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Intellectual Development of Infants
It is important for
parents and day care providers to help infants with thinking and language
skills. This is a time of tremendous change in the physical, emotional,
and intellectual development of infants. Everything
infants learn sets the stage for later development!
INFANTS FROM BIRTH
TO SIX MONTHS OLD:
- focus on and follow
moving objects with their eyes.
- have different
cries to express hunger, anger, and pain.
- babble, coo, and
gurgle.
- turn to locate
the source of sounds.
- study their hands
and feet.
- forget about objects
they cannot see.
- explore things
by putting them in their mouth.
INFANTS FROM SEVEN
TO TWELVE MONTHS OLD:
- make sounds like
"dada" and "mama."
- repeat actions
that cause a response - when given a rattle, they will shake it and
laugh.
- wave bye-bye and
play pat-a-cake.
- look for things
not in sight.
- begin to pretend
by acting out familiar activities.
- respond to simple
directions.
- make sounds that
can be understood by people who know them well.
- may speak their
first understandable words by 12 months.
ACTIVITIES TO TRY
WITH INFANTS
- Hold, rock, and
sing to young babies.
- Take them outside
on nice days.
- Explain what you
are doing throughout the day when you change or feed them.
- Let young babies
lie on a big piece of paper and hear the crunching noise when they move.
- Play different
kinds of music on the radio.
- Hang bright toys
for babies to see and hear. Hang aluminum pie plates on a string. Let
a breeze blow them, or move them with your hand.
- Give them soft
toys - a stuffed animal or a clean sock - to hold and feel.
- At their eye level,
hang up big pictures of people and animals on the wall.
- Have a clean space
for babies to crawl. Put bright toys near babies to reach out for or
move toward. Put a big cardboard box on the floor so babies can crawl
inside and play.
- Put cushions on
the floor so babies can bounce and roll on them.
Reprinted with permission
from the National Network for Child Care - NNCC. (1994). Intellectual
development of infants. In M. Lopes (Ed.) CareGiver News (October, p.3).
Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Cooperative Extension.
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