Most 9-month-old babies are confident crawlers and continue making major gains in development. DD was no exception. She moved swiftly to the next step and began practicing pulling herself up and even cruising. Although interrupted by her one-week sickness, her baby training this month still helped exercise her muscle and brain to reach the next milestone.
1. Chasing a rolling ball: Crawling provides a baby mobility to explore her surroundings, spurs coordination among different muscles, stimulates brain activity through repetitive movements, and thus helps cognitive development such as concentration, memory and comprehension.
After DD figured out how to crawl, I encouraged her to continue practicing this important skill. I showed her a red ball and rolled it away from her. She crawled towards the ball and chased it. When she got the ball, I would let her play it for a while and then roll it away.
2. Pulling up and remain standing: After she passed the milestone of crawling, she quickly shot for the next one. She tried to pull herself to a standing position from sitting. I put her close to the couch. She tried to pull herself up by holding the edge of the couch.
She kept practicing and quickly mastered this skill. I let her stand by the couch holding onto the edge. By exercising her leg muscle, she could remain in the standing position longer and longer.
3. Pulling down the floating balloon: I let DD play with Grandma’s Valentine balloon. She wanted to hold the balloon, but the balloon easily slipped her fingers and floated away. She figured out how to pull the string with both hands alternatively and drag the balloon down.
Once she pulled down the balloon, she held the knot for a better grid. I then let go the balloon and she would repeat pulling it down. A good exercise for her hand-eye coordination!
4. Bilingual exposure: I began to read simple books to DD in Chinese and asked M to read the same books to her in English. These books enable her to touch and feel different textures. Some contain shiny foil to capture her attention. These books teach her colors, shapes, counting and animals.
A lot of times she didn’t pay much attention and just wanted to grab the book and chew the pages, but I still tried to read to her, even just few words.
Related posts:
Baby training, month 8
Baby training, month 7
Baby training, month 6
Baby training, month 5
Baby training, month 4
Baby training, month 3
Baby training, month 1-2
Baby Training, First Year, From Lina | Lina | 
April 8, 2009 4:44 pm | 
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