by Nancy Meenen | Aug 23, 2023
Sleep continues to become more organized. Babies grow out of needing their morning nap between 12 and 18 months. They then settle into a longer afternoon nap and better, longer night sleep. They are often more ready to wean off their nighttime feedings if they are...
by Nancy Meenen | Jul 25, 2023
Notice and describe the toddler’s new developmental gains, i.e., the language explosion, more sophisticated joint (shared) attention, pretend play, two step problem solving and increased certainty about their wants and needs. For older infants and toddlers, frame the...
by Nancy Meenen | Jul 25, 2023
Emerging inhibitory capacity is demonstrated in this video. A mother gives her twins some pieces of chocolate, then asks them to wait to eat it until she comes back. In this video, both children are working hard to inhibit their impulse to eat the chocolate right...
by Nancy Meenen | Jul 25, 2023
Notice and describe the older infant’s developmental gains such as more sophisticated and reciprocal babbling, the emergence of re-duplicated babbling and new joint attention skills such as showing objects, following a point, gaze monitoring and social referencing....
by Nancy Meenen | Jul 25, 2023
9-month-olds are more mobile and their vocalizations are becoming even more complex with the development of “reduplicated babbling” (ie. babbling with consonants). They are able to string together consonant-vowel sounds such as baba, dadada, gaga etc. In response to...
by Nancy Meenen | Jul 25, 2023
6-month-old babies are becoming much more social and curious and want to be part of whatever is going on. It can take caregivers by surprise that the baby will interrupt breastfeeding or won’t settle into sleep if the baby thinks they are missing out on something....
by Nancy Meenen | Jul 25, 2023
Share with caregivers at the first visits that their baby already recognizes their voice and loves to be held close so they can see their caregiver’s face! Reassure caregivers that it is not spoiling to follow their baby’s cues for engagement, disengagement, hunger,...
by Nancy Meenen | Jul 25, 2023
4-month-olds are becoming increasingly social and vocal with more sustained back and forth babbling, inflections and high-pitched squeals. Babies often want to be held facing out to the world to observe and join in interactions. They already have the beginning of...
by Nancy Meenen | Jul 25, 2023
Social smiling usually starts around 6 weeks of age, though babies often have reflexive smiles starting even in utero and right after birth, underscoring their innate readiness to relate. Back and forth cooing emerges. Infants can now fix and follow past the midline....
by Nancy Meenen | Jul 25, 2023
Newborns are born ready to relate. At birth, they already prefer looking at faces and recognize familiar voices. They can track to the midline. Their vision is about 20/400 and they see best at a distance of 8-10” – the exact distance a cradled baby is from...
