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