, physical, and social milestones.
While each baby develops at his or her own rate, you may wonder if your baby’s development is on target or not.
Don’t worry, here is a complete list of 6 month milestones for you!
Plus, baby development activities to help your baby flourish in development until the next set of milestones.
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Baby’s 6 Month Milestones
Social and Emotional Development
-Recognizes familiar faces and knows when someone is a stranger
-Likes interactive play like peek-a-boo
-Responds to others emotions (if you look scared baby may cry in response to your emotion)
-Fascinated with looking in the mirror
-Smiles to get your attention
-Startled by loud noises and may respond by crying if scared
-Shows emotions of happiness, sadness, and anger
Communication and Language Development
-Blows spit bubbles or raspberries
-Uses the consonants of ba, da, and ga
-Babbles
-Recognizes his or her own name and responds to their name
-Understands simple words like bath or no
-Uses their voice to get attention
-Can take turns with parents making sounds
-Uses noise to express emotions
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Cognitive Development
-Puts things in mouth to understand them
-Reaches for nearby objects
-Moves body in direction they want to go (leaning forward toward someone to be picked up)
-Looks to see where toys are dropped
-Passes toys from one hand to another
Physical Development
-Sits without support (baby may still need support from a bobby while sitting)
-Rolls over from front to back and back to front
-When standing (with help) baby can support weight with legs and may even bounce a little
-Sees objects and people from across the room
-Baby may start teething (if he or she hasn’t already)
-Baby is starting to eat solid foods (pureed single fruits, vegetables, and baby cereal)
-Sleeps longer stretches of time at night. Sometimes up to 6 hours! (Of course, this does not apply to all babies)
-May begin crawling by rocking back and forth on his or her knees
Baby Activities To Aid Development
Mirror Play
Baby learns to recognize features on his or her own face and facial expressions by looking in a mirror.
Encourage baby’s curiosity by placing a mirror in front of your baby during tummy time or when sitting up.
Better yet… Hold baby on your lap and look into a mirror together to show baby different silly faces and see if he or she copies your expressions!
Jello Dig
This is a messy sensory activity for fine motor skill development.
Simply take small grasping toys like Baby Links in Jello and place in the fridge.
When the Jello hardens let your baby dig the toys out and make a mess!
This mama from Life As A Mama Bear used food coloring and plain gelatin for a sugar-free option!
Stacking Blocks
Stacking blocks helps your baby develop hand-eye coordination as well as grasping.
While baby may only be able to stack one (maybe two) blocks on top of each other, that’s OK!
You can encourage your baby to keep trying to stack things by having colorful blocks that are eye catching and showing baby how to stack.
(You may want to try a hand-over-hand technique).
Bubble, Bubbles
Bubbles help your baby develop his or her eyesight!
Set up a bubble machine and place your baby on the floor in a sitting position and watch your baby’s happiness as he/she tries to grab and pop them!
Ball Rolling
All you need for this easy activity is a ball, baby, and you! You can use a beach ball or any other soft ball to roll to your baby.
The goal of this developmental activity is to increase development of 6 month milestones related to eye tracking and gross motor development.
Clapping
Another fun activity involving hand-eye coordination.
Showing your baby how to clap will give your child another outlet for expressing joy!
Just make eye contact and start clapping slowly. Baby will catch on too enough!
Sign Language
Since baby is starting to understand how hand movements correlate with wants and needs, 6 months old is a great time to start teaching your baby simple signs to help him or her communicate with you!
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Final Thoughts
Babies grow so quickly! There are so many developments in their first year.
But it’s important to know what the 6 month milestones are so your baby is reaching them.
While every baby develops at his or her own pace, remember to always talk to your baby’s pediatrician about any concerns you have with development or any milestones that have not been reached.
It’s always best to follow your motherly instincts!
Works Cited
15 Games And Activities For 6-month-Old Baby (momjunction.com)
List of 10 Developmental Activities for 6 Months Old Baby (firstcry.com)
6-Month-Old Baby | Month by Month (whattoexpect.com)