The Best Childcare To Help Your Infant Hit Growth Milestones From 0 - 12 Months
It's important to understand how your child develops during the first 12 months and find a childcare that provides the best environment for them do so.
The Best Childcare To Help Your Infant Hit Growth Milestones From 0 - 12 Months
It's important to understand how your child develops during the first 12 months and find a childcare that provides the best environment for them do so.
Besides being well-equipped, a good daycare centre should also have carers who go beyond simply providing quality care, to consistently engaging in activities that are designed to help your child hit key growth milestones.
Read on to find out more about the developmental milestones for infants at each stage of growth in the first 12 months.
How do infants develop in the first 12 months?
In the first 12 months, infants learn mostly from interacting with their surroundings, parents and carers. As an infant goes through new experiences, their minds form connections that build their neural networks.
The experiences they have as an infant provide the basis for explosive growth and development in the toddler and preschool stages!
Thus, it’s important for your infant to be exposed to various forms of stimulation that will build the foundation for them to grow exponentially in the later stages of their development.
What are the developmental milestones for infants in the first 12 months?
Here are some of the milestones that we help infants to reach in each of the S.M.I.L.E.S. areas.
Please note that this list is not exhaustive; if you would like to find out more, feel free to speak with us or drop by one of our centres, where our carers will be happy to share more.
Sensory
- Responds to gentle touching, cuddling, rocking
- Shuts eyes tight in bright sunlight
- Starts reaching to swipe at dangling objects
Motor
- Squirms, waves arm, legs move up and down
- Begins to roll from side to side
- Grasps object and put onto hands
Intellectual
- Smiles and laughs
- Uses facial expression to respond to their environment
- Recognises familiar people at a distance
Linguistic
- Expresses varying cries for different needs (hunger cries vs tired cries)
- Coos and gurgles
- Soothed by sound of voice or by low rhythmic sounds
Emotional & Social
- Smiles and laughs
- Shows interest in facial expression
- Shows excitement as caregiver attends to him/her
Sensory
- Able to reach and grasp object, put into hands
- Turns head to sounds of voices
- Able to calm down with rocking, touching, and gentle sounds
Motor
- Plays with feet and toes
- Raises head and chest when lying on stomach
- Begins to crawl
Intellectual
- Enjoys games such as peek-a-boo or pat-a-cake
- Coordinates looking, hearing and touching
- Explores objects by looking at and mouthing them
Linguistic
- Babbles and repeat sounds
- Makes talking sounds in response to others talking
- Listen and responds when spoken to
Emotional & Social
- Recognises familiar people and stretches arms to be picked up
- Laughs, especially in social interactions
- Begins to show wariness of strangers
Sensory
- Attempts to bring food to mouth and grasp spoon in palm
- Responds to playing with water/sand/textures in general
- Enjoys listening to songs and rhymes
Motor
- Raises self to sitting position
- Transfers objects from hand to hand
- Picks up and pokes small objects with thumb and finger
Intellectual
- Moves obstacle to get at desired toy
- Responds to own name
- Makes gestures to communicate (e.g. points to something they want)
Linguistic
- Babbles tunefully
- Says words like ‘dada’ or ‘mama’
- Waves goodbye
Emotional & Social
- Shows preferences to certain people or things
- Persists in trying to do things on his/her own
- Can actively cooperate with nappy changing
How do we help infants reach their developmental milestones?
We immerse infants in an engaging environment where we create and seize moments through the day to enhance their Sensory, Motor, Intellectual, Linguistic, Emotional and Social (S.M.I.L.E.S.) development.
At this stage, infants can’t adapt to a set routine as they require a lot of sleep. From the ages of 4 to 12 months, an infant will need to sleep for 12 to 16 hours a day!
Thus, our carers adopt a semi-individualised approach to daily activities that is more in-tune to each infant’s individual needs for sleeping, feeding, caring and comforting.
Rather than ‘timetabling’ activities at specific times during the day, we set achievable targets for our carers to constantly create development opportunities through the day in all 6 of the S.M.I.L.E.S. areas.