INFANTS

 
 
 
 

During the first year of development, infants need lots of love, language/inter-active communication, music/sound stimulation and room to grow. Infant staff works as a team and with parents to ensure that individual feeding and sleeping schedules are met

Infant Milestones

1-3 Month Milestone

Social and Emotional

  • Begins to develop a social smile

  • Enjoys playing with other people and may cry when playing stops

  • Becomes more expressive and communicates more with face and body

  • Imitates some movements and facial expressions

  • Responds to familiar sounds

Movement

  • Raises head and chest when lying on stomach

  • Supports upper body with arms when lying on stomach

  • Stretches legs out and kicks when lying on stomach or back

  • Opens and shuts hands

  • Pushes down on legs when feet are placed on a firm surface

  • Brings hand to mouth

  • Takes swipes at dangling objects with hands

  • Grasps and shakes hand toys

Vision

  • Watches faces intently

  • Follows moving objects

  • Recognizes familiar objects and people at a distance

  • Starts using hands and eyes in coordination

Hearing and Speech

  • Smiles at the sound of your voice

  • Begins to babble

  • Begins to imitate some sounds

  • Turns head toward direction of sound

3-7 Month Milestone

Social and Emotional

  • Enjoys social play

  • Interested in mirror images

  • Responds to other people's expressions of emotion and appears joyful often

Movement

  • Rolls both ways (front to back, back to front)

  • Sits with, and then without, support on hands

  • Supports whole weight on legs

  • Reaches with one hand

  • Transfers objects from hand to hand

  • Uses hand to rake objects

Vision

  • Develops full color vision

  • Distance vision matures

  • Ability to track moving objects

Language

  • Responds to own name

  • Begins to respond to "no"

  • Can tell emotions by tone of voice

  • Responds to sound by making sounds

  • Uses voice to express joy and displeasure

  • Babbles chains of sounds

Cognitive

  • Finds partially hidden objects

  • Explores with hands and mouth

  • Struggles to get objects that are out of reach


7-12 Month Milestone

Social and Emotional

  • Shy or anxious with strangers

  • Cries when mother or father leaves

  • Enjoys imitating people in his play

  • Shows preferences for certain people/toys

  • Test parental responses to his behavior

  • May be fearful in some situations

  • Prefers mother and/or regular caregiver over others

  • Repeats sounds or gestures for attention

  • Finger-feeds himself or herself

  • Extends arm or leg to help with being dressed

Movement

  • Reaches sitting position without assistance

  • Crawls forward on belly

  • Assumes hands-and-knees position

  • Creeps on hands and knees

  • Gets from sitting to crawling or prone (lying on stomach) position

  • Pulls self up to stand

  • Walks holding on to furniture

  • Stands momentarily without support

  • May walk to or three steps without support

Hand and Finger Skills

  • Uses pincer to grasp

  • Bangs two objects together

  • Puts objects into and takes objects out of container

  • Lets objects go voluntarily

  • Tries to imitate scribbling

  • Language

  • Pays increasing attention to speech

  • Responds to simple verbal requests

  • Responds to "no"

  • Uses simple gestures

  • Babbles with inflection (changes in tone)

  • Says "dada" and "mama"

  • Tries to imitate words

Cognitive

  • Explores objects in many different ways (shaking, banging, throwing, dropping)

  • Finds hidden objects easily

  • Looks at correct picture when the image is named

  • Imitates gestures

  • Begins to use objects correctly (drinking from a cup, brushing hair, dialing phone)