What Should My Baby Do at 6 Months?

Mama you made it! Your beautiful bundle of joy is now 6 months old. In this blog I am going to help you to know what to look out for to ensure your baby is developing just right. We will be chatting all things motor, sensory, communication and play!

Remember that each child is unique, and this serves as a guide to help you understand your child’s development. Should you be worried about anything make sure to contact your pediatrician or local OT for advice!

Motor Milestones

As discussed in the 3-month-old blogs “motor milestones” refer to your baby’s physical development and certain skills that we expect a child at a certain age to have developed. 6 months serves as an important age for your baby to have met certain skills.

These include:

Your baby should now be able to sit using his hands to support him/herself and slowly start to sit without any hand support.
He/she should be able to roll from their back to their tummy and from their tummy to their back.
When holding you baby up in a standing position, he/she should be able to accept weight through their entire legs.
Your baby should be reaching for toys nearby whilst sitting and on their tummy.
When lying on their back, you baby should start to pass toys from hand to hand.

Some Red Flags to Look Out For

If your baby is sitting with a rounded back.
If your baby has poor control of their head and struggles to lift their head when lying on their tummy.
Difficulty with reaching and grasping

How to stimulate my 6-month-olds motor milestones

Provide your baby with opportunities to reach and grasp for toys that will motivate them.
Do this by strategically placing toys at a distance from your baby that requires them to reach.
Continue with lots of tummy time! There is no such thing as too much tummy time!
Play with your child in supported sitting positions and gradually decrease the amount of support you provide them.

Sensory Milestones

Oh, the world of senses! This can be so complicated and overwhelming for new parents as we are always concerned about the correct amount and quality of sensory stimulation to provide our babies with.

As mentioned in the 3month old blog our babies have many sensory systems. These include our visual sense, auditory sense, tactile sense, vestibular and proprioceptive sense.

Your baby’s sensory milestones should include:

Your baby should be using both hands to explore toys
Your baby should be bringing their hands and objects to their mouth. This is known as “mouthing” and is completely okay for a 6-month-old baby.
Your baby should enjoy a variety of movements
Your baby should be able to calm down with rocking, touching and gentle sounds.
Your baby should not be upset by everyday sounds

Some Red Flags to Look Out For

Your baby not bringing his hands and objects to his/her mouth
If your baby is frequently irritable for no apparent reason
If your baby has difficulty visually tracking moving objects.

How to stimulate my 6-month-olds sensory milestones:

I highly encourage you to engage your 6-month-old in as much messy play as possible. Allow them to play in the dirt and get wet in a baby pool. Your baby can never be too dirty when exploring their world.
A great way to stimulate your baby’s tactile system is to do tummy time on the grass. Allow their hands to feel the texture and explore.
Slowly introduce your baby to toys of different textures and colours. Be aware of introducing to many new things at once as we don’t want to overwhelm them.

Communication Milestones

Communication is more than just words and sentences. So yes, at 6 months old your baby is already starting to develop their communication. Communication consists of both verbal and non-verbal attempts at engaging.

By 6 months of age your baby should have developed the following communication skills:

Your baby will listen and respond when you speak to him/her. Your baby will begin to use consonant sounds when babbling. For example, “da,da,da”
He/she will start to use their babbling to get the attention of others.
Your baby will make different kind of sounds to express different feelings.

Some Red Flags to Look Out For

Your baby avoids eye contact
Your baby does not smile or laugh
Your baby does not respond to sounds or voices
When babbling, your baby does not make any vowel sounds, meaning that they do not make the “ooh,aah etc” sounds.

How to stimulate my 6-month-olds communication milestones:

Engage in back and forth communication with your baby. Acknowledge their attempts at vocalizing and communicating with you.
Make meaningful eye contact with your baby during all interactions.
Engage in song and music with your baby.

Play Milestones

Play can often be described as the work of our children. It is the activities that they engage in which have behavioral, social and motor rewards. Play has to be child led, spontaneous and be enjoyable for the child.

Your babies current play skills should include:

Your baby should start to enjoy playful interactions with others such as playing peek a boo.
Your baby will start to turn his/her head towards sounds and thus will start to enjoy musical toys.
Your baby should enjoy exploring and playing with toys of varied textures.
He/she should maintain eye contact with familiar people during play interactions.
Your baby should increase their vocalizing in response to playful interactions.

How to Play with Your 6 Month-Old

Introduce your baby to cause and effect toys and games. For example, build a tower of blocks and allow them to know it over, have them play with toys where one action from them causes a noticeable effect.
When interacting with your child ensure that all play interactions are as child led as possible.
Never force your child to engage with a certain toy, follow their lead and experience play from their view.
When playing with your baby it is so vitally important to use your facial expressions and tone of voice to aid in the play experience. Be animated, show your baby that you are having just as much fun.