As your baby enters his seventh month of life, you will be amazed at how quickly he is developing. He loves to play with toys that challenge him and he loves to play with you. The biggest milestone for the seventh month is the beginnings of crawling. Soon your baby will be mobile!
Your Child’s Development
By seven months of age, your baby’s fine motor skills and gross motor skill will be developing quickly. Fine motor skills are the ability to make precise movements using the thumbs, fingers and wrists such as picking an item up using the thumb and finger. This month he will intentionally move an object from one hand to the other. As your baby gets better at using his hands to grasp small objects, it is important that you take a good look at the areas that he will be exploring and remove all small objects that could be a choking hazard.
Gross motor skills require the use of the larger muscles of the body. Crawling is the first gross motor skill that you baby will develop. At seven months of age, your baby is ready to start crawling, or at least scooting. You can help encourage your baby’s development of large motor skills by putting your baby on his stomach and enticing him to move towards a toy. Soon he will be up on his knees and hands and then it won’t be long until he gets the idea of crawling.
Playtime has changed dramatically over the last couple of months, and this month your baby enjoys interactive play with ‘peek-a-boo’ becoming a firm favourite. This is because his recognition skills are keener, and he knows that an object or a person is still there even if he cannot see them. And, he can remember that there is a toy hiding behind your back, or that you are coming back when you hide around a corner and then pop out to say, “peek-a-boo!”
At seven months, your baby is also starting to understand the relationship of objects and space. Therefore, toys that include sorting or stacking are really good at this age. Try to find colourful shape sorters, blocks, or toys that allow your baby to fit one object inside another.
Your baby is also starting to show more emotions at this age. You may notice that now, he can understand when someone else is crying it is sad and it might make him cry as well. He is showing empathy. He is also showing his love in more ways now, he could be blowing kisses, and when you hug him, he hugs you back.
At this stage you will be well on the way to introducing your baby to many different foods and he is also getting pretty good at eating finger foods. As he enjoys feeding himself this can be a good time to introduce him to a sippy-cup. Make sure that they are the spill-proof type as there will be accidents!
