3-6 Months

SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL

COGNITIVE

PLAY

LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION

LANGUAGE PRODUCTION

SELF-AWARENESS

  • Vocalizes feelings
  • Laughs outloud, squeals and squeaks in pleasure
  • Smiles and vocalizes at mirror image
  • Becomes aware of strange situations
  • Reacts to loud voices or sounds

SELF CONTROL

  • Stops crying
  • Signals when interaction should stop (e.g. Frown, turns away)

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

  • Vocalizes responsively Initiates social interactions
  • Vocalizes to summon parent
  • Demands social attention
  • Discriminates strangers
  • Explores adult features

SOCIAL PLAY

  • Enjoys social games
  • Enjoys mirror play

ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR

  • Recognizes bottle visually
  • Places both hands on bottle

PROBLEM SOLVING

  • Prefers moderately novel stimuli
  • Coordinates two behavioral schemes (e.g. looks to sound)
  • Reaches to obtain desired object
  • Perceives that a sight or situation is odd or funny
  • Resists removal of object when held

CAUSALITY

  • Acts directly on objects to create outcomes (e.g. shakes, bangs)
  • Attempts to engage adult when adult face is still and expressionless
  • Perceives that another person can produce stimulation (e.g. laughs when tickled)
  • Uses a variety of behaviors to engage others
  • Causes actions that seem likely to continue interesting or pleasurable displays

CLASSIFICATION

  • Associates family members with expected behaviors
  • Responds differentially to familiar versus novel stimuli

OBJECT PERMANANCE

  • Shows dismay to a withdrawn object
  • Attempts to maintain visual contact with objects moving outside the visual field
  • Looks after dropped objects

MEMORY

  • Adjusts behavior to visual, positional, or auditory cues (e.g. becomes alert upon hearing footsteps)
  • Recognizes familiar object
  • Makes anticipatory adjustment to being lifted

IMITATION

  • Repeats sound or action when imitated by adult

ACTIONS

  • Performs one simple action with an object

OBJECTS

  • Reaches for, grasps, and mouths objects
  • Uses simple schemes to explore objects

SPATIAL

  • Turns and inspects objects
  • Follows movement of objects in all direct lines

SENSORY

  • Explores objects with mouth
  • Enjoys listening to music
  • Enjoys splashing in the bathtub

AUDITORY PROCESSING

  • Quiets upon hearing speaker's voice
  • Differentiates pleasant and unpleasant vocal inflections
  • Reacts to music by cooing or making body movements
  • Watches and feels speaker's face

VOCABULARY/CONCEPTS

  • Responds to name by quieting and alerting
  • Begins to vocalize to name
  • Begins to stop activity upon hearing no or upon hearing name

VOCALIZATION

  • Produces prolonged coos and goos
  • Produces raspberries
  • Squeals, growls, yells, and chuckles
  • Explores pitch variations and vocal volume
  • Produces vowel repetitions
  • Produces throaty sounds in supine
  • Produces labial sounds in prone
  • Produces tongue sounds in sitting
  • Produces sustained less nasal vowels with increased jaw stability
  • Produces some consonant-vowel syllables with body movement

IMITATION

  • Responds when adult imitates vocalizations or actions
  • Repeats sound or action following adult model
  • Repeats own sounds and actions
  • Begins to imitate facial expressions

INTENTION/DISCOURSE

  • Orients or moves to parent when alarmed
  • Extends arms to be picked up
  • Vocalizes to express pleasure and displeasure
  • Vocalizes to get attention
  • Resists adult actions by vocalizations or body movements
  • Uses behaviors or vocalizations to continue the same action or event
  • Utilizes gazing, crying, touching, smiling, laughing, vocalizing, grasping and sucking with intention inferred by adult
  • Initiates vocalizations to people
  • Begins vocal turn taking
  • Maintains eye contact

3-6 Months

ORAL-MOTOR/FEEDING

GROSS MOTOR

FINE MOTOR

VISION/HEARING

HEALTH/PHYSICAL GROWTH

PRIMARY FOOD TYPE

  • Manages liquids and may be introduced to cereal

3 MONTHS

  • Sequences 20 or more sucks from nipple with no pauses if infant is hungry
  • Uses suckling-sucking pattern if spoon is introduce
  • Lacks lip movement if spoonfed

4-5 MONTHS

  • Uses sucking pattern more often than suckling
  • Ejects food until infant accustoms to spoon
  • Uses lip elongation and active cheek movement with nipple
  • Encircles lips on nipple
  • Uses lips with jaw movements with introduced spoon feedings
  • Resorts to sucking or uses a primitive phasic bite and release pattern on biting consistency
  • Uses diagonal rotary movements on occassion if food is placed laterally

