Daycare for 5 month old baby: Infant’s Sample Schedule | KinderCare

Is There a Best Age to Start Daycare?

• The age at which your child starts daycare often depends on your employment, the length of your maternity leave, and whether you have relatives or a paid caregiver who can help you with childcare at home. 
• Many daycare centers care for babies from the age of six weeks, but it’s the quality of the daycare that matters most. 
• If you can wait until your child is a toddler, there are some signs to look for to help you decide if your child is ready for a daycare or preschool setting. 

For some families, daycare is a lifesaver, letting parents get back to work secure in the knowledge that their infants are taken care of and safe. For others, letting go of their babies every morning is difficult and fills them with anxiety as they return to their jobs. 

For still other families, daycare represents an educational opportunity for their toddlers to learn, grow, and socialize to get ready for school. At the same time, it gives the caregiver at home time to work, take care of other kids, or simply take a break. 

Whatever your situation and reasons for choosing daycare, the first time you leave your child at a young age can be tough. You are likely to be filled with worries and questions about whether you made the right decision about your childcare. 

That’s okay, and it’s something most parents go through. Remember that the best age to start daycare will be different for every child and every family.

Daycare Age: When to Send Your Child to Daycare

The age at which your child starts daycare may not be entirely your personal choice. Finding care for your child outside the home will depend on your employer’s policies and the length of your parental leave. 

Your decision to start daycare will also depend on whether any family members can help you and whether hiring a paid caregiver is an option for you. Quality daycare is often the most cost-effective and convenient childcare option for many working parents.   

Is my baby too young for daycare? 

Opinions on the optimal age for starting daycare vary. Some experts suggest children should not go to daycare until they are twelve months old. Others say that infants up to seven months of age find the transition to daycare easier than older infants. Still others say you should keep your children at home as long as possible. 

However, many daycare centers take babies from a minimum age of six weeks, when most maternity leaves end in the US. If you are worried about sending your young baby to daycare, remember that sending children younger than a year old to daycare is not unusual. 

In 2019, the National Center for Education Statistics reported some helpful findings that show that many families are in the same boat regarding infant and early childhood daycare. They found that:

• 42% of children under the age of one received some kind of weekly nonparental care.
• Of those children, 32% were in daycare settings.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says that the type of childcare of your child receives is less important than the quality. What matters more than your child’s age is that you feel confident about the childcare center and comfortable that the staff is caring, qualified, and knowledgeable. 

Is it ever too late to start daycare?

Older children may find the transition to the structured environment of daycare more difficult than young babies. This is because they have greater emotional maturity and understand more about what is happening. As a result, it may take a two-year-old more time to adjust to long periods away from a parent than, for example, a four-month-old.  

However, if you have cared for your child at home yourself, with the help of relatives, or with a nanny, you may still want to consider some kind of daycare setting for your young child before they start school at the age of five. 

If you’re weighing the pros and cons of daycare, you should know that daycare has many benefits for children who are approaching school age. Structured childcare or preschool allows toddlers to socialize with other children, learn to trust teachers, and practice skills like cooperation, sharing, and collaboration. 

Being in a group setting is a great way to expand and encourage language skills, creative play, and friendship for toddlers. In addition, time spent away from parents and understanding that they come back is part of a child’s emotional development.  

Signs That Your Child Is Ready for Daycare

Kids will start daycare at different ages. However, if you have some flexibility in deciding when to send your child to daycare, there are some signs to look for that may let you know that they’re ready: 

Sign	What It Means
They understand instructions.	Your child will be ready to follow rules and fall into the routines easily at daycare.
They show independence.	Your child will be able to separate from you at drop off and move between activities.
They are curious about other children.	Your child is ready to interact, communicate, practice social skills, and start learning about friendship with other kids.
They are potty trained, or close to it.	Some daycares assist with potty training. Check the daycare policy and make sure your child is prepared in advance.
They are communicative.	Your child will be able to express themselves and their needs to the staff and other kids.

