Supporting Your Baby's Developments
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Baby Month 5 – What can Babies do at 5 months? What to Expect
By the fifth month of life, Baby does not seem as helpless as he appeared previously. He starts to understand things, and his maturity starts to amaze you daily. You should now be able to sleep through most of the night, if not all night. Those babies who don’t sleep through the night yet, tend to sleep for several hours and wake for only a couple of hours before you. Playtime is discovery time for your baby now, and during this time, he will:
- See you and other objects from across the room with his strengthened eyesight
- Pays attention to small objects and toys
- Begin to use his hands to grasp things and uses toys as tools to get to wanted toys and other items
- Begin teething
- Discover cause and effect, where he drops things to see what happens next. For example, drops toys to the floor to see if someone will pick them up.
- Try to hold himself up when in a sitting position and hold his head up all the time.
What to do
Use the timetable below to support their development and avoid developmental delays.
hOW TO SUPPORT Baby's DEVELOPMENTS
The biggest difference you’ll see now is the strength in their neck muscles, as they are able to support the weight of their head and turn to face things more easily. This will aid them in their ability to sit up independently more easily.
Babies have the ability to pick things up and inspect them to develop their own understanding. They will also put everything into their mouths, so take extra care of the things they can now reach.
Your baby’s hearing is almost as good as an adult’s now, and they can recognise different noises. Their hearing is also a source of knowledge, helping them learn about the things around them. Read and sing songs to support this.
Baby’s senses are more developed now and heighten their ability to learn.
Heuristic play can further support your child’s development, so use this to develop their understanding further.
Gurgling, cooing and making verbal sounds show that they are preparing their vocal cords for speaking and their brain is starting to process the verbal information around them. Continue to talk to them, read and sing to them.
Baby’s have a good relationship with their carer now. They smile and giggle when they see them and are able to call out to them to get attention, showing that they are developing social skills.
The colour receptors in their eyes should have developed well, so they can now see in technicolour, not only black and white. Anything bright and colourful will attract their attention, but pastel-coloured items ignored.
Everything a baby experiences now leads to knowledge. Toys, books, social interactions and their senses, all lead to valuable learning experiences. Be aware that they can find all the information presented to them tiring.
4 – 6 Months
Continue to use the resources from 0-3 months and the following resources below.
Follow the Sound
Monitor you infant’s hearing development and stimulate their listening skills.
Sound clips library
Stimulate your child’s hearing with these different noises. Also use with accompanying picture cards.
Music and audio stories
If you are short of time and cannot read or sing to baby yourself, play music or stories in the background for your infant to listen to and support their brain development.
Coloured cards
16 coloured pictures, to focus and strengthen baby’s eye colour receptors. Hold the pictures 18 inches away from them. Alternate with the black and white images.
Rattles
Easy to hold, they come in a variety of shapes, sizes and perform different activities. These are great resources for independent discovery.
Baby's Day Out
As baby is more alert now, sit them up in a pushchair facing outwards to learn more about their world and discover the things around them.
Scents & Fragrances
Baby will start eating solids soon, so prepare for the new tastes by introducing them to new scents and fragrances.
Feely cushions
Baby will start eating solids soon, so prepare for the new tastes by introducing them to new scents and fragrances.
Food time
Babies start to eat solids from now, so introduce your child to different tastes, even if they don’t eat the food.
Baby Massage
Continue to massage babies, especially their legs, as they will kick vigourously and strengthen them.
Going Up
Babies need to strengthen and straighten their muscles so that they are able to stand in preparation for walking.
Row, Row, Row
Physical activities you can with your baby will develop stronger bonds, as well as stronger muscles.
Story Telling
Develop your child’s language skills by telling them stories.
Activity Songs
Talk through your actions and tell your child what you are doing.
Gesturing
Pointing and gesturing are great ways to highlight new things to baby.
Puppet Time
Puppets are a great way to teach social skills.
Dance Time
Dancing with baby around the room develops social bonds.
Social Interactions
Encourage interactions with others to develop social skills
Baby Books
Fabric books and bath books are a great way to get babies interested in books and potentially read later on.
What is it?
Although baby cannot talk he can reach for things he recognises or wants. Test your baby’s knowledge with this activity.
Follow it around 3
This activity is a great way to teach your child new words and give them new knowledge. Cut out the resources from below.
