Ways to promote developmental milestones

Play is crucial for helping your children reach their developmental milestones. Play allows children to explore, engage, imagine, and learn new motor patterns, which can help them reach these three major milestones.

Rolling Over

Once your baby has good head control and can sit independently without support then the next phase is rolling over.  First, lets break down the sequence of rolling over.  You want to make sure your child is comfortable with laying on their back, laying on their tummy with chest raised, and finally laying on both of their sides. Facilitating movement at the hips will start the process of the child learning the new motor pattern of rolling over. Using a toy that lights up and makes sounds can promote your child’s attention and is an incentive for them to move towards the toy.  This toy is a great option to place on one side of your child and help them start to turn and roll over.

Crawling

This is a four point quadruped pose used to start crawling and help children weight bear through their upper body, which helps strengthen their fine motor (hand/finger) skills. I love to put this or this in front of the kiddos to help them learn how to hold this pose to strengthen their tummies, arms, and promote eye-hand control. If you want to encourage crawling, put either toy a few inches away to have them begin to move forward. If they start to crawl, continue moving the toy and encourage them to follow.

Walking

This toy is really neat because it helps promote three different motor patterns as the child gets older — walking, sitting, and riding. Once children start pulling themselves up and can hold some standing positions they will want to start adding movement. A walker helps children learn to balance and shift their weight while helping them take steps. Children are able to weight bear and push through their arms as they begin to add movement. The sitting and riding elements of this toy also help improve gross motor function and strengthening in the legs at the hip, knee, and ankle joints.

Erika

Erika is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist in Suwanee, Georgia. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Child and Family Development at the University of Georgia, and her Master’s of Health Sciences in Occupational Therapy at Augusta University.  Although, Erika has extensive experience in a variety of settings, her passion is in Pediatrics. Erika collaborates with parents to help them better understand how to support their child’s individual needs and she creates a positive and safe environment where the child can be encouraged to engage, explore, and master new skills.