If your toddler is showing some of these signs, they may be ready for daycare. You also know your child’s personality best, so you’ll have an instinct about whether it’s time for them to go into childcare with other kids. 

Signs That Your Child Is Not Yet Ready for Daycare

A daycare is often full of light, sound, and color. They tend to be noisy and joyful environments full of social interaction with lots going on all the time. They will be filled with toys, activities, food, and other stimulating elements.  

Not all toddlers will be ready to dive into the daycare environment if they have only ever experienced a single caregiver. They will be separating from you while at the same time, navigating new relationships, rules, and activities. Understandably, daycare can be overwhelming for some young children.

If you’re not sure whether it’s time to put your child in daycare, there are some signs to consider to help you decide:  

For children who find large groups of kids stressful or need more one-on-one attention, check for a low staff to child ratio when looking at childcare centers. Also, consider daycares or preschools that offer half days if a full day away from home is too overwhelming for your child at first.  

Tips on Preparing Your Child for Daycare

There are some practical and easy things that a parent can do to prepare an infant or toddler to begin daycare.

For breastfeeding infants

If you are putting a breastfeeding infant into daycare, you can continue giving them breastmilk.  

Open communication with the daycare staff about breastmilk storage, bottles, and the timing of feeds for babies before starting daycare is essential. If you work close by, discuss options for coming in to breastfeed during the day if that is important to you. 

About a month before starting daycare, think about your system for pumping, freezing, and storing breastmilk. Also make sure your baby will take a bottle.    

Talk with your child 

Talk about daycare and explain how it works in simple words. Even a young child can understand the concept. Reading picture books about daycare may help. 

Visit with your child 

Take your child to the daycare center for a visit before they have their first day. Introduce them to the staff. Show them that you like and trust the adults in charge. Let them explore the center so the new environment is familiar before they begin. 

Have other caregivers stay with them at home 

To help your infant or toddler understand the concept of people other than you as their caregivers, arrange some sessions with babysitters at home.  

Show your child that they can be left safely with another trusted adult and that you will always return. 

For potty training children 

Make sure you know the daycare’s policies on potty training well in advance. If the daycare staff are going to assist with potty training, make sure your child has a daycare bag packed with extra clothes in case of accidents. 

If your child has to be potty trained before starting a preschool program, make sure you have begun the process well in advance.

Does child care make a difference to children’s development?

By Lauren Lowry, Hanen SLP and clinical writer

Over 70% of children in Canada are in some kind of child care arrangement and this number is similar in other countries. Usually, children are placed in child care because both parents are working. However, sometimes, parents are advised by a professional to enroll their child in child care because this environment will promote their child’s development.

Parents have many questions about child care and we thought it would be helpful to identify some common assumptions about the effects of child care and report on what the research actually shows. The first few assumptions relate to typically-developing children, and the final three assumptions relate to children with special needs.

Assumptions about typically-developing children and child care

Children who attend child care have better outcomes than children who are cared for at home by their mothers

FALSE

A study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in the US looked at the influence of both child care and the home environment on over 1,000 typically-developing children [1]. They found that:

• “children who were cared for exclusively by their mothers did not develop differently than those who were also cared for by others” [1, p.1]

They also found that

• “parent and family characteristics were more strongly linked to child development than were child care features” [1, p.1].

This means that families have a greater impact on how a child develops than child care does.

Two family features that had a significant influence on children’s development were the quality of:

• mother-child interactions – children’s outcomes were better when mothers were responsive, sensitive, attentive, and provided good stimulation during interactions.
• the family environment – families which had organized routines, books and play materials, and engaged in stimulating experiences both in and out of the home (outings, library trips, etc.) had children with better social and cognitive outcomes.

The take home message…

Children who attend child care have the same outcomes as children who are cared for at home.