3 MONTHS

  • Accepts weight on elbows while upper chest is raised off surface in prone position
  • Holds head up to 90 degrees and rotates it freely in prone position
  • Orients head in a midline position with chin tuck in supine position some of the time
  • Postures legs in frogged position symmetrically while in supine position
  • Extends head and back when held in sitting position
  • Attempts to assist in pull to sit
  • Resumes weight acceptance into legs with head up when held in standing

4 MONTHS

  • Rolls to side accidentally when in prone position
  • Pushes legs randomly, when moving in supine
  • Activates abdominal muscles in the supine position
  • Accepsts weight into legs with support at arms

5 MONTHS

  • Begins to bear weight on extended arms
  • Brings feet to mouth
  • Rolls supine to sidelying
  • Begins to kick reciprocally
  • Needs continued support in standing
  • Positions arms in high guard when in standing
  • Accepts almost full weight into legs when supported at arms
  • Bounces when supported in standing

3 MONTHS

  • Holds object placed in hand briefly
  • Uses palmar grasp upon contact only, thumb frequently gets in the way
  • Swipes at objects while in supine most of the time
  • Approaches object unilaterally, following a stimulus while in supine position
  • Holds hands together on chest

4 MONTHS

  • Uses ulnar-palmar grasp
  • Reaches bilaterally elbows not fully extended
  • Scratches at surface in prone
  • Brings object to mouth
  • Plays with hands bilaterally in midline while in supine position

5 MONTHS

  • Uses supinated approach to objects
  • Reaches with increased accuracy, elbow extended while in supine
  • Transfers objects by pulling it out of hand
  • Shakes and mouths objects alternately using shoulder motion only in sitting or supine position
  • Releases object voluntarily when linked with adult removal
  • Begins to bang toys on table in supported sitting
  • Props unilaterally in support sitting position

VISION

3 MONTHS

  • Blinks defensively
  • Fixates up to three inches
  • Prompt regard of toy at midline
  • Activity decreases at site of object
  • Moves eyes smoothly
  • Tracks moving objects in all directions
  • Turns to look for sound
  • Attempts to maintain fixation on object moving outside visual field
  • Prefers irregular orange/red shapes, schematic lace, curved forms
  • Glances from object to hand to object in midline
  • Explores adult features
  • Watches feet
  • Demonstrates proper eye alignment

4 MONTHS

  • Looks intently at objects
  • Maintains fixation without being distracted by competing stimuli
  • Visually pursues objects near to far
  • Fixates where object disappears
  • Prefers the color blue
  • Attends to small, bright objects
  • Recognizes familiar objects
  • Prefers one toy to others
  • Visually monitors reaching
  • Attempts to move toward object seen

5 MONTHS

  • Examine objects with eyes
  • Ceases hand regard
  • Follows slowly falling object (e.g. bubbles)
  • Visually searches for fast moving object
  • Prefers the color yellow
  • Regards and smiles at self in mirror
  • Disciminates strangers
  • Grasps object seen

HEARING

  • Begins to turn head toward or away from sound source
  • Begins to localize to speech, singing and environmental sounds
  • Enjoys self made noises

3 MONTHS

Weight:
    Girls - 9-1/4 - 14-3/4 lbs
    Boys - 9-3/4 - 16-1/4 Ibs
Length:
    Girls - 21-3/4 - 25 in
    Boys - 22-1/4 - 25-3/4 in
Head Circumference:
    Girls - 37.3 - 41.7 cm
    Boys - 38.4 - 41.3 cm

Nutrition:

  • Takes 2-6 ounces per feeding (30 ounces per day by four months)
  • Gains approx 1/2 - 1 ounces per day from bfirth to six months
Health:
  • Sleeps 15 hours per 24 hour period, including two to three naps
  • Sleeps 5-6 hrs through the night (30% of infants)

4 MONTHS Health:

  • Sleeps through at least one night feeding
  • Begins drooling
  • Continues immunization series per recommended guidelines

5 MONTHS

Nutrition:
  • Begins solid foods between four to six months, starting with cereal, followed by vegetables, meats, fruits
  • Takes formula or breast milk (cows milk is not recommended before twelve months
Health:
  • Doubles birth weight by six months
  • Shows signs of tooth eruption

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Family Enrichment Program
ECHO Joint Agreement
Park Forest, IL