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How babies develop
When it comes to the early years of a baby's life, Dr Miriam Stoppard's knowledge and experience is second to none. She looks at how important skills can be nurtured as your baby grows and develops
In your baby's first year, your baby grows and develops by:
- Using her brain to think and to develop language
- Learning to stand upright and walk, starting with attempts to control her head as early as her first week
- Acquiring fine control of her fingers. By 10 months she will be able to pick up a pea between her thumb and forefinger
Take your lead from your baby
This is the golden and unbreakable rule of child development. Your baby will always give you some sign that she wants to and can make progress. It's important to follow her lead because, if you do, you'll hit the right moment for her to acquire the skill.
This will make her feel very pleased with herself, especially if you praise her, and you'll build her self-confidence and self-esteem right from when she's only a very young baby. Just think what a confident, balanced, affectionate child she'll grow into. And all this groundwork is laid in the first year.
Growth and development leads to new skills
Picking up a pea between finger and thumb is a complex process and a huge amount of development has to occur it to be achieved successfully. Baby needs to develop:
- muscles that will draw finger and thumb together and grip
- muscles that will obey the brain when it sends the message to grip
- eyes that can see the pea clearly
- co-ordination between what the eye sees, how far it is from the eyes and where the hand moves (hand/eye co-ordination)
- a brain sophisticated enough to give the command to the muscles to work
- nerves to carry the order from brain to muscle
All these elements should come together by the time your baby is nine months old, although rates of progression do differ.
Learn how to spot each phase of development. At two months you will notice your baby's desire to reach out and grab something even though she hasn't developed enough to do so.
Understanding that growth and development must be in place before every new skill is very important when it comes to your baby's bowel and bladder control. You cannot timetable this development. Babies can't become dry overnight nor can they perform for you when you sit them on a potty. Forcing the issue stores up trouble for the future.
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