Children who attend child care have the same outcomes as children who are cared for at home. Whether a child attends daycare or not, it is the family that has a major impact on their child’s development, with the parents’ interactions with the child being a critically important factor.

Child care centres are better for children’s development than home-based child care settings

TRUE and FALSE

The NICHD study [1] compared children who attended child care centres with children who attended home-based care (e.g. a home-based daycare, or care within the child’s home by someone other than the child’s parents). They found that centre-based child care was linked to:

• somewhat better cognitive and language development
• better pre-academic skills involving letters and numbers
• fewer behaviour problems at ages 2 and 3
• more behaviour problems at age 4 ½ (such as disobedience and aggression)

Therefore, there appear to be pros and cons to both centre-based and home-based child care settings.

It doesn’t matter which child care a child goes to since most are of high quality

FALSE

The majority of child care settings provide children with a warm, supportive environment that protects children’s health and safety [2]. However, only a small percentage of children in child care receive caregiving which promotes and stimulates development.

Studies have shown that:

• “most child care settings in the United States provide care that is “fair” (between “poor” and “good”)” [1, p.11).
• only about a third of child care centres and a third of family home daycares in Canada encourage children’s social, language and cognitive development [2].
• there is some evidence that child care centres that are inclusive (that welcome and accommodate children with special needs) tend to be of higher quality than noninclusive programs [3].

What contributes to high quality child care? The NICHD [1] found that high quality care was related to the amount of “positive caregiving” provided, which means that caregivers or teachers:

• show a positive attitude
• have positive physical contact with the children
• respond frequently to the children’s vocalizations
• ask questions
• encourage the children
• sing songs and read books
• encourage and advance the children’s behaviour
• discourage negative interactions

The language used by the caregiver was the most important factor that predicted children’s cognitive and language outcomes.

Of all of these factors, the language used by the caregiver (e.g. making interested comments in response to what children say, asking questions, responding to vocalizations) is the most important factor that predicted children’s cognitive and language outcomes .

The take home message…

Parents cannot assume that all child care centres are of high quality, and should look for the “positive caregiving” qualities above when choosing a child care. The NICHD provides a “Positive Caregiving Checklist” to guide parents in selecting high quality child care. The checklist is available on their website at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/upload/seccyd_06.pdf (see page 36).

Regulated/licensed child care centres provide better quality child care than centres or home daycares that do not meet such standards

TRUE

In many regions, there are minimum standards outlined by the government known as “regulable features” [1]. These features include factors like the adult-to-child ratio, group size, and the child care provider’s training. In Canada, child care centres or family child care settings that have met these minimum requirements are known as “regulated” [4].

The NICHD study [1] found that:

• children in child care centres that met more standards (such as adult-to-child ratio, caregiver’s education level, and class size) tended have better outcomes than children in centres that met fewer standards.

The NICHD also found a connection between these features that were regulated and the extent of positive caregiving provided at a centre:

• “the more standards a child care setting meets, the more positive the caregiving. The more positive the caregiving, the higher the quality of care and the better the children’s outcomes” [1, p.12].

Therefore, regulated child care centres tend to provide more positive caregiving, which means that the children benefit more from this type of high quality care.

Children who attend high quality child care have better outcomes than children who attend lower quality child care

TRUE

We know that a child’s family and home environment influences his development more than child care does. However, the reality is that many children attend child care. The NICHD [1] compared the outcomes of children in high quality child care with children in lower quality care. They found that the children in higher quality child care centres demonstrated [1]:

• better cognitive, language, and social development
• better school readiness (e.g. reading, writing, number skills)

Therefore, when choosing a child care centre, quality does make a difference.

Assumptions about children with special needs and child care

Children with special needs have better outcomes when they are enrolled in child care

FALSE

Booth and Kelly, two authors from the above NICHD study, followed 156 young children with or at risk for developmental disabilities, to determine if child care made a difference to their development [5].

