Developmental Red Flags
4-8 Months
An early childhood intervention/ development therapy referral
may be appropriate if your child is exhibiting any of these red
flag symptoms:
- Frequently in a fisted position with both hands after 6
months of age
Therapy Options
Thankfully, there are many ways to deal with delays in child
development and behaviors.
These include in-home services, outpatient (you take your child
to a clinic), inpatient (following injury or surgery) and school
based services. Which type of therapy should you choose?
Visit our Therapy
Options area to learn more.
Ask a Therapist
We understand developmental milestones and the challenges of
Special Needs children. We spend a great deal of time with
families understanding the inner workings of childhood routines
and interactions. Ask us about your child today!
Ask a Therapist
Fine Motor Skills for Infants - 4-8 Months
Many skills are coming together at this level.
Your baby is rolling over to explore and get to objects, and he or she
can sit independently for brief periods of time.
Objects are passed between hands. Your baby reaches for objects with both
hands and enjoys banging two objects together. He or she is recognizing
familiar people and likes attention.
Parenting Tips for Fine Motor Skills:
You can help with infant developmental milestones. Suggested play to
help an infant 4 to 8 months of age develop fine motor skills:
- To encourage reaching with one arm, use small toys, as large toys
encourage two-handed reach. Present a cookie and wait for reach, place a
toy key ring over your infant's toes, and use bubbles to encourage
reach.
- To promote banging objects for play, offer items such as a spoon,
rattle, tray, pot, or pans. Bang a squeak toy against a table.
- To promote wrist movements, use colorful wristbands with bells
attached to the wrists. Banging, mouthing, and shaking objects helps
encourage wrist movements.
- To encourage transferring toys, offer a ball of masking tape. Place
it in your infant's hand to see if your child will attempt to pull it
off with the other hand. During a meal, offering your baby a spoon is
great for promoting transfer. Or stick a Cheerio to one of your
infant's hands to see if they will remove it with other hand.
- To promote picking up small objects, use cooked pasta or cubed Jello
Jigglers placed on a highchair tray. For a fun challenge, provide finger
foods (offered toward the thumb side of your infant's hand).
- Let your baby paint with food. Yogurt, soft mashed carrots, or any
other type of soft, smooth food is the perfect consistency for doing
some finger painting. Of course, licking your baby's fingers is part of
the fun!
- Have your baby work for his or her meal. Pulling cooled noodles
apart is a tremendous way to practice using his or her fingers.
- Have fun in the tub. Plastic cups, pitchers, measuring cups and
sponges let your baby practice holding, pouring, and squeezing (not to
mention making it fun to take a bath!).
- When supported, a sitting child will follow you with his or her
eyes, reach and grasp for objects, drop objects, hold onto small
objects, bring hands to mouth, and place both hands on bottle when being
bottle fed.
Fine Motor Skills by Age Group
'Fine motor' refers to the development of small muscle movements of the
hands. Fine motor skills develop as your child's whole body gains mobility,
stability, cognitive, and emotional/social development. Fine motor skills
that come to mind are shoe tying, writing, and cutting paper with scissors.
Contact Information
Find Early Intervention
Support contacts in your State. If you have a question or comment for
us, please visit our Contact page.
Early Intervention Helps with Developmental Delay
For children with Special Needs, intervention in early childhood
development means finding specific ways to help a child become as functional
as possible.
Learn more on our Parenting
Tips
page.
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