Your 6-month-old baby has developed impressive skills across all the learning domains! By now, she should possess greater core muscle strength and body control, show more interest in social interaction and playing with caregivers, communicate using speech-like sounds, and want to explore the world with her refined sensory perception skills. Having developed these strong foundations, she will now be able to roll over, sit up supported with her head steady, reach for objects with one hand, see objects in finer detail (full-color) and at a greater distance (12″ or more), babble to convey basic needs and emotions, and be warmly responsive to your affection and attention.¹

(SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up for Playful Bee’s Bee Well developmental learning program to give your baby the best start in life. The first 10,000 children enroll for FREE! Sign up today.)

Well-Child Visits

One of the most important things you can do for your baby is to take her to all of her recommended well-child visits with her pediatrician. Did you know that many potential learning and developmental issues, including autism, can be detected and treated most effectively early on in life? Unfortunately, while over 13% of all 3 to 21-year-old children enrolled in school possessed a learning disability (2009-10),² many were not diagnosed and treated until they were well into school or later.³ This is important, since the later intervention occurs, the more challenging it becomes for children to essentially rewire their brain connections to correct their learning and development issues.

Early Detection and Prevention

According to First Signs, a non-profit dedicated to public education on autism and related disorders, “[b]irth to three is a critical time in a child’s development, so a delayed diagnosis may compromise his/her chances for success.”⁴ By going to your baby’s scheduled well-child visits and starting an open dialogue with her physician, you will be better equipped to spot early warning signs and seek appropriate help and treatments to address any issues that can improve your baby’s learning potential, social-emotional well-being, and overall quality of life.⁴

In addition, well-child visits are important for parents who, in addition to discovering potential medical conditions their children may have, will learn about vaccinations, preventative and safety care, and other general health concerns. Research shows that children who miss more than half of their well-child visits are 2-3 times more likely to be hospitalized, as they are unable to get diagnosed and treated for underlying medical conditions that could be present, such as asthma, pneumonia, or even heart disease.⁵ So, be sure to stay on top of your baby’s doctor’s visits and learn about the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Bright Future well-child care guidelines and recommended visit schedule.⁶

Developmental Concerns

Your 6 month old baby should be able to demonstrate some pretty impressive new skills. However, continue to be on the look out for any major developmental red flags that your baby may show as she plays and interacts with others.

Physical Development

Some of the major warning signs that your baby may be experiencing physical development delays at this age include not being able to roll over in either direction,^1,7 having stiff or excessively loose and floppy limbs,^1,7 not grasping or mouthing objects,^1,7 and still having tonic neck (lying in a “fencer position” with head turned looking towards an extended arm and the other arm flexed).^1,8 While many children may outgrow some of these physical delays with time, it is important to speak to your doctor to rule out the possibility of more serious underlying conditions, such as muscular dystrophy,⁹ Down syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, spina bifida, hyperthyroidism, and hypoglycemia.¹⁰ 

Social Emotional Development

Social development is a big part of what makes your baby unique and engaging. During the 3-6 month stage, you should have noticed her interacting more socially in a variety of ways. For example, she should be giving you plenty of social smiles as a way to show you her warmth and affection towards you.¹¹ If you notice that your baby doesn’t laugh, maintain eye contact or interest in faces, or show affection to caregivers by now,^1,7 it can be indicative of other medical conditions, such as infant hypothyroidism (a baby would seem slow to respond)¹² and autism spectrum disorders.^13,14

Language Development

Language delays are the most common developmental delays found in children.¹⁵ Because your baby’s early ability to process sounds can affect her language abilities later in life,¹⁶ it is necessary to be aware of any early warning signs that may indicate a language delay. If she is not mimicking and practicing consonant sounds (“ma,” “ba,” and “da”)^1,7 by now, check in with your pediatrician. Language delays can be caused by many different circumstances, such as an ear infection, hearing impairment, poor muscle tone, physical abnormalities of the face, mouth, or jaw, or other serious conditions, like autism, intellectual delay, cerebral palsy, or traumatic brain injury at birth.¹⁷ While there’s no need to panic if your baby is not exhibiting all of her language skills by now, it is always best to talk about these concerns with your pediatrician or specialist as soon as possible.

Cognitive Development

Peek a boo!! Your baby is primarily learning about her world by using her senses at this age. Be sure to observe whether she is responsive to her environment.

