Milestones

6-9 Months

Developmental Milestones

Developmental milestones are key skills or objectives that your child should obtain naturally on their own through growth and development. We track these milestones in the categories of cognitive, communication, social, emotional, adaptive, and physical development.

Cognitive

  • Child should be able to imitate familiar actions. (Example: Claps Hands)

  • Child should be able to find objects that are partially hidden.

  • Child should be able to transfer an object from one hand to the other in order to pickup a second object.

  • Child should be able to move to get a toy.

  • Child should be able to persist in effort to obtain object.

Communication

  • Child should respond with appropriate gestures to “up,” “bye-bye,” or other routines.

  • Child should be able to produce three or more consonants.

  • Child should move body to music.

  • Child should use word for parent or caregiver discriminately.

  • Child’s pitch and intonation should vary.

Social-Emotional

  • Child should extend arms to familiar persons.

  • Child should show preference for certain toys, activities, or places.

  • Child should express affection.

  • Child should play simple games. (Example: Peek-A-Boo)

  • Child should respond differently to children and adults.

Adaptive

  • Child should close lips to remove food from spoon.

  • Child should sleep through the night.

  • Child should hold or support bottle to drink.

  • Child should purposely pull socks off.

  • Child should feed self finger foods.

Physical Development

  • Child can walk sideways while holding on to furniture.

  • Child can pick up small objects using thumb and forefinger.

  • Child can use arms to move forward on belly.

  • Child can poke with index finger.

  • Child can stand alone, holding onto something.

  • Child can move from back to sitting without assistance.

All information is taken from the Third Edition of Early Childhood Development by Judith K. Voress and Nils A. Pearson.

The Play Based Approach

At Ability Innovations we believe that children learn best through play. Our talented pediatric therapists are trained to improvise and adapt to the needs of each child. They help guide your little hero soar to new heights. If you feel like play-based therapy is right for your child, give us a call and schedule your free consultation today!