When they compared children with developmental disabilities who attended daycare and children who were cared for at home by their mothers, they found that:

• children who attended child care did not do any better than children who did not

Furthermore, when Booth and Kelly looked at the children with special needs who attended child care, they found that the quality of the caregiving at home affected the outcomes of these children [5].

Therefore, spending time in child care is not necessarily beneficial (or harmful) for the development of children with special needs [5]. Whether a child with special needs attends child care or not, the interactions that happen at home have a great impact on the child’s development.

Children with special needs should be enrolled in child care from a very young age to benefit their development

FALSE

Booth and Kelly found that:

• children who were a little older when they started daycare (over 12 months of age) were better able to control and manage their own behaviour than children who started during the first year of life.

Booth and Kelly were of the opinion that, when children begin daycare when they are a little older, it gives them more time at home with their parents, which allows them to benefit from consistent caregiving and routines. This seems to help them develop behaviour regulation skills.

Therefore, starting daycare early, especially in the first year of life, may not be ideal for children with special needs.

Children with special needs benefit from increased hours in child care

FALSE

Parents of children with special needs sometimes wonder if they should increase the number of hours their child spends in child care in order to boost their child’s development. However, Booth and Kelly [5] found that:

• the amount of time spent in child care did not influence the outcomes of children with developmental disabilities

Therefore, more hours in daycare doesn’t result in better outcomes for children with special needs.

Putting it all together

What matters most?

What is most important to a child’s development is the kind of interactions he has with his parents.

Regardless of whether children attend child care, what happens at home matters most in terms of their development. What is most important to a child’s development is the kind of interactions he has with his parents. Frequent back-and-forth interactions within everyday activities, during which parents listen to their child, respond warmly and with interest to what he communicates and provide information that he can learn from are what count. In fact, these kinds of parent-child interactions predict a child’s development – far more than child care factors do.

No differences between outcomes of children cared for in child care and at home

Contrary to what many people think, children who attend child care have similar outcomes to children who are cared for at home by their mothers. This is true for typically-developing children and children with special needs.

How to choose a child care centre

When choosing a child care, families should:

• not assume that all child care centres are of high quality
• look for evidence of positive caregiving, especially the language used by the caregiver, as this is linked to high quality care and positive outcomes
• find out if a child care is licensed or regulated, as these centres tend to provide higher quality care
• consider the pros and cons when choosing a child care centre versus a home-based setting

If your child has special needs

Families who have a child with special needs should remember that:

• starting child care after 12 months of age may give the child more time at home to learn to manage his own behaviour
• increasing a child’s daycare hours has not been shown to improve his development

Endnotes

1. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, DHHS. (2006). The NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD). Findings for Chidlren up to Age 4 ½ Years (05-4318). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
2. Doherty, G., Lero, D., Goelman, H., LaGrange, A., & Tougas, J. (2000). You bet I care! A Canada-wide study on wages, working conditions, and practices in child care centres. Centre for Families, Work and Well-Being, University of Guelph, Ontario.
3. Buysse, V., Wesley, P. W., Bryant, D., & Gardner, D. (1999). Quality of early childhood programs in inclusive and noninclusive settings. Exceptional Children, 65(3), 301‐314.
4. Parliament of Canada website: http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/LOP/ResearchPublications/prb0418-e.htm
5. Booth, C.L. & Kelly, J.F. (2002). Child care effects on the development of toddlers with special needs. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 17, 171-196.

The Hanen Centre is a Canadian not-for-profit charitable organization with a global reach. Its mission is to provide parents, caregivers, early childhood educators and speech-language pathologists with the knowledge and training they need to help young children develop the best possible language, social and literacy skills. This includes children who have or are at risk for language delays, those with developmental challenges such as autism, and those who are developing typically.

Click on the links below to learn more about how Hanen can help you help children communicate:

What a child should be able to do at 5 months: skills and development of a five-month-old baby

The development of a child at 5 months should be aimed at maintaining physical skills, strengthening the muscular corset and pushing to crawl. During this period, the behavior, feeding and daily routine of the baby changes, in which teeth begin or are already being cut.