Hearing Concerns:

Because hearing loss is one of the most common birth defects in the U.S., occurring in 3 out of 1,000 children,²² the Joint Committee for Infant Hearing (JCIH) recommends that all newborns receive a hearing screening before the age of one month.²³ Your baby’s ability to hear is extremely important to her language development and later reading skills,²² so make sure to speak to your pediatrician if you notice your baby is not responding to you when you speak to her or to loud and sudden environmental sounds.

Vision Concerns:

Between three and six months, her vision will improve as her eyes coordinate to work in unison and she develops depth perception and color vision.¹⁸ Watch out for the following symptoms: she is unable to follow objects with both eyes, one or both eyes don’t consistently turn in or out, or she experiences persistent tearing and eye drainage.¹ Some other common vision issues found in children relate to alignment (strabismus) and eye strength (amblyopia), both of which can lead to partial blindness if untreated.²¹

Strabismus often presents itself as crossed eyes, or an eye that is unable to move in certain directions,²¹ while amblyopia, better known as “lazy eye,” occurs when one eye has weaker or no vision due to various causes.²¹ Vision problems are sometimes hard to detect during infancy, as children learn to compensate, but they can lead to a lifetime of eye health and vision issues, including irreversible loss of vision, if not caught early.¹⁹ The brain actually wires itself around sensory input, so it is important that your baby receives and processes accurate visual information.²⁰

(SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up for Playful Bee’s Bee Well developmental learning program to give your baby the best start in life. The first 10,000 children enroll for FREE! Sign up today.)

Track Your Baby’s Learning Progress!

Although your baby is developing at her own pace, failure to achieve important developmental milestones may signal potential medical or developmental problems requiring special attention.”¹ Continue to engage your baby with Playful Bee’s Just Right Learning^TM curriculum and track her learning progress weekly. By supporting her development across all learning domains (Social-Emotional, Language, Physical, and Cognitive development), you are giving your baby a great head start in life!

To review and check out all of her achievements to date, click on your baby’s 3-6 month old developmental milestone list.

At six months old, you should continue to be on the look out for any major developmental red flags that your baby may show as she plays and interacts with others. If you notice any of the following traits or behaviors by now, be sure to speak to your care provider about your concerns as soon as possible.

Physical Development:

• Still has tonic neck (lies in a “fencer position” with head turned looking towards an extended arm and the other arm flexed).
• Seems stiff, with tight muscles.
• Seems very floppy, like a rag doll.
• Head still flops back when body is pulled up into a sitting position.
• Reaches with one hand only.
• Doesn’t actively reach for objects (that are within reach).
• Has difficulty getting objects to her mouth.
• Doesn’t roll over in either direction (front to back or back to front).

Social Emotional Development:

• Doesn’t smile spontaneously, laugh, or make squealing sounds.
• Doesn’t show affection for caregivers.
• Doesn’t seem to enjoy being around people.
• Seems inconsolable at night after 5 months.

Language Development:

• Doesn’t babble consonant sounds (e.g. jabbering “ma”, “na”, “ba”, “da”, “ga”, and “ka”).
• Doesn’t laugh, chuckle, or squeal to show joy.
• Doesn’t respond to own name (e.g. by looking up).
• Doesn’t respond to conversation by making sounds (e.g. babbles, coos, and squeals).

Cognitive Development:

• Doesn’t follow objects with both eyes at near (1 foot) or far (6 feet) ranges.
• One or both eyes consistently turn in or out.
• Has persistent tearing, eye drainage, or eye sensitivity to light.

(SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up for Playful Bee’s Bee Well developmental learning program to give your baby the best start in life. The first 10,000 children enroll for FREE! Sign up today.)

Sources:

¹American Academy of Pediatrics: Shelov, Steven P. (Ed.) (2009). Caring for your Baby and Young Child – Birth to Age 5 (5 ed.). New York, NY: Bantam Books.

²U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2012). Fast Facts: Students with Disabilities. Digest of Education Statistics, 2011 (NCES 2012-001), Chapter 2. Retrieved March 26, 2014, from https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=64.

³Szabo, Liz (2011). One in Six Children Have a Developmental Disability. USA Today.Retrieved March 26, 2014, from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/story/health/story/2011/05/One-in-six-children-have-a-developmental-disability/47467520/1.

