Movement: babies

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What to expect

Your baby is likely to:

• roll over (from 4-6 months)
• sit up (from about seven months)
• crawl (about nine months and, in some babies, even earlier)
• clap hands and wave bye-bye (from nine months)
• pull up on the furniture (from 10 months)
• stand and walk with hands held (from 10-11 months)
• walk unaided (by 15 months)
• scoot around on a four-wheeled toy (from 12 months)
• develop a pincer grip, also known as ‘pincer grasp’ (between 9-12 months)
• scribble with a crayon (from 18 months).

Find out more about what to expect each month in our Babies Development section.

By the time she is 18 months old your baby will want to touch, pull and feel everything in reach. She will be a busy bee investigating the world and testing limits. She can also be a danger to herself, but there are easy steps you can take to keep your baby safe.

Your baby will enjoy any play that tests her developing physical skills, such as pushing a trolley or doll pram, straddling small ride-on toys, and using your furniture and everything in sight as a jungle gym.

Other play such as picking up small objects, sorting blocks and putting small containers into bigger containers helps to develop fine motor skills (but watch out for objects small enough to choke on). You can expect it all: emptying and then methodically refilling your peg basket, and taking all the spoons out of the cutlery drawer and dropping them into your magazine rack one by one.

Play ideas to help movement

• Push-and-pull toys, from eight months. These will still be a source of great interest when your baby starts to toddle, anywhere between 12-18 months.
• Soft balls, from four months.
• Ride-on toys, from 12 months.
• From seven months, provide a safe environment for crawling and pulling up.
• Towards 12 months, start heading out to the playground.
• Encourage your baby to practise fine motor skills by putting small containers into larger containers.
• Turn yourself into a play gym – you can do this by hopping down on the floor and playing with your baby.
• Sing songs that have simple actions – your baby will try to copy the actions.

Babies all gain skills at their own pace. Playing together is about having fun rather than trying to speed up developmental progress. Your baby will also like to lead play – she learns more this way, including that she can control some things.

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