Content:

• Physical development
• What should a child be able to do at 5 months?
  • Physical abilities and reflexes
  • Intellectual development of the child
  • Perception of the world
  • Daily routine, sleep and nutrition
  • Child care at 5 months
  • Evgeny Komarovsky’s opinion
  • What should the baby be protected from?
• When to worry?
• How to help your child develop?

Physical development

In infancy, a girl lags behind a boy in all respects. The boy is on average 0.5 kg larger and 2-3 cm taller. The difference between peers of different sexes persists in the first year of life, and then disappears.

Norms of physical indicators for five-month-old children:

Physical abilities

Bones are more elastic and proportional than before. Thanks to this, tactile sensations become well developed. During this period, the digestive system has already adapted to food, so intestinal colic practically disappears. Children who, in addition to mixtures and breast milk, began to receive complementary foods, defecate no more than 1-2 times a day. The consistency of feces is different and depends on the type of feeding.

Profuse salivation due to the eruption of the first milk teeth, which can last up to a year or longer. In this case, the gums swell, the temperature may rise and the secretion of mucus in the nose may increase.

Read also Everything about milk teeth in children: when and how do they fall out?

What should a child be able to do at 5 months?

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By this age child:

Physical abilities and reflexes

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The child is no longer lying still, but is actively learning about his body and testing its capabilities. He not only balances, lying on his stomach, but lifts up his bent legs and arms. There are extensor-pushing movements that prepare the fragile body for crawling. The baby is already holding his head evenly, being in his arms or lying on his stomach. When lifting in the arms of his mother, his head does not throw back. By this time, the reflexes of the newborn are fading.

Intellectual development of a child

The period from 4 to 6 months is called pseudospeech. Children pronounce non-localized and extremely indefinite sounds in articulation. They also distinguish the thumb from others and begin to actively use it in games.

Perception of the world

The eye muscles are fully formed, thanks to which the baby is happy to look around and follow moving objects. He emotionally reacts to his own and others, meeting the first with a smile, and the second with tears or genuine fear on his face.

The baby begins to distinguish between voices, highlighting the mother’s voice first of all from the general noise. He begins to react to sounds, the source of which can be at a distance of 5-6 meters.

Daily routine, sleep and nutrition

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A 5-month-old baby’s life includes 6 meals a day, 2-3 naps and 1-2 outdoor walks. Each family has its own daily routine, but you can take the following example as a guide:

⠀

In addition to formula milk and breastfeeding, the baby can receive other food. The introduction of early complementary foods should be consulted with a pediatrician at a routine examination. The doctor recommends starting complementary foods if the weight is not normal, the child suffers from constipation and often spit up from liquid feeding. It is allowed to give vegetable and fruit purees, juices and cereals. These products are enough for up to six months.

5 months – the age when the baby can be introduced to:

• zucchini;
• cauliflower;
• broccoli;
• potatoes;
• green apple.

Do not rush to give brightly colored vegetables and fruits. Allergies are often caused by carrots and pumpkin.

Gradually increase from ¼ teaspoon per day, then move up to ½ teaspoon and work up to 100 g by the end of 5 months.

Green apple is best served baked rather than mashed. Use homemade puree or store bought. If you’re cooking yourself, make the most of seasonal vegetables. If you buy jars in a supermarket, pay attention to their expiration date.

Read also The whole truth about children’s organic products: how not to make a mistake when choosing?

Baby Care at 5 Months

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Parents should do gymnastics with the baby and bathe him.

List of daily procedures:

1. Clean the spout.
2. Wipe the skin in the auricle and behind the ears with flannel moistened with water.
3. Wash the buttocks and genitals with warm water.
4. Powder skin rashes with powder.
5. Wash face and hands by wiping them with a soft damp cloth.
6. Change diapers after each bowel movement.
7. In the evening, bathe the baby completely for half an hour. In the bath, you can add decoctions of medicinal herbs such as chamomile, thyme or string. You can entertain him with toys.