⁴First Signs. Why Early ID? First Signs, Inc. Retrieved March 26, 2014, from http://www.firstsigns.org/about/earlyid.htm.

⁵Kaiser Permanente (2013). Young Children Who Miss Well-Child Visits Are More Likely to Be Hospitalized. Science Daily. Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130524104642.htm.

⁶Healthy Children (2013). Well-Child Care: A Check-Up for Success. American Academy of Pediatrics: Healthy Children Magazine. Retrieved on March 26, 2014, from http://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/health-management/pages/Well-Child-Care-A-Check-Up-for-Success.aspx.

⁷Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2012). Important Milestones: Your Baby at Six Months. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Retrieved March 11, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-6mo.html.

⁸Santrock, John W. (2010). Life-Span Development. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

⁹Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Duchenne Muscular Distrophy Fact Sheet. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Learn the Signs. Act Early. Retrieved March 26, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-6mo.html.

¹⁰Revermann, Susan. Reasons for Lack of Muscle Development in a Newborn. Everyday Life. Retrieved March 21, 2014, from http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/reasons-lack-muscle-development-newborn-2629.html.

¹¹Benaroch, Roy (Ed.) (2013). Baby’s First Social Smile. WebMD. Retrieved March 25, 2014, from http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/babys-first-social-smile.

¹²Topiwala, Shehzad (2013). Neonatal Hypothyroidism. U.S. National Library of Medicine: Medline Plus. Retrieved March 25, 2014, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001193.htm.

¹³Skylar, Hallie L. Autism Signs: Your Month-by-Month Guide. Parents.com. Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://www.parents.com/baby/health/autism/autism-month-by-month-guide/.

¹⁴Autism Speaks (2014). Autism’s Subtle Early Signs: More Findings from Infant Eye Tracking. Autism Speaks.  Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/autisms-subtle-early-signs-more-findings-infant-eye-tracking.

¹⁵WebMD. Recognizing Developmental Delays in Children. WebMD. Retrieved March 19, 2014, from http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/recognizing-developmental-delays-birth-age-2.

¹⁶Benasich, April A. and Tallal, P. (2002). Infant Discrimination of Rapid Auditory Cues Predicts Later Language Impairment. Behavioral Brain Research 136(1), 31-49.

¹⁷Children and Youth Health. Communication Difficulties. Women’s and Children’s Health Network: Parenting and Children Health. Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://www.cyh.com/healthtopics/healthtopicdetails.aspx?p=114&np=306&id=1877.

¹⁸American Optometric Association. Infant Vision: Birth to 24 Months of Age. American Optometric Association. Retrieved on March 26, 2014, from http://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/good-vision-throughout-life/childrens-vision/infant-vision-birth-to-24-months-of-age.

¹⁹UAB Medicine (2012). Early Eye Screening Needed to Catch Vision Problems in Children. UAB Medicine: Newsroom. Retrieved March 26, 2014, from http://www.uabmedicine.org/news/opth-eye-screening.

²⁰Kourtzi, Zoe and Dicarlo, James J. (2006). Learning and Neural Plasticity in Visual Object Recognition. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 16(2), 152-158.

²¹BabyCenter. Strabismus and Amblyopia. BabyCenter. Retrieved March 26, 2014, from http://www.babycenter.com/0_strabismus-and-amblyopia_10890.bc.

²²Bradham, Tamala S.; Caraway, Teresa; Moog, Jean; Houston, Todd; and Rosenthal, Julie. Facts about Pediatric Hearing Loss. American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Retrieved March 26, 2014, from http://www.soundbeginnings.org/download/Facts_about_Pediatric_Hearing_Loss.pdf.

²³Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (2007). Executive Summary of Joint Committee on Infant Hearing 2007 Position Statement. Joint Committee on Infant Hearing. Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hearingloss/documents/execsummfinal.pdf.

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Playful Bee

Education Team at Playful Bee

Playful Bee is an e-Preschool that delivers inquiry-based preschool learning from the classroom to your home. Our preschool curriculum was created by our talented team of rock star teachers. With years of hands-on preschool and Kindergarten teaching experience, they've developed a high-quality preschool experience that is convenient-to-use and easy-to-teach by you, grandparents, or your nanny at home.

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