How to Monitor Your Infant's Social and Emotional Development

After the birth of your child, your mind quickly becomes full of new facts, worries and developmental stages. As parents, many of us become thrilled as our child reaches each anticipated developmental stage. The physical development of an infant in the first year is absolutely amazing and easy to watch as it progresses. Your fairly still and immobile newborn infant soon begins to roll, sit, crawl, and eventually walk.

While these physical stages of development are all amazing, the development that is going on in your child's mind is even more amazing. The mind is growing new cells and learning new connections between their body, their feelings and the world around them with each changing moment.

Learning about the relations to their family members, friends and to themselves are complicated learning skills that need to be monitored. To ensure your child's development is on track, read on for these major milestone points in your child's social and emotional development during the first years of life.

As a newborn baby, your child is already taking in new thoughts each day. By talking to your child you will begin their journey on the development of their language skills. Use big mouth movements and see if your infant mimics your movements.

By six months your infant should smile readily when you begin talking to them or give them any special attention. Your child should also enjoy people at the six month age. Learning about the relations a child experiences with people around them is a budding skill at six months. You should see your child flirting, cooing and happily moving their arms and legs when they experience personal interaction. A six month old baby should love to be held and interacted with as well.

A twelve months, even more amazing events are taking place in your child's life. While a 12 month old child is hardly immobile, they physical skills are still developing at a rapid rate. Their social and emotional abilities are also quite amazing at twelve months when considering how immature their emotions were at birth. A twelve month old child should enjoy simple games like peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake. Also an important development a child should have by twelve months is stranger anxiety. If a stranger confronts your 12 month old, the child should show a little concern and reach or look for their trusted caregiver. A twelve month old child should also show interest in toys and be curious to explore new things.

By 18 months your infant has grown into a full-fledged toddler! Most 18 month old children are very mobile and into walking, climbing and jumping. While all children develop their physical traits at different stages, by 18 months movement should be part of a child's life. By 18 months your child should also be communicating with sounds and gestures other than crying. Pointing, reaching for objects and using words to communicate are at a premium development point at 18 months. An 18 month old child should also have good eye contact and seem interested when you are talking to them. Reading, singing and following simple commands should all be part of daily learning with an 18 month old child.

After the first few years of life, your helpless newborn baby has turned into a participating person in the world around them. They go from needing your help for every simple task, to using the toilet, getting snacks for themselves, talking, thinking about what they want to do and communicating their feelings through talking rather than crying. The development of a child in an amazing thing to watch and each day in a child's life there is new things to explore in the world around them!