Trim your nails at least twice a week and clean the surface of your favorite toys. Pour boiling water over wooden, rubber and plastic toys.

Opinion of Evgeny Komarovsky

Dr. Komarovsky believes that a developed child at five months old should emotionally react to what is happening, actively explore the space, try to roll over and walk. He needs constant contact with adults through conversation, reading aloud or listening to music. At this age, complementary foods can be introduced by offering to eat pureed food.

Dr. Komarovsky offers 10 simple complementary feeding rules to follow:

What should the baby be protected from?

Interest in the world around you is fraught with injuries due to falls and bumps against furniture. Do not leave your child alone while playing.

With the introduction of complementary foods, digestive problems may occur. To them will be added whims, temperature and poor sleep, which are caused by teething.

No one is immune from these problems, but they can and should be prepared for. Secure your home by removing breakable items from tables and shelves. Limit the movement of the child by covering the floor area with pillows on all sides. If you play with him on the couch or bed, don’t leave him alone. One pillow in this case is not enough. It may fall to the floor and be injured. Set up a playpen at home. Buy a teether and gum gel that relieves pain, has an antibacterial effect and promotes healing of the gums.

When should you worry?

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If the child is developmentally delayed, parents notice movement problems, lack of interest in the world around them, and reactions to changes in colors or sounds. Closely monitor the baby before sounding the alarm and running to the pediatrician. Spend more time with him to notice the slightest changes in his behavior.

One should be worried when a five-month-old child:

• does not pronounce the simplest syllables and consonants. His speech consists of long vowels. He does not try to pronounce new sounds, but continues to walk, as in 4 months;
• does not attempt to pull himself up or roll over from his back to his stomach when an adult helps him;
• does not turn around and does not change his face when a quiet conversation is replaced by emotional statements;
• does not tighten the fabric covering the eyes when lying on the back. Normally, he should try to remove what interferes with his vision;
• does not resist when they try to take the toy from him. Children at this age hold on tightly and do not give up the object when it is pulled out of their hands;
• cannot wrap his arms around a ball held out by an adult;
• shows no interest in new objects that come into view. If there is a nondescript object in front of the baby, he should quickly switch when he sees a bright toy;
• does not follow the mother moving around the room with her eyes, and looks at one point;
• can’t hold his head. She hangs when he is lifted by the handles from a lying position to a sitting position;
• cannot relax the muscles on its own. Hypertonicity is corrected by gymnastics and therapeutic massage.

When noticing irregularities, a pediatrician should be consulted!

How to help your child develop?

Leave the desire to raise a genius from the cradle and take care of the physical, sensory, emotional and speech development of the baby. Diversify your daily routine with activities aimed at gaining new skills. The peculiarity of all games is their simplicity and easy learning. It is not necessary to do all the exercises and games in one day. Do gymnastics with your baby every day. Watch the step by step video:

Physical development

An hour after feeding, place the baby on a fitball or a large ball with his stomach or back, holding his hands. Slowly swing the ball from side to side, or moving in a circle. If there is no fitball, do passive gymnastics through stroking in a circular motion, rubbing or kneading the muscles.

A good exercise to strengthen the child’s muscle corset and support the mother’s press: lie on your back and put the baby on his stomach, leaning him on his legs, bent at the knees. Lift your shoulder blades off the floor and keep your shins parallel to the floor. Holding the child with your hands, sway from side to side. In the same position, twisting can be performed to pump up the press.

Encourage crawling by doing crawling with your baby every day. Place the baby on his stomach, and under him your left hand. With your right hand, support the legs bent at the knees. Lift the child with your left hand, and push him forward with your right hand. So you can crawl a meter, most importantly, regularly repeat this exercise.

