Below is a summary for the sixth through eighth months, as posted on my Instagram @bridgesavp

Milestones

Recently, I discussed milestones with our pediatrician. Remember, milestones are just averages which means that at a given age, 50% of children will have obtained the listed milestones, while half of children assessed may still be developing that skill. My youngest baby has learned some skills right at the milestone and some that are ahead. There are some skills she should have already learned that she is still working on. That’s what these guidelines are , a list of general skills and the ages around which they often develop. While being aware of these milestones is very important, we have to remember that each child is unique and they will not hit all the milestones on the same timeline. If you have concerns about your child meeting milestones within the average timeline, please speak to your pediatrician and ask for support.

The comparison game is difficult, not just with the children of your friends and family but also with your own children, if you have more than one. I find myself saying, “Big brother did this by now. Why isn’t she doing it yet? She should have learned this already.” This kind of mentality isn’t helping me or my baby so I do my best to remember that milestones are guidelines and my baby will develop according to her unique timeline.

Six Months

Let’s jump to 6 months old, the great halfway milestone! Your baby might start sitting up unassisted around this time. They are now able to take the world in from a new angle. You can create a language rich environment by engaging in Turn Taking both with toys and with babble. Using Wait Time and Expectant Look, continue the serve and return of a babble dialogue. This activity sets the stage for continued turn taking as their vocabulary grows.

At six months old your baby won’t be ready to take turns and share toys, but this is a great time to start practicing good turn taking strategies for the caregiver. While the baby is playing with a toy car, they may push it out in front of them. The caregiver can say “My turn, thank you! Do you want a turn?” Then Wait with an Expectant Look for a moment (the baby likely won’t answer 😉, this is important practice though) and then push the car back into the baby’s reach. As your baby grows, the time when you Wait will be filled with their response. Your pause and Expectant Look shows that you are listening and a response is expected.

Around this time, your baby might start increasing the items they explore with their mouth as they are becoming more mobile. Their exploration is a rich avenue for language exposure using the strategy of Parallel Talk. Talk about what your child is touching, tasting, seeing, experiencing as if you are the narrator of a documentary (in the level of detail, the Morgan Freeman voice is optional) “You are tasting cereal, mmmm, that’s yummy. Eat it all up! What other foods do you see?”

Soon you may start giving your child actual foods to touch and taste. You can create a language rich environment before the meal by using Self Talk to narrate your food preparation as if you’re on a TV cooking show. Then, while your child is exploring the food, use Parallel Talk to describe how they are manipulating it. Using these strategies during meal times exposure your child’s brain to a wide range of nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

Eight months

(With rattle behind your back) SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE (pause, Wait, lean in with an Expectant Look) when your baby smiles show them the rattle and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE again! Allowing baby to listen and respond to the sound is called Auditory First. This strategy places the focus on the auditory input first and visual input second.

hear-see-hear

This pattern of presenting information is called an Auditory Sandwich. The auditory information comes first, followed by visual information, and then auditory information again. This strategy again puts an emphasis on the auditory information as we build the connections in the brain.
There are many varieties of using the Auditory Sandwich strategy; not all of them include focus on auditory info; so I encourage you to read this blog post on this topic for more elaboration on all the types of sandwiches you can have.

This is the time when your baby might be crawling, scooting, or otherwise mobilizing themselves around your home. How exciting, and somewhat terrifying when they’re suddenly not where you left them just a moment ago! Crawling can present a new way to think about Joint Attention. Baby will crawl to get an object and while they are fixed on that object, share their attention and give rich language input about that object. Describe it, cheer when they reach it, and engage in that moment to give them language about that shared topic. Their brains and busy connecting what they see, hear, and experience while you are describing the world around them!

baby, bike, brother, /b b b b b/

During a family walk Auditory Bombardment was used to highlight the /b/ sound. Why /b/? Because of the early developing consonants /p, b, m, w/ our baby is showing an emerging ability to produce CV babbling using /b/. Bombarding her, or surrounding her with that sound, will reinforce her understanding and production. Soon we will spend some time talking about words with other early developing sounds in the hopes that she starts producing them in babble as well! I supplemented this experience by using Self Talk to describe all the /b/ things I observed while walking.

Each of these strategies and their definitions/resources/examples can be found by downloading the free ebook from the navigation at the top of the page. A single strategy handout can be found by visiting the blog post for each strategy and finding the link at the bottom. Enjoy!