Baby Developmental Milestones gives the expected stages in the first 6 months

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

You will notice that the areas of development are divided into 4 main areas - motor, fine motor, language and 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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Last reviewed 24 December 2006