Baby Developmental Milestones: Birth to 6 months

The following page gives the usual age at which different baby developmental milestones are reached during the first 6 months of life.

To view other ages, click here

You will notice that the areas of development are divided into 4 main areas -

• motor
• fine motor
• language
• social

These are the areas that health professionals use when assessing development. Some areas are more important at different ages - in the first six months, there is a lot of motor and fine motor development occurring. Speech comes later.

• 6 weeks
• 3 months
• 4 months
• 5 months
• 6 months
• When to see your doctor

6 weeks of age baby milestones

Motor Development

At 6 weeks of age, if your child has reached normal developmental milestones, he will:

• lift his head up momentarily when is held tummy down (prone)
• put his head to one side if he is lying on his tummy (prone)
• have head lag when he is pulled from lying to sitting - so you need to support his head
• shows primitive reflexes like stepping and placing - read more

Fine Motor and Vision Development

At 6 weeks of age, your baby will:

• fix and follow on your face
• turn his head and eyes to a light source

Speech, Language and Hearing Development

At 6 weeks, your child, if he is developing normally, will:

• respond to a bell or other similar noise
• stop whimpering (but not full blown crying) to the sound of a soothing voice
• coo responsively to your voice

Personal / Social Development

At 6 weeks, your infant will:

• suck well
• be starting to smile
• regard faces

Back to list

3 months baby developmental milestones

Motor Development

At 3 months, your infant will:

• push up on his elbows when lying on his tummy (prone)
• still have some head lag when pulled up from lying to sitting but will have more head control
• take weight on bent knees when held in the standing position
• mostly have open hands

Fine Motor / Vision Development

At 3 months, your infant will:

• follow a face from side to side (so through 180 degrees)
• hold a rattle for a short time - will often bash chin with the rattle
• open and close his hands
• be very interested in his hands (hand regard)
• blink defensively

Speech and Language Development

At 3 months, your infant will:

• be vocalizing
• turn to sound especially familiar sounds like the sound of a spoon on the inside of a cup
• quieten to your voice

Personal / Social Development

At 3 months, your infant will be:

• smiling a lot
• enjoying bath time and other familiar routines

Back to list

4 months baby developmental milestones

Motor Development

At 4 months, your infant will:

• no longer have head lag when pulled to sit from lying - so he now has head control

Fine Motor / Vision Development

At 4 months, your child, if he has normal baby developmental milestones, will be:

• playing with his fingers

Back to list

5 month baby developmental milestones

Motor Development

At 5 months, if your child has reached normal baby developmental milestone, he will be able to:

• put his feet in his mouth while lying on the floor

Fine Motor / Vision Development

At 5 months, your infant will:

• reach for objects
• have a palmar grasp - so rakes objects with his hands and picks them up in his palm

Back to list

6 month baby developmental milestones

Motor Development

At 6 months, if your child has reached normal baby developmental milestones, he will be able to:

• push up on extended elbows when lying prone (on his tummy)
• lift his head up when lying on his back
• anticipate being pulled to sit from lying by bracing his shoulders
• roll over - initially from front to back but then both ways
• take weight on his legs when he is held standing up
• sit unsupported for short periods in a tripod position - back slightly bent forward and arms forward with hands near feet

Fine Motor / Vision Development

At 6 months, your infant will:

• be extremely interested in his surroundings
• transfer objects from one hand to the other
• hold 2 cubes
• use both hands freely
• not be interested in objects that fall out of sight - no object permanence yet

Speech and Language Development

At 6 months, your child, if he is following normal baby developmental milestones, will be able to:

• babble using vowel sounds, eg. "goo", "ga"
• imitate sounds
• laugh out loud

Personal / Social Development

At 6 months, your infant will:

• take everything to his mouth
• put his hands to a feeding bottle
• still be friendly with strangers but will be becoming shy

Back to list

When to be concerned

If your child has not reached the following baby developmental milestones or is demonstrating the following signs, see your doctor:

• not responsive to sound at 6 weeks of age
• has a permanent fist and not opening his hands at 6 weeks of age
• not fixing or following at 3 months of age
• not smiling at 3 months of age
• not sitting with support by 6 months of age
• not babbling by 6 months of age
• has a persistent squint at 6 months of age

Back to list

---

References

• Martin Bellman and John Cash. Schedule of Growing Skills. NEFR-Nelson. ISBN 0 7005 1161 X
• Mary Sheridan. From birth to five years. NFER-Nelson. ISBN 0 85633 074 4

---

---

To go to the top of the Baby Developmental Milestones page, click here

For infants from 6 to 12 months of age, click here

For toddlers from 1 to 2 years of age, click here

For toddlers from 2 to 3 years of age, click here

For toddlers from 3 to 4 years of age, click here

For children from 4 to 5 years of age, click here

To go to the main Development page, click here

To return to the Home page, click here

---

Last reviewed 24 May 2011

We comply with the HONcode standard for health trust worthy information: verify here.