Top 10 Cognitive Milestones for Babies Aged 7-9 Months

The 10 Most Important Cognitive Milestones for Babies Aged 7-9 Months
👶 Welcome to Daily Dose of Parenting! In this video, we explore the ten most important cognitive milestones for babies aged 7-9 months. From developing object permanence to engaging in joint attention, these milestones are crucial for your baby's cognitive and social development.
1. 🧠 Object Permanence
Understanding that objects exist even when out of sight. Example: Playing peekaboo or hiding a toy under a blanket (Piaget, 1954).
2. 👋 Imitation of Actions
Babies imitate actions, crucial for learning. Example: Clapping hands when a parent claps (Meltzoff & Moore, 1977).
3. 🧸 Improved Memory
Memory expands significantly. Example: Recognizing a favorite toy or familiar face (Rovee-Collier, 1999).
4. 🔍 Exploratory Play
Using hands and mouths to investigate objects. Example: Banging a toy to hear the sound it makes (Hutt, 1979).
5. ⚙️ Cause and Effect Understanding
Grasping that actions cause reactions. Example: Pressing a button on a toy to make it light up (Gopnik et al., 1999).
6. 📚 Increased Attention Span
Longer focus on activities. Example: Playing with a musical toy for several minutes (Ruff & Rothbart, 1996).
7. 👀 Joint Attention
Shared focus on an object, crucial for social and language development. Example: Looking at a toy that a caregiver is holding. Develops around 9 months (Mundy & Newell, 2007).
8. 🗣️ Understanding Simple Commands
Comprehending commands and gestures. Example: Responding to "no" by pausing their action (Kuhl, 2004).
9. 😃 Social Referencing
Looking to caregivers for cues in unfamiliar situations. Example: Seeking reassurance when meeting a new person (Feinman, 1992).
10. 🔊 Babbling and Sound Experimentation
Experimenting with sounds, a precursor to words. Example: Making sounds like "ba-ba" or "da-da" (Oller, 2000).
🔗 References
Piaget, J. (1954). The Construction of Reality in the Child. Basic Books.
Meltzoff, A. N., & Moore, M. K. (1977). Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates. Science, 198(4312), 75-78.
Rovee-Collier, C. (1999). The development of infant memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8(3), 80-85.
Hutt, C. (1979). Exploration and Play in Children. Heinemann Educational Books.
Gopnik, A., Meltzoff, A. N., & Kuhl, P. K. (1999). The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Children Learn. William Morrow & Co.
Ruff, H. A., & Rothbart, M. K. (1996). Attention in Early Development: Themes and Variations. Oxford University Press.
Mundy, P., & Newell, L. (2007). Attention, joint attention, and social cognition. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(5), 269-274.
Pascalis, O., de Haan, M., & Nelson, C. A. (1995). Is face processing species-specific during the first year of life? Science, 300(5625), 195-196.
Kuhl, P. K. (2004). Early language acquisition: Cracking the speech code. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5(11), 831-843.
Feinman, S. (1992). Social Referencing and the Social Construction of Reality in Infancy. Springer US.
Oller, D. K. (2000). The Emergence of the Speech Capacity. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Kuchirko, Y., & Song, L. (2014). Why is infant language learning facilitated by parental responsiveness? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(2), 121-126.
Jones, E. J. H., Venema, K., Earl, R. K., Lowy, R., & Webb, S. J. (2017). Infant social attention: An endophenotype of ASD-related traits? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58(3), 270-281.
Jones, E. J. H., Gliga, T., Bedford, R., Charman, T., & Johnson, M. H. (2014). Developmental pathways to autism: A review of prospective studies of infants at risk. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.