A Nine-Month Old Baby's Development by Degrees

At about nine-months old, your baby is going to beof a specific experience for a short time, the long
going through the peak of separation anxiety, whichlasting memory won't come until they are around
can make it very hard for you to be away fromtwo- or three-years old.
your baby for more than a few hours. Even though itYour baby will be learning many things through what
is normal right now for a baby to show an extremeyou would consider playing. The best thing that you
attachment to you and great fear of everybodycan do for your baby at this stage is to make sure
else, it can be very hard for grandparents and otherthat they have plenty of age appropriate toys to
caring adults to go through. The best thing you canplay with. This is important because your baby is
do at this stage of your baby's life is to tell peoplegoing to be developing their physical, mental,
what is going on so that they approach your babyemotional, and social skills through playing. By nine
slowly. You should also tell them that they should letmonths old, your baby will be able to place objects
your baby make the first move, which will help babyinside of a container, but they will also be able to
feel better about being around strangers.take these objects back out. Toys with plenty of
Not only is leaving your baby hard, but taking yourmoving parts are also great for this age because
baby with you while you are traveling can be just asthey can move the various things to see what does
difficult at this age. The reason for this is that theywhat, such as pushing toy cars across the room or
are not old enough to understand the concept ofturning a knob to hear a sound.
traveling, but they do know that they are no longerAbout half of all nine-month-old babies will begin to
in their normal setting. By nine-months old, your babyplay a type of passing game. This type of play is
will have become accustomed to their surroundingsgreat for your baby because it will teach them
and familiar faces, and they enjoy the predictabilityhand-eye coordination, but it will also help them learn
of their lives. By taking them out of this setting, youabout playing together, thus their social skills coming
should be ready for clinging behavior and a crankyinto play. You are going to be your baby's first
baby. To help make things easier you should bringplaymate, so teach her how to pass a ball back and
along some of your baby's favorite toys and booksforth by rolling it to one another; hopefully she will roll
to help them become accustomed to the newit back to you. You can also try playing with stacking
surroundings.toys to see if she will give you toys to stack along
One thing that many parents do not realize is thatwith her. At this age, it is important that you
around nine-months old your baby is going to startreinforce the sharing concept because some
developing their memory recall. They are going to beassertive babies might not like having to hand over a
able to imitate things that they have seen over atoy; they want everything for themselves. To help
week ago, but they will also learn where things arewith taking toys away, one thing that you can do is
inside your home, such as your toys. With recallhand your baby a new object before taking away
memory they will be able to remember some detailsthe other object.