Playing With a 6 Month Old Baby By:Jan Murray

Babies grow and develop at their own pace; however, there are some general milestones that you can measure your baby's development by. The five main areas in which a baby's development can be measured by are:

Gross Motor Skills

6 - 9 months
?Reaches out when lying on their tummy
?Pushes them self into a crawling position of sorts
?Sits unsupported for a short period
?Can roll over (usually both ways)
?Wriggles forward or pivots
?Can take weight briefly when they are on their feet
?Head control complete and strong
?Transfers objects between hands

Fine Motor Skills

6 - 9 months
?Pulls pegs out of a peg board
?Clumsily picks up small objects
?Swallows foods that have a thicker consistency than milk

Social Skills

6 - 9 months
?Pats breast or bottle while feeding
?Enjoys 'laugh and smile' games
?Social interaction and exploration of familiar faces
Would often rather be up socialising than sleeping

Language Skills

6 - 9 months
?Makes sounds such as 'mum-mum', 'dada'
?Imitates sounds such as a cough, clearing throat, clicking tongue
?Squeals with pleasure or frustration
?Laughs and chuckles
?Tuneful vocalization

Cognitive Skills

6 - 9 months
?Bangs objects
?Imitates hand movements - knocks blocks over, clap hands, waves goodbye
?Uncovers partially hidden objects
?Briefly shows anger if a toy is taken away
?Anxiety when approached by strangers
?Indicates to repeat games
?Turns decisively to the side to locate a noise

The following games and activities are great ways to interact with your baby to help them develop in all their 5 senses - taste, touch, sight, hearing and smell.

MOBILES
- Keep them out of reach to encourage reaching
- Use bright colours and shapes
- Make your own from a coat hanger
SEE and WATCH
- Hold object about 20cm from your baby's face, move it side to side, up and down
- Have your baby on their tummy and raise a toy to encourage head movement
HEAR and SPEECH
-Talk, sing and hum
- Loud to soft, high to low, short to long
- Rhyming games, rubbing and patting hand on tummy such as Pat-a-Cake
- If your baby makes a sound, cough, or babble make it back to them with a smile in an interested tone
REACHING and POSTING
- Have a container with fun safe objects in it
- Your baby can search through the container (ice cream container)
- Have a lid with a cut out hole so they can post toys back into it
- Dangle toys in front of your baby's face to encourage reaching such as cotton reels on string
SOUND and MUSIC
- Plastic juice bottles filled with bits and pieces, glue on lid
- Make noise with bell or drum when baby not looking, if interested let them play with noisy objects
- Music of all varieties
- Put music and their toy together; see if they can find the beat!
KICK
-Have hanging toys on stroller or across chair if lying on the floor to encourage kicking
HIDE and SEEK or PEEK-A-BOO
-Hide yourself or hide an object under or behind something
-Praise them when they successfully find it
CHASING
-Crawl after them taking your time to catch up
TUG OF WAR
-Have scarf or tea towel just out of reach, when they take it gently tug on it and if they make an effort to hold on let them have it to play with as a reward.
CUPS and BLOCKS
-Pile them, push them, stack them, roll them put things in them and probably throw them!!

Enjoy them...