Baby's First Year Developmental Milestones - Cognitive, Motor & Verbal Skills

It’s your baby’s first birthday and it’s time to celebrate. While you must be reminiscing about the past one year, which incidentally resembles more to a roller coaster ride, than those cute parenting pictures you have seen online, you must also be equally anxious to see how your little one shapes up in the coming years. When will she talk? What will her first words be? When will she walk? Will she be as intelligent as you think? [Also Know - 3-6 Months Baby's Vision, Hearing & Sleep Milestones]

There is an incredible spurt of growth in your baby’s overall development in the first year itself. She is not just taking her first few steps but also attempting to speak her first few words and communicate with you through the use of gestures, eye contact, and vague sounds. And while you prep up your camera to catch all these glorious moments, we bring to you a crips blog to know what all is happening vis-à-vis your baby’s development.

Major Developmental Milestones Between Infancy & Toddler Ages

Here are major developmental milestones between infancy and toddler ages. Read about these

Your Baby’s Motor Skills

Your baby has progressed from holding her neck, sitting independently, crawling all over the home to walking with support and soon without support. She might hold onto your hand or a piece of furniture for support, or just walk along the wall. But here a watch-out! Your baby at this stage will not know which objects are stationary and will support her weight. So be careful at all times to make sure that she is safe and the physical space in which she is moving is clutter free and baby-proof. Remember, she is in a completely exploratory stage and wants to touch and feel everything around. Keep those delicate breakables out of her reach.

She might begin feeding herself with her tiny fingers. She can grasp tiny beads, pebbles, pieces of paper, raisins, etc. She will now hold her milk bottle and little tumbler to drink water. You can give her a slice of soft food to eat and she will be independent. She will also love to play with tiny objects and eatables. But what babies love the best at this time? Banging objects that create lots of noise, so be prepared for the ruckus. [Also Know - 12-18 Months Baby's Developmental Milestones]

Your Baby’s Cognitive Skills 

As your baby reaches her first birthday, she has started comprehending that objects have names and they have functions. She is inquisitive to find hidden things, manipulate items to get a response - drop a cup, bang the bowl on the floor and listen to the banging sound. Now, with her growing attention span, you can start teaching her about the world around her. Teaching may not mean academically, but familiarizing her to objects and people beyond her immediate environment. This is best done by frequently talking to her about the same and taking her out with you when possible. 

She will understand the proper use of objects like a toothbrush, hair-brush, spoon, cup and demonstrate the same in a playful manner. She will imitate your actions and gestures and follow your simple directions. She will also love music and rhythmic patterns. 

Your Baby’s Verbal Skills 

By the end of the first year, your baby is though still relying on pointing, gesturing and throwing things to communicate, but she has now probably progressed from cooing to producing bilabial sounds like "ba ba, da da". She is beginning to respond to her name, understand no, sometimes heard saying mama, or imitate sounds made by you. She is enjoying looking at bright pictures, animations, and nursery rhymes, sung repeatedly to her. [Also Know - 7-9 Months Baby's Communication, Motor-skills Milestones]

Your Baby’s Social Skills

Your baby’s mood at this stage is quite unpredictable. At one moment she might cling to you, and at the other moment, she might be wandering on her own completely. While most of her behaviors are communicating something, primarily they are all attention seeking. She would react to unfamiliar people with shyness, might show preference to specific caregivers, have a favorite toy or place at home, wants to go out with you and help you in getting dressed by extending her arms. She would show preference to being around people than playing with toys mostly.