In the fifth month of life, the baby on the stomach sways from side to side. His movements are like swimming. It can be put on a flat surface and surrounded on different sides by various toys. He will try to reach them, stretching the handles forward and trying to crawl to the place where the object is.

Speech and fine motor skills

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Stretch your fingers and hands, and take a tour of the house showing objects and describing their names, colors, shapes. Stuff a cloth bag with buckwheat to stimulate the nerve endings on your fingertips.

Hang colorful pictures around your house or arrange books that show 1 or 2 characters. Carry the child in your arms, stopping in front of them. After you name who is shown in the picture, step back a couple of steps and say the name of the drawn character again. The child can search with his eyes and look back to find the previously seen hero.

Thinking

Choose a musical toy with buttons, soft melody and moderate lighting. With your baby’s finger, alternately press different buttons with a pause of a few seconds so that he can notice the difference between the sounds.

The game “Ku-ku” will help predict the outcome of actions. Covering your face with your hands in front of the child, and then moving your hands to the side, say “ku-ku”. At first, the child laughs, but as he grows up, he stops reacting violently, because he already knows how it will all end.

Perception

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A baby explores the world by looking at, touching, biting and licking things. Support him in this endeavor by making a sensory box from improvised means. Take a bowl, saucepan or cardboard box with high sides. Fill it with various cereals, pasta, raisins, nuts, buttons, scraps of different fabrics and other items. They should differ in shape, size and texture. The contents of the sensory box can be spilled or thrown overboard by a child, so be prepared for a mess.

Create your first masterpieces with your baby. Spread some oilcloth or newspaper on the floor so as not to stain it. Prepare a jar of watercolors and white sheets. Sit on the floor with your child in front of you. Dip his finger in the paint and place it on the paper. In addition to the finger, you can completely color the palm and make the first prints of the baby as a keepsake. If he pulls everything into his mouth, then instead of paint, you can use fruit or vegetable puree. They will not be able to draw, but you will leave a few blots on paper.

A five-month-old child becomes more active in learning about the world. New skills are added to those already acquired. In feeding, complementary foods appear, the amount of which increases by 6 months. The development of the child should be aimed at strengthening the muscles and tactile sensations.

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90,000 features of child development. European Center for Physical Therapy “Pelican” in St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg)

By the end of the 4th month, many babies reach the point where they need to lean on one elbow. The child can stretch and rotate the thoracic spine so that he has the opportunity to grab and examine an interesting toy from a prone position.

The child raises himself on his elbow, extends his free arm and takes a toy: the driving force behind development is the child’s purely natural desire to explore.

At this stage of development grasping, touching and exploring play an important role. A whole new experience begins. The child takes objects with his hands and explores them with the help of his senses: with the help of his mouth, the baby examines the object for taste, with his hands feels their shape and texture, and begins to perceive smells. Even as adults, people often return to this period of first discoveries and experiences and can tell what taste and smell some objects from childhood have. That is why you should not forbid children to put objects in their mouths, because this is how they learn about the world around them. This is one of the most important steps in a child’s development.

At this time, children begin to play actively both in the supine position and in the prone position. So they become more free in their actions due to the ability to lean on the elbow. When children first find this support, they try in vain to grab a toy lying in the distance. Toddlers will begin to move to the toy on their own only after a few weeks. As a rule, the child begins to play independently between the 4th and 6th month.

It is useful to give your child the right motor impulses in a playful way in advance and use them as support when handling him, for example, if your child needs to be turned. Some children “cunning” when turning over: arching, throwing back their heads and arching their backs, pushing off with their heels, instead of lifting their legs up, shifting the center of gravity. With the correct rotation, the child should mainly train the abdominal muscles. The turn always begins with a flexion of the body – chin to chest, legs raised – and ends with a stretch of the body in the prone position.

As an attentive parent, you will notice a difference in the quality of the movements. Avoid false impulses when turning. It is important not only to master each stage in time, but also to do it qualitatively. Therefore, in this article you will learn how to playfully prepare your child for the turn.

