You don’t just have to wait for your baby to reach milestones. You can teach them!

These milestones include holding up the head, rolling over, sitting independently, crawling, standing holding-on to something and eventually walking. These are all skills that can be taught through practice and repetition.

Before I dive in, I have a background in child development, early childhood education and elementary education. I went to university to study babies and received a diploma in Early Childhood Development and then continued on to receive my degree in Elementary Education. This all happened long before I began photography but it helps explain why my business focus is on babies. I’m just obsessed! I always have been. Babies have been my favourite thing since I got a baby brother at the age of 3!

Now as a photographer I get to see a lot of babies between 0-18 months of age, and I am often surprised at the variety of stages each baby is at. I have seen healthy 7 month old babies that don’t roll over, while another 7 month old is crawling all over the place. I have seen 9 month olds walking and others not sitting independently. I see a lot of 4 month old babies that can’t hold up their head on their tummy. The difference is not necessarily about ability, but about lack of practice.

Now this post is not meant to shame anyone at all. As a parent myself I noticed something very interesting between my 3 children.

My first baby was just that, the first. I had nothing but time to spend with her and play with her. We did a LOT of tummy time, from the day she was born. We practiced rolling, showing her how to move her arm out of the way so she could get all the way over. I also regularly lifted my 5 month old up onto her hands and knees moving each limb, one at a time, to show her how to crawl. She spent a lot of time using jolly jumpers and exersaucers and just good ol’ playing on the ground. This led to a baby that could crawl at 6 months and walked at 9 months old. Let me say just how crazy it is to see a tiny 9 month old just walking around lol. It was wild.

Then came my second baby less than 2 years after my first. It is a given that this girl had WAYYYY less instruction from Mama. I was busy with 2 kids under 2 and like any Mom with littles, I didn’t get enough sleep. Not only did I have less time to devote to baby 2 but she also had a big sister who would bring her anything she wanted. This resulted in a baby that didn’t reach milestones for quite a while. This girl still had plenty of floor time, along with the same jolly jumper and exersaucer experience, but she did not get much 1:1 instruction. This led to much later milestones, like sitting at 10 months old and she sure took her time to walk at 15 months of age. I know, had I put in the time to teach her these skills, she would have mastered them sooner but it sure was helpful to have baby 2 stay in one spot rather than chasing after 2 mobile ones.

Then entered my son and last baby. He came when big sisters were 5 and 3. They spent a lot of time playing with him and encouraging him to move around. He mastered sitting around 6 months and walking by his first birthday.

Every baby is different, just like every human is different. We all have various talents and skills that we just seem to be ‘born with’ but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn. Just like I had to work hard and practice photography to get really good at it, babies need to practice skills enough to learn them.

Milestones can be taught.

Here are some ways you can help your baby reach milestones sooner (if you want them too):

1. Tummy time every single day – start with really short blocks of time and gradually increase it to develop their strength.
2. More floor time – A firm, open surface gives them space to use all their muscles and move freely
3. Guided movements – physically show them how to roll over by rolling them over. Get them on their hands and knees. Start moving their arms and legs in the crawling motion.
4. Create incentive – place that remote just out of reach and see how hard they work to get to it. You can also use snacks, soothers, stuffies, spatulas lol. Anything that they really want. You will be amazed at how hard they work to get those items.
5. Build muscle – This can happen in so many ways. You can hold them up – jumping on your legs. You can superman fly them in the air, which builds core strength. Exersaucers get them up on their legs and mastering balance.

The more your baby is able to move freely, the sooner they will figure out their body and how to move it!

I highly encourage you to sit on the floor with your baby and have some fun. They pick things up so quickly. It is fascinating to watch!

These are suggestions for mastering the milestones, but there is still so much for babies to learn beyond the physical skills.

Things like communication! The best thing I ever did for my babies was to teach them simple sign language. It is pretty cool when your 4/5 month old can tell you what they want, before they can speak. My top baby signs were – milk, eat, more, please, finished, thank you. You can learn how to do those signs here. Of course the most important part of communication is speech. The more you talk to your baby about what your doing, the quicker they pick up on language. I also spent a lot of time teaching my kids to pronounce words properly. Repetition is your best friend. Just keep doing these skills over and over, until they are mastered.

I hope this post encouraged you to have some fun teaching your little one. The first year of life is so full of change. It never ceases to amaze me how much a newborn learns before their first birthday!

I’d love to hear about your time teaching milestones to your baby. Tell me about something that really made your Mommy heart leap with pride!