What a child can and should be able to do at 8 months

Eight months is the age of active exploration of space and new games. By this age, daytime dreams are reduced to 2 times 1.5-2 hours each, the baby is awake for much longer. Many babies have several teeth by the age of 8 months, although there are no strict standards in this regard.

At 8 months, the baby already knows a lot of new things. The kid becomes active, agile and inquisitive. Compared to the first months of life, weight gain slows down, many mothers even note that the child is more stretched in height and looks thinner, this is due to increased physical activity of the child. Every day, the baby learns something new. The child’s muscles are already so developed that they allow him not only to roll over and sit, but also to stand and crawl.

Eight-month-old baby skills

• Eight-month-old babies are already good and a lot crawl. Crawling "in the Plastunsky" develops into full-fledged movement on all fours. At this age, children are able to crawl at any distance and devote most of their time to this occupation. At 8 months, the baby crawls around the house, and does it pretty quickly. It is very important that the space that the slider is exploring so actively is safe. It is better to remove wires and extension cords from the floor, and all dangerous objects from the accessibility zone as a whole. During this period, the garbage bin, pet bowls “move” to a higher level, as the kids show great interest in these objects;
• The child begins to train and keep his body upright. Usually, babies begin to sit down on their own with all fours, so when crawling becomes an easy and familiar thing for a child, he tries new actions. The child can not keep his body in a sitting position at 8 months old for a long time. Usually babies are not sitting longer than 3-5 minutes. Sitting the baby is still not recommended, especially on a soft surface or in pillows;
• Another vertical pose - while standing, her baby also tries in the region of 7-8 months. Standing at the pylon is one of your favorite activities at this age. The child crawls to an object that you can lean on, grabs handles, stands up, but within a minute, as a rule, falls on the ass. The support most often acts as a sofa, bed, chairs, chairs. Some are able to move along the sofa or bed with an extra step. For the baby, this is a kind of exercise and training, during which the legs and back become stronger.Intervene in this process and offer the baby to stand more often than he is trying to do it, is not worth it. Excessive vertical load on the spine and joints at an early age can turn into problems with the musculoskeletal system when the child becomes older (the most common consequence of early laying on the legs is curvature of the spine). It is imperative to ensure that only stable, safe objects are at hand for the child’s support;
• Hand motility continues to develop. The main innovation of the eight-month age is the appearance of the so-called "tweezers": the baby does not begin to take objects with the whole five, but with the help of the thumb and forefinger. This is an essential skill and a vivid indicator of the development of the psyche. Now the baby is able to perform more subtle actions, take small items;
• New skills appear in the field of manipulation with objects. Not only the child must be able to take, hold and release the item at 8 months. At this age, children also know how to specifically throw what is held in the pen. Favorite fun for all kids - throwing toys out of the crib or playpen. As we remember, toys must be returned;
• Another innovation is correlative actions with objects. Now the baby can not only take toys in turn and examine them, but also perform certain actions with one toy relative to another. It may be attempts to put one toy on another, knock on it, swap. If there is a container in front of the baby, he will try to put everything that comes into view into it. It is correlative actions that underlie the ability to assemble a pyramid, select the right inserts for Segen's boards, so you should encourage such games;
• Significant shifts are also noted in the speech sphere. The child’s babble already has intonation, which he adopted from his parents. The baby repeats the same syllables many times, so parents constantly hear from him “ma-ma-ma” or “ba-ba-ba”. The main task at the age of 8 months is to accumulate a passive dictionary, that is, words whose meaning the child understands. Active speech at this stage is still manifested in the form of syllables and their combinations, but the child begins to better and better understand the speech that he hears, begins to respond not only to the emotional coloring of speech, but also to the meaning of what has been said. This is especially noticeable at the requests addressed to the baby. At the request of the child can submit the desired toy or show in the book a picture of an animal already known to him. In addition to fulfilling the requests of an adult, the child already knows how to respond to warnings and prohibitions, which is especially true because of the irrepressible thirst for knowledge;
• The social development of the crumbs is at a critical point. The fear of strangers, which appears at about 7 months old, is still very pronounced. The child refuses to be in the arms of unfamiliar people and is very frightened if the mother disappears from view, even if she simply went away to the next room. Such behavior of the crumbs may seem strange to parents, and representatives of the older generation often speak out that such whims and crying are the result of “being taught hands”. In fact, this is a completely normal stage in the development of attachment, to ignore it or, especially, to somehow deal with such a child’s behavior is completely useless. On the contrary, the task of the parents is to be responsive to the needs of the baby, to let him know that he is safe, his mother is nearby and will always protect him.

IMPORTANT: how to secure a home for a child

Usually, it’s easy for mothers to keep busy and to take away an eight-month-old baby. The kid himself shows great interest in everything that is around, plays actively. You can do creativity and offer your child pencils or finger paints. Multi-colored traces and prints on paper will certainly interest the baby.

To summarize: what should a child be able to do

Everything that a child can do at eight months is the basis for the subsequent development of more complex skills, actions and manipulations.

We also read: Child development at 8 months

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Video: 8 months old baby - skills and achievements