Exercises For 7-9 Month Old Babies Characteristics of a 7 – 9 Month Old Baby
• He’s on the move – by 7 months she can probably roll to her tummy and back again, sit without your help, and support her weight with her legs well enough to bounce when you hold her. • He can pick up large objects, such as blocks. She won’t be able to grab smaller objects until she develops better finger dexterity. • He can use a raking grasp to pull objects closer and can hold toys and move them from one hand to another. • He is more sensitive to your tone of voice and may heed your warning when you tell her “no.” • He also knows his name now and turns to look at you when you call her.
• Give her lots of opportunities to strengthen her new physical skills by helping her sit and positioning her to play on both her stomach and back.
Points to Remember
Video • Peekaboo is a favorite game and he enjoys finding partially hidden objects. He views the world in full color now and can see farther. If you move a toy in front of him, he’ll follow it closely with his eyes. Watching himself in a mirror is sure to delight him. • Keep talking to your baby: This is a critical time for his language development. Describe your routine, what you’re doing now and what you’re going to do next, and what you see. Describing how you think your baby is feeling helps him learn emotions. Keep reading together and play peekaboo, hide-and-seek etc. • Time to think about childproofing your home and keep her environment safe for exploring. Shortly before she gets her first tooth (usually between 4 and 7 months), your baby will start picking up items here and there so she can put them in her mouth. Make sure your home is childproofed against small objects that she could choke on.
Exercise One – Finger Dexterity
Video • Babies at this age use their palms to pick things up. This exercise help them to develop their finger dexterity, that is using thumb and finger in a pincer grasp. • Use a variety of different size and color toys, start with large ones and gradually change to smaller ones. • Put the toy in front of your baby and let him grasp for it.
Exercise Two – Grasping, Picking Up and Putting Down
Video • You would have noticed that your baby, after picking things up is unable to actively put things down. They simply let go. • Babies at this age is good at mimic and imitating. • This exercise helps your baby to develop dexterity and to understand words, behavior and concepts. • Give a toy or wooden block to your baby to hold. • Tell him to put the toy in your hands, on the table or in a box. • To begin with, you can show the baby what to do and let him mimic your actions. • Talk to your baby, encourage him and praise him when he succeeds.
Exercise Three – Communication, Words and Behavior
Video • Before your baby learn to talk and communicate, he needs to understand the relationship between words and behavior. • There comes a miraculous moment, sometime around this age, when your baby discovers she can spontaneously bring her hands together to touch each other. But even before she masters this skill, clapping games give her a thrill. What’s more, they provide a chance to interact with you faceto-face and to try to mimic your actions. Show your baby how to welcome people or things he likes by clapping hands. • Other things you can play with your baby is how to say goodbye by teaching him to wave, how to show appreciation or say thank you by holding hands together etc.
Exercise Four – Peek-a-Boo
Video • This exercise helps your baby to understand object permanence and spatial relations. This simple game is great fun and very reassuring for
babies just beginning to understand that out of sight doesn’t mean out of mind. • Let your baby look at a toy, tell him what it is. • Hide the toy underneath a cloth or use a cup to cover it. Do this in front of the baby. Let him see you hide the toy. • Watch the baby search for the toy. • Note: The thing you use to hide the toy with has to be ordinary otherwise the baby will be distracted.
Exercise Five – Baby Massage
Video Points to Remember
• Massage help stimulate peristalsis, enhance digestive function and improve the immune system. It also helps baby to relax. • When massaging a baby , a light firm touch is very important. • Drop a few drops of oil onto palms, rub palms together to spread oil (Do not put oil directly onto baby’s skin). • Hands must be warm. • A standard recommendation is to place your fingers on your closed eyelid and press slightly, stopping before it feels uncomfortable. Use this a a gauge for how much strength to use
Method
Video • Face – use your thumb to massage the baby’s brow. Start from the middle and massage outwards towards the temple. Repeat 4 times. Start from the bridge of the nose , massage down alongside the nose to the corner of the mouth. Repeat 4 times. • Chest – both hands, start from the middle, go upwards towards the clavicles and outward as if you are drawing a circle. Remember your touch must be gentle and soft. Repeat 4 times • Abdomen – use clockwise motion, start from the baby right lower
abdomen, go up, sideways and down the left side of the baby. Repeat 8 times. • Limbs – use your thumbs and gently press and stroke the palm and sole. Repeat 8 times. Take a hold of each finger and toe with 3 of your fingers and gently press and stroke towards the nails. Repeat 4 times for each finger and toe.
Exercise Six – Roll Over and Sit Up
Video • Body control and balancing is the first step to standing up and walking later on in life. • Put your baby lying down. • Assist him to roll over and sit up. • Move a toy from left to right and up then down to attract your baby. This helps him to balance himself while sitting up. • Do this exercise no more than 1 minute.
Exercise Seven – Crawling
Video • Crawling is your baby’s first method of getting around efficiently on his own. In the traditional crawl, he’ll start by learning to balance on his hands and knees. Then he’ll figure out how to move forward and backward by pushing off with his knees. At the same time, he’ll be strengthening the muscles that will soon enable him to walk. • Most babies learn to crawl between the ages of 7and 10 months. Don’t worry about his style – it’s getting mobile that’s important, no matter how your baby does it. • Once your baby started crawling, he will be creating a distance between you and him. It is important to maintain a bond with him through talking, plenty of cuddles and praises. • Help your baby crawl but not by pushing or pulling him along. Use a favorite toy to attract him to move towards it. • Use a hand behind his foot to give him leverage to move forward.
• Be patient. Let him set the pace. • Note: Create a safe space for him to crawl. It’s time to childproof your home.
Exercise Eight – Bending and Picking Up
Video This helps your baby to learn to control his trunk, changes in body positions and coordination with his hands.
• • • • • •
Kneel down behind him. Stand him up but support his weight with your hands around his waist. Put a favorite toy on the floor in front of him. Help him bend and pick the toy up and put it back on the floor. Encourage and praise him all the time. The toy you choose should be light-weight and easy for him to pick up.
Exercise Nine – Taking Steps
Video Babies need to learn how to step forward and control his body before he can learn how to walk. • Hold your baby under the arms with his upper body inclined slightly forward. • Lead your baby to step forward. Support his movements. • You can encourage him by counting “forward, one, two” or “left, right”etc. • Remember to support the baby’s weight at all times.
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