Baby’s first year of life: The development at a glance
At no other time does a person develop as quickly as in the first twelve months of his life. What the little ones learn – an overview.
The development of each child is unique, as individual as the child himself. Even the youngest reveal their character: some are bright and active, others calm and reserved. And all of them master individual development steps at their own pace. This means that peers do not have to sit, talk or walk at the same time. Nor can progress be ticked off on time. Summary tables only give average values. Therefore, comments such as “Your daughter is not sitting yet? But I’d be worried about that!” inappropriately.
Baby’s first year of life is individual and unique
Mother and father themselves are most likely to have the opportunity to get to know their child with all its peculiarities, behaviors and needs – when it cries, whether it falls asleep with or without light and what porridge it likes to eat. This is a good prerequisite for instinctively judging whether or when something is wrong. If parents feel that their child is behaving conspicuously, they should not hesitate to seek the advice of a pediatrician or other professional.
Smell, taste, touch
All five senses are already wide awake at birth, but differently pronounced. The senses of taste and smell already work well. The fine nose even makes distinctions: babies recognize their mothers immediately after birth, because the nipples emit the same fragrance that the infants already know from the amniotic fluid. The sense of touch is mature long before birth. The baby has already held hands in his belly and stroked his little face. Especially through physical contact and tender touches, the infant experiences security and security after birth.
How your baby’s hearing develops
Even before it is born, a baby is “all ears”: the voices of its parents, mom’s heartbeat and the rushing of her blood are sounds it perceives in its womb. In the first days after birth, the newborn still hears muffled because of the amniotic fluid in his ears. Slowly it gets used to the new sounds. Already in the first week of life, however, it distinguishes the voice of its mother from others. Between the fifth and sixth month, it reacts to more distant sounds and becomes restless when it comes to strange noises.
Like vision, hearing is important for the development of the child – speech development in particular depends heavily on it. Because a child who does not hear cannot learn to speak. Even if a hearing test was inconspicuous, parents should continuously monitor their child’s sense of hearing. Learn more about the development of hearing and speaking in our special “Learning to speak“.
How vision develops
Babies can see immediately – but still indistinctly. The interaction of the eyes as well as the visual acuity has yet to adjust. Baby’s best visual acuity is initially at a distance of 20 to 30 centimeters from the eye. Intuitively, parents take the right distance with their face when they turn to their child. Initially, the baby is mainly interested in moving, friendly faces. At the age of three to four months, spatial vision develops. Babies recognize objects that are farther away and begin to reach for things to look at. Colorful things are getting really interesting now!
Between the seventh and eighth month, they begin to become really curious about their surroundings, see things out their reach and stretch out their arms with a cheerful crow. Seeing also boosts mental, motor and linguistic development: the more the baby sees, the more it wants to explore and literally “understand”. Learn more about the development of vision in our post “When can a baby see?“.
How your baby learns to speak
A child loves to hear familiar voices. The parents thus support his hearing ability and at the same time awaken the desire to speak himself. An infant also receives affection through language, when parents accompany everyday actions such as changing diapers with words. This is just as important for the child as physical closeness. Between the ages of two and three months, the baby happily tests his voice squealing, chuckling and humming.
Only a few months later, it utters understandable sounds and draws attention to itself. From about the seventh month, it begins to form double syllables like “da-da” and babbles eagerly. Towards the end of the first year of life, it understands simple statements such as “Where is grandma?”. Children usually formulate the long-awaited first word when the first birthday cake is on the table.
Show and perceive feelings
A baby feels discomfort or well-being at an early age. At six weeks, it clearly shows joy and learns from about two months to vary its cry according to need: tiredness, hunger and need for attention or comfort? Parents need to perceive baby’s feelings and help him deal with them. As a result, the child learns to interpret his feelings correctly. Through a sensitive behavior of the parents, a secure bond develops between child and parents, which has a positive effect on its overall development. Intense feelings such as “strangeness” set in between the sixth and eighth month.
Understand and discover
Over time, babies learn to link visual and tactile impressions. Through independent action, they learn how to move a rattle to elicit a sound. They gradually understand cause and effect. This awakens their spirit of discovery even more and they try to transfer this knowledge to other areas.
At eight to nine months, the offspring also notices that objects and people have not necessarily disappeared just because they can no longer see them. Games in which people hide and suddenly reappear with a “cuckoo” behind a pillow make them cheer happily.
Grabbing and examining objects
As soon as you reach your finger to an infant, he grabs it. What is initially a reflex, the child has to train until it can consciously hold something. At four to five months, it already reaches for objects in a targeted manner. A little later, it will put everything it gets its hands on in its mouth to examine it closely. At about one year, babies already use their hands skillfully and even grasp a ball with both hands. Children only learn targeted letting go in the following months. In order to train their dexterity and meet their desire for new things, it makes sense to let babies get to know and feel many different materials and shapes.
This is how motor skills develop
Especially in motor development, babies differ from each other. While one works through all stages one after the other, another goes through several development steps almost in parallel. The following stages are on baby’s way: At about three months, the child holds its head up in the prone position. Between the third and seventh month, it can already turn independently; Then it tries to move around on its own and sit freely.
Sitting up, pulling up furniture, hanging along it and finally walking freely – this is what the child learns between the ninth and 20th month. Don’t worry: On the way to walking upright, the child’s modes of movement can look a little strange – they try everything! However, parents should not simply sit or stand their child down. When the child is ready, he teaches himself to sit, get up and walk early enough.