Supporting Your Baby's Developments
Choose a timetable
Baby Month 11 – What to Expect
By this time, your baby is nearly a year old. At eleven months, your baby has a routine. She has favorite games and toys she likes to play with and enjoys running the house. She has learned the limits that you have and how far these limits can be pushed. Your baby can:
- Understand when you say ‘no’ and other simple/short instructions
- Greet people
- Wave bye-bye
- Say ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ and other simplified names for family members
- Recognize family members in pictures as well as by name and in person
- Clap hands in excitement
- Join in with others while playing short/simple games such as ‘itsy bitsy spider’ and the ‘wheels on the bus’
What to do
Use the timetable below to support their developments and avoid developmental delays.
hOW TO SUPPORT Baby's DEVELOPMENTS
Baby is much stronger now. Crawling or shuffling is their main mode of movement and her urge to pull herself up to standing will get stronger every day. If she isn’t already able to pull herself by gripping onto furniture, she will be soon. Give her plenty of exercise to strengthen those muscles.
Discovery reaches new heights as baby may now be able to stand up and look around. It is a good time to ensure that all small furniture is removed which could be pulled to the floor. Your baby will be unstoppable now as she races around and clambers to make new discoveries.
Babies can now pick things up with just their index finger and thumb or by using the pincer grip. So the smallest things can be picked up and put into her mouth. Make sure your floors are clear of stray nails, tacks, staplers, earring backs or anything that may have dropped by accident.
All baby’s senses are fully active now, she will be taking in information and learning very quickly. She will not be having as many naps as before and want to stay awake, but will get cranky when tired. Help her by setting up regular nap times and reducing excitement before these times.
Baby understands what you are saying more easily now. Develop this understanding further by talking to her regularly, repeating instructions during the day, so that her ears build up a familiarity.
Baby will start to develop a clinginess to the immediate people around her. If you would like her to become more relaxed in the company of others, attend playgroups, or parent and toddler groups, so that she comes in contact with more children and adults to develop confidence.
Baby is now starting to experiement and see how things work. She may deliberately do things to see what happens. For example, she may grab hair and be told off, but then do it again to see if she gets told off again. She may drop somethng on the floor, which you pick up, then drops it again to see if you will pick it up again.
Baby’s knowledge and understanding continues to develop as she experiences new things and experiments with the things around her. She uses all her 5 senses of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling now to gather knowledge. Take her outside, rotate her toys and give her new experiences to learn from.
10 – 12 Months
Continue to use the resources from 10-12 months too as well as the resources below.
Take a walk
Strengthen baby’s arms and legs by standing them between your legs, while you are sitting and bounce them gently on their feet.
Bubble Wrap Dance
Play some music with a beat, holding baby’s hands, let her bounce on her feet to the beat. Or let her bounce in a walker etc.
Post it Pleasure
Stick post it notes on the wall and get your baby to stretch for them to grab them. Give them lots of encouragement to reach them all.
Chunky chalks
Thick, chunky chalk are great for making marks on sidewalks and pavements outside. Show your baby how to use them, then let them create their materpieces.
Finger Foods
Baby is able to co-ordinate herself more now, so encourage her to feed herself finger foods that she can hold in her hand. Supervise her to avoid choking.
Insert boards
Like jigsaws, insert boards require baby to pick up pieces and insert them into a board to make the picture or fit into a gap. These can take a few months to get used to.
How interesting
Teach your child new words, like parts of their body, by pointing to them and saying the word. So point to their leg and say ‘leg’, and repeat over the weeks.
New Situations
Expose your child to new environments and new situations that they can learn about.
Treasure box
Give baby a box of goodies and tempt her to open the treasure box, by showing her what’s inside.
Heuristic play
Babies are fascinated by the natural world around them. Gather twigs, pinecones, pebbles etc. for baby to explore. Make sure they have been sterilised for safety.
Spaghetti Fun
Cooked spaghetti is fun to play with. It’s long, slippery and safe when cooked, for babies to play with. Boil up pasta pieces too, to add variety and different textures.
Baby Slide
Help your child experience different sensations like sliding down a slide.
Yes - nodding
Animated speech or sign language is great for teaching babies language at such a young age. Use actions they can copy too.
Saying Please
Manners make children more sociable and appear friendlier. Teach them words like please and thank you to get started.
No thank you
Shake your head when saying ‘no’. and start using sign language to develop simple communications.
Drink, Tired
The sooner your baby can express their feelings, the better for you both, to stop the guessing.
Hello Goodbye
Teach your child common greetings to make them more sociable. start with the obvious ‘hello and bye’.
Social Interactions
Encourage interactions with others to develop social skills. Take baby to play groups etc.
Board Books
Board books are a great way to get your baby engaged in books because many have squeakers and buttons to press.
Making Big Puzzles
Talk about the pieces of the big puzzles pieces as they magically make pictures as they are put together.
Flying Blanket
Don’t have a flying carpet? Then here we have the next best thing – a flying blanket. Take your baby for a ride and teach new words.
