The Development of your Baby’s Gross Motor Skills.

A baby’s gross motor skills are the large muscle group activities they do, like sitting up, reaching up, crawling, standing and walking. Baby’s do this at varying degrees of time so some babies will be fast and develop much more quickly than others. We will give general ranges for certain movements but you shouldn’t compare your baby’s development with another’s. They generally all catch up in time to drive you crazy, running around and getting into things.

During the first three months of a baby’s life, they are governed mostly by reflex. They can hold their head up from a prone position a little bit and they have no real ability to control any movements of their arms or legs. They flail about and prefer to be bundled up because sometimes their movements scare them.

Gross motor skills follow three general patterns:
• Strength and coordination generally begins close to the body and moves outward to the fingers and the toes. Movement is first coordinated at the shoulder, then at the elbow and finally at the fingers and hands.

• Muscle movement tends to progress from the head to the feet. The baby learns to lift its head up before it can sit up.

• Movement responses go from general to more specific. The baby flails at first and can’t reach its target when it is reaching for something but eventually, the movement is more refined and the baby can easily reach for something.

Its head control develops first. By two months, it can bob its head a bit when it is in the prone position, and by three to four months, the muscles become strong enough so that it can hold its head up in a prone position and can hold its head better when held. By four to six months, it can hold its head steady when you pull him up to a seated position and it doesn’t fall backwards. After six months, he can hold his head well when in a seated position and maintain this position.

The ability to sit becomes clear next. It is able to sit with support by about four months of age but tires easily. He prefers having his back supported but likes the upright position so he can see around him. He can even sit in a high chair if blankets are used to support his torso. He can hold himself upright in a backpack with support and can sit with support in a stroller. Between five and seven months of age, he may be able to sit alone. He gradually becomes stronger and stronger at this and tips over less. By nine months, he can push himself into a seated position by himself and is very steady when he sits. He no longer has to use his hands for support and can play with toys.
Rolling over is an important milestone. Your baby needs to learn how to roll over from a prone to supine (lying on his back) position and from a supine to a prone position. This requires a total body motion. At about three months, he can roll onto his side. Between four and six months, he can roll from his stomach to his back, an easier maneuver than rolling from back to stomach. It takes about from five to seven months to roll from back to stomach easily.

Crawling is the next thing to master. First the baby must get into a crawling position on his hands and knees. First attempts at doing so can occur as early as five months or as late as nine months. The baby must learn to coordinate the hands and the legs together in order to get crawling along the ground. The rate at which a baby crawls is very variable. The baby first begins to creep with little coordination of the lower extremities and weakness of the upper extremities. Progress may begin in a backwards direction. Finally, by eight to nine months, the baby can actually crawl on its hands and knees.

Standing happens at a variable rate. Between three and six months of age, the baby will be able to bear weight on its legs when you stand him up. Later, he can bounce up and down on your knee when you stand him up. The baby will be able to pull himself to a standing position as early as six months of age. It can happen as late as ten months of age. Make sure the baby has dangerous things out of his reach and that he can have room to cruise around furniture without danger. The baby will be able to stand alone around eleven months of age.

The baby can begin to cruise around on furniture around nine months of age although it can be earlier or later than that. Eventually, the child lets go of the furniture and can walk without assistance by the age of 14 months. By eighteen months, the baby will learn to walk backwards and between fourteen and twenty one months, he can walk up and down stairs. He runs around 18 months.
It’s important to remember that every baby learns these things on his own schedule and that these are only guidelines for when most babies learn these skills.