Pregnancy
4-8 Months: Baby Discoveries - Milestones
1. Attends to what is happening in the environment.
Babies inspect and explore the world around them to try to figure out the way things work. As they come in contact with new things, they show that they recognize the difference between familiar and new objects. Babies like to examine small objects, preferably ones that make a noise, holding them, turning them, shaking them, and dropping them. As they investigate, they almost invariably put things in their mouth. For example:
Developing as expected, they might:
- look worried when they hear a dog barking outside the window
- visually explore with sustained interest a small toy they hold in their hands
- react to facial expressions such as a smile, a frown, or a scowl by a caregiver
- imitate actions such as waving bye-bye
- respond to the words "peekaboo, I see you"
- look toward the sound of a caregiver's voice calling from the other room
- turn a rattle or toy bell over and over as they listen to the sound
- reach for a toy that has been taken away or placed out of reach
Needing development, they might:
- hold things and then let them drop without really inspecting them
- hold things and put them in their mouth more as a reflex than as exploration
- not notice when things roll or drop out of sight, and not look around for them
- pick things up and put them down and not try to reach for a third object or toy
- put things in their mouth, but not pull them out and look them over as part of an exploration process
2. Displays short-term memory.
Babies are beginning to show that they remember things as they explore their environment and as they respond to the things that happen around them. Their responses show that they are beginning to expect certain things to happen and are growing to expect consistent consequences to their actions. For example:
Developing as expected, they might:
- turn their head away when you reach out with a cloth to wipe their face
- look toward the sky when they hear an airplane flying over
- pull back when you approach with a tissue in your hand, because they remember that this means you are going to wipe their nose
- search for an object that has disappeared over the edge of a table or tray
- look for their caregiver after she has left the room
- not look in the direction of the phone when it rings
- act surprised when the rattle makes a noise as they turn it this way and that
- participate only sporadically in the games you play often, such as patty-cake
- look at the spot where an object disappeared after it fell over the edge of the high chair tray, but not look over the edge to the floor
3. Makes things happen.
Babies are incredibly fast learners and excellent observers. Between four and eight months of age, they are learning about their world at the same time their motor skills are developing rapidly. As they explore and make things happen, they discover that there is a predictability about the way things happen. They can act on things, and the response is the same over and over. For example:
Developing as expected, they might:
- pat or hit at the rubber toy because it squeaks every time
- bang a block on the floor, reveling in the sound it makes
- purposefully touch or push the buttons on the toy box, although sometimes still be surprised at the results
- shake the rattle harder and harder, delighting in the louder noise
- clap their hands to start a game of patty-cake
- pull a string attached to a toy, making it come closer and closer
- gesture toward the graham cracker, smile, and then take it from your hand
- drop several large beads into a cup or bowl, dump them out, and drop them back in all over again
- dip a finger into the applesauce, lick it off, and then do it again and again
- not repeat actions that would make expected things happen
- not respond to social games such as clapping hands or playing "Sooo Big"
- continue to hit at the buttons on the toy box randomly, without seeming to anticipate expected things to happen
- bang their spoon on the tray and not stop when Mom or the caregiver asks them to, not acting surprised by or even aware of the noise they are making
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