4-6 months
Find out what milestones your baby should be reaching, and track your baby’s progress, using the helpful guidelines below.
Gross motor
- Holds head steady
- Supports themselves on elbows or forearms when lying on tummy
- First roll from tummy to side
- Rolls from tummy to back
- Rolls from back to tummy
- Sitting with arms supported in front of them
- Sitting unsupported for short periods
- Grasps feet to play with them
- During supported standing, their weight is supported on their legs and they are likely to perform bouncing movements
Fine motor
- Reach for toys - first with both hands and then with one hand
- Pass toys from one hand to the other hand
- Can hold a toy and shake it
- Toys and hands are in the mouth often
- Use finger movements (raking movements) to get toys closer
- Grasps objects hanging in front of them e.g. jewellery, keys, toys
- Splashes with hands and feet during bath time
Language
- Responds to their own name
- Babbling “Ah”, “Eh”, “ah-goo”
- Responds to sound by making sounds
- Repeats syllables, e.g. “da-da-da-da”
- Plays with tongue
- Laughes out of their tummy during play
Cognitive
- Follows moving things with their eyes from side-to-side e.g. a rolling ball (eye’s should move together smoothly)
- Enjoy looking at themselves in the mirror
- Try to reach things that are out of reach
- Looks when toys fall and repeat this activity several times
- Able to know that if they are shown a bottle for example, that it is feeding time
- Start to notice colours around them
- Enjoy peek-a-boo games
Social-Emotional
- Copies some facial expressions
- Likes to play and might cry when toy is taken away or person playing with them moves away
- Recognises familiar people and might cry when parents or care-giver is not around
- Starts to lift arms up when indicating that he/she wants to be picked up
Sensory and Perceptual
- Starts showing interest in food on a plate e.g. might try to reach food on mommy’s plate
- Enjoys different movements such as swinging and rocking
- Everyday sounds do not startle him/her anymore
- Starts to turn head to see where a sound is coming from
- Depth perception starts to develop – they try to grab a toy and overshoots until they reach the toy and pick it up
- They can now see about 2 meters away from them and can see all the colours
- Starts to show an interest in different smells
Please note that each baby is different and will reach various milestones at various stages. Please use the below information as a guideline only.
For any milestone or developmental concerns, please speak to a medical professional.