Developmental Red Flags
8-12 Months
- By 9 months, most babies grasp at
anything within reach. They bring items to their mouths for
exploration, transfer toys and objects between hands, and
love banging objects together.
- By 10 months, most babies bring their
hands to midline (center of body).
- By 10 months, most babies enjoy banging
objects together.
- By 12 months, most babies are finger
feeding, using the pads or tips of their fingers to pick up
food and small objects. They wave 'hi' and 'bye,' as well
as use their hands to pull at furniture in order to help
themselves stand.
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 Babies- 8-12 Months
Many skills come together between 8 and 12 months of age.
Your baby is rolling over to explore its surroundings and get to
objects. He or she sits independently for brief periods of time. Objects
are passed between hands. Your baby will reach for objects with both hands
and bang two objects together.
He or she is recognizing familiar people and likes attention.
Most one-year-olds can:
- Reach, grasp and put objects into mouth
- Pick things up with pincer grasp (thumb and one finger)
- Transfer objects from one hand to the other
- Drop and pick up toys
- Bang two objects together
- Release objects (purposefully)
- Put objects into and take objects out of containers with large
openings
- Pinch small objects, such as a Cheerio, with thumb and pointer
finger
- Bite and chew toys
- Hold a spoon
- Hold out an arm or leg to help with dressing
Parenting Tips for Fine Motor Skills:
You can help with baby developmental milestones. Suggested play to help
an infant 8 to 12 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 fun 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 a bottle when
being bottle fed.
- To promote pincer grasp development, encourage pulling tissues from
a box, pegs from a board, or a straw from a cup.
- To promote banging objects together, use blocks, spoons, small
plastic cups, plastic rings from ring stacker toy.
- To promote taking items out of containers, use these items for
containers: shoe box without lid, butter tub, pots, pans, and toy
buckets. Use these items to fill the container: blocks, pop beads, bean
bags, Lil' people.
- At mealtime, place finger foods into an empty butter cup, and at
bath time, use cups filled with water to dump into tub.
- To promote more wrist movements, encourage waving "hi' and "bye."
Finger paint with pudding using a whole, open hand.
- To encourage voluntary release, roll a ball back and forth together.
Let your baby grasp and release sand, grass, pasta, etc.
- To promote poke and probe using index finger, explore holes of toy
dial phone, holes of a peg board, encourage pushing buttons such as
doorbells or keys of a piano.
- Babies love to clap. Help your baby bring his or her hands together
and clap. Then hide baby's hands under a blanket. Your baby will enjoy
watching his or her hands go away and come back.
- Some babies love to rip paper. If that sounds like your baby, get a
big basket and some old magazines and let him or her rip, shred, and
tear his or her way to happiness. (If your baby is more interested in
putting wads of paper in his or her mouth, put the basket away and try
again in a few weeks.)
- Learn how to twist. Let your baby watch you put Cheerios or another
type of cereal into a twist top or snap-top container. Show your baby
how to open it. After a few tries, your baby will be able to do this
independently.
- Play catch. Make a ball out of a pair of socks. Sit close and toss
it to your baby. Your baby probably cannot catch the ball, but it will
enjoy trying and chasing after it.
- Read before bed. Your baby will enjoy listening to you read and
looking at the pictures in simple baby books. Keep those fingers working
by having your baby help you turn the page.
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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