Your Baby’s Development: 8 Months Old
If you have not yet baby-proofed your home, now might be the time to do so! At age 8 months, your baby’s motor skills and independence in exploring the environment is rapidly developing.
Crawling:
Crawling on hands and knees has a wide normal range, typically beginning between 6 and 10 months of age.
Before learning to crawl, your 8-month-old is learning to push up to the all-4s position from tummy time. He/she will rock back and forth and side to side on hands and knees, experimenting with the position; this is providing important weight-shifting and strengthening opportunities in prep for crawling and forward movement.
Your baby also will learn to reach with one arm for a toy while maintaining the quadruped position, another important precursor to crawling as he/she experiments with lifting one arm from the ground.
If your baby is already crawling at 8 months, he/she will soon be able to climb over uneven surfaces (pillows, obstacles on the floor). This requires problem solving new movement strategies and provides your baby with opportunities to learn visual-perceptual skills such as spatial awareness, height, and distance. This is an excellent time to begin to introduce climbing blocks or other “obstacles” in your baby’s path to encourage the development of these new skills.
Sitting
Around 8-9 months, babies learn how to transition themselves to sit independently. This often begins by transitioning from the all-4s position to sit and progresses to transitioning to sit from the laying down position. These new skills allow so many more play opportunities as your baby can independently move between laying down, all 4s/crawling, and sitting positions.
Independent Play
Your 8-month-old can demonstrate a variety of sitting postures (ring sitting, long sitting, a combination of the two, side sitting). He/she has also developed protective reactions to the side and the front, meaning that he/she is able to catch themselves with loss of balance. Backwards protective reactions develop a little later on, so you may want to continue to provide a soft surface behind your baby in case he/she loses balance backwards.
Standing
Your baby’s standing skills are also rapidly developing around 8 months. Your baby can stand while holding onto furniture for support. This is becoming a favorite play position for many babies. Many babies also learn to pull themselves to stand between 8-10 months at furniture, climbing blocks, or even your legs!
Fine Motor Skills
Your 8-month old’s fine motor skills are also progressing quickly!
Radial Digital Grasp: He/she can pick up objects using a radial digital grasp pattern, meaning he/she is able to secure objects with the pad of the thumb and the first two fingers. This grasp pattern demonstrates your baby’s ability to perform more precise fine motor control. Your baby is also able to isolate the index finger to point to or poke objects.
Voluntary Release: Furthermore, between 8-9 months, your baby develops voluntary release and can thus let go of objects on purpose. This enables him/her to begin to enjoy container play, a type of play in which your baby will place objects into and take them out of containers. Through experimentation with container play, your baby is learning about spatial awareness, concepts of “in” and “out”, “under” and “over”.
Two Hand Coordination
At 8-9 months, your baby is also beginning to learn how to clap hands or bang objects together, one of the first ways your baby will use two hands in a coordinated manner. Your baby is also beginning to finger feed themselves small pieces of food.
Each month within the first year offers new opportunities to play and explore the environment! Tiny Transformations is equipped with therapists skilled at helping families support their baby’s early development. If you feel like your baby may benefit from some additional support, consider scheduling an evaluation. Early evaluation and treatment can often set up a baby for developmental success!