What type of stimulating activities can you do with infants ages 6 to 12 months to promote growth and development?

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Six months is an exciting time to be a baby — and his caregiver. Not only is your little one making emotional leaps and bounds at this stage, but he may be beginning to sit up unassisted and even on the cusp of making some real moves!

You can help your 6-month-old further develop these skills — and more — by regularly setting aside time for play. After all, when it comes to a child’s growth, play is just as important as sleep and diet. And for babies, play includes the everyday actions your little one takes to explore and interact with the world around him. Even smiling, cooing or reaching for a dangling toy can be an enriching form of play for your infant.

What skills is your child developing at 6 months? 

Skills like stringing vowels together, rolling over in both directions and, later, uttering those first few words and walking are called developmental milestones. These markers help pediatricians and parents track your child's progress in four categories crucial to baby’s development: social and emotional, language and communication, cognition, and gross and fine motor skills. 

But it's important to keep in mind that these are just guidelines. All babies grow at their own pace, and the milestones below shouldn't be thought of as a strict schedule. Missing one — or even a few — of these markers shouldn’t raise immediate red flags, but voice any concerns to your pediatrician during well visits.

In general, though, here are the skills you can expect baby to be working on around the half-year mark: 

Social and emotional skills

• Knows familiar faces and begins to know if someone is a stranger
• Likes to play with others, especially parents and caregivers
• Enjoys looking at self in the mirror

Language and communication skills

• Responds to sounds by making sounds 
• Strings vowels together when babbling
• Starts to respond to her name 
• Begins to say consonant sounds

Cognitive skills

• Begins to transfer objects from one hand to the other
• Bangs small objects on surfaces 
• Rakes small objects with four fingers

Gross and fine motor skills

• Rolls over in both directions (front to back, back to front) 
• Begins to sit unassisted 
• May bounce when feet are supported on a firm surface
• Rocks back and forth in attempt to crawl

Best activities for a 6-month-old baby

So what can you do to engage your little one as he becomes more expressive and mobile? The following activities are perfect to do with your 6-month-old baby.

Play peekaboo

At 6 months, your baby is developing a cognitive skill called object permanence. Soon, he'll realize that even if an object is out of sight, it still exists. At this stage, a simple game of peekaboo is especially fun, since when your face goes behind your hands, it no longer exists in his world.

When you remove your hands from your face, making a reappearance with the word “Boo!" baby is genuinely surprised. As time goes on, you may start to see him reach for your hands to pull them apart as he realizes that you’re still there. 

Read, read, read

While you can (and should) read to your baby from day one (it’s great for developing language skills at any age), you might finally start to feel like your little one is engaged in the activity around 6 months. By this age, your baby will begin to look more intently at the colors on the page and listen as you point and talk out loud about what he is seeing. Some babies may even begin to thumb the pages. 

Let baby play with his food

Your baby is now exploring the world with his mouth — and the timing coincides perfectly with the start of his solid food journey. As you begin to introduce solids around the 6-month mark (always consult your child's pediatrician first), consider experimenting with baby-led weaning in addition to traditional purées to give your child a chance to explore different flavors and textures. Don't be afraid to let things get messy!

For example, at 6 months you might offer foods sliced into thick strips or sticks that your child can hold in his fist and gum from the top down (think sliced avocado, strips of banana or steamed beet strips). In a few months, as he develops his pincer grasp (usually around the 9-month mark), you can offer smaller pieces of soft, bite-sized foods that he can easily pick up.

Household hub-bub

Set aside a collection of interesting and new-to-baby objects — look for items that make different noises, such as a squeeze toy, a newspaper or something that beeps. Use each object, one at a time, to make different noises with varying volumes and speeds. Then, give baby the object and let him try to mimic your actions (you may have to help him manipulate it). This activity helps your little one develop both motor and listening skills.

Cook “together” 

While your baby can’t exactly cook with you yet, you can give him an early introduction to the kitchen at this age. While you’re prepping meals, place your little one in his high chair where he can see you (at a safe distance, of course). Explain what you’re doing ("Right now, I'm going to chop this red tomato!") and make the experience more sensory-oriented by letting him smell and touch some of the foods as you prepare them.

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