Features of the development of a child 4-5 months

supine position

The supine position becomes more stable and provides sufficient support on the back for the development of a grasping movement. The child learns to take a toy that is offered to him from the side, so that it falls into his field of vision. The kid brings the object to his mouth and studies. This is the first purposeful grab:

At the same time, at this age, the child cannot yet take a toy that is served to him in the center, and not from any side. This movement is not yet available to him, at most, the child will take the object with both hands at the same time. The kid still can’t decide which hand to use. This is due to the fact that the hemispheres of the brain at this stage are not sufficiently interconnected and work independently of each other.

Now the baby holds his head well in the middle position (in the center) and directs it to auditory and visual stimuli. He can freely turn his head in isolation from the movement of the body.

In the supine position, the body’s center of gravity is even more towards the head, so the child can raise the legs higher and connect the legs, while the big toes touch each other.

Prone position

The center of gravity of the body shifts more and more towards the feet with time. This allows the child to straighten the upper body and keep the head in the middle position (centered) longer. The legs are freely extended, slightly apart. Symmetrical support on the elbows is a necessary condition for the free rotation of the head in both directions.

Once the child feels secure in symmetrical elbow support, he again feels the opportunity to expand his range of motion and learn new things. For example, if he wants to grab a toy that is directly in front of him, he shifts his weight to one elbow, slides forward on the mat with his free hand, and reaches for the toy:

The kid can’t take his hand off the surface yet. When transferring weight, one leg is bent and the other is straightened. Thus, the symmetrical nature of the support on both hands is violated and an asymmetric support on one elbow appears.

Hand and foot development

From 4 months the time of rapid development begins. By the time the child begins to sit up, he has developed the basics of fine motor skills.

The grasping reflex is weakened, and the child can consciously open his hand to be able to take the object. Lying on his back, for the first time the child begins to reach for the toys that are offered to him from the side. In the prone position, the child can purposefully grab the object lying in front of him.

The child first grasps the object with the little finger and ring finger (the so-called ulnar grip). Or grabs and squeezes the toy with the whole palm. The palm turns towards the little finger and bends forward at the wrist.

There is still a long way to go before a precise two-finger grip (tweezer grip) as the development of the hands is linked to the development of the spine. In addition, the child still takes objects “with the whole body”, i.e. when the hands grab something, at the same time there are involuntary grasping movements of the feet (photo).

Vision

Color vision develops at this stage. Through purposeful grasping of objects, the child gradually develops the ability to judge distances. Three-dimensional vision appears from 8 months.

Rumor

The child begins to accurately identify sounds. He recognizes his parents by their voices.

Speech

A toddler at this age plays a lot with his saliva and closing his lips. It produces bubbles and friction sounds (eg, “w”, “w-ph”), as well as sounds in which the lips are pressed tightly together (eg, “m” or “m-b”).

Social behavior

The baby can now laugh out loud. He reacts to facial expressions: smiling back at friendly people and looking suspiciously at unfriendly faces.

Playing and moving advice

With the extinction of the grasping reflex, toys become even more interesting for the baby, because he begins to consciously take them and learn about them. It is important for a child at this age to put all objects in his mouth and carefully study.

Bracelets, crisp paper, stuffed animals, a string of pearls, cloth, and toys hung over the child are suitable for learning. The child first takes a toy hanging on the side. However, you can hang something more interesting for him in the middle, so that later on the fact that the child cannot take objects hanging from him with his mouth.

The inflatable paddling pool – perhaps filled with balls – will also be a very fun place for the child.

Goals achieved by a child aged 4-5 months

• Child using one elbow support
• He reaches for toys offered to him from the side
• Makes first attempts to roll over.

All articles of the Bobath category: development in the game

1. 5 months: features of the child’s development. One elbow support
2. 7–8 months: features of the child’s development.