In the first year in the life of the crumbs, so many interesting things happen! It is developing rapidly and every day pleases parents with its new skills and small achievements. A five-month-old baby is already very different from a newborn, and not only parents can notice this. And even despite the fact that each child is an individual and develops according to his schedule, all the same, the mother should know what the child must be able to do at 5 months in order to control the rate of physical and psychoemotional growth. We will pay special attention to this issue in our article.
What should a child up to 5 months be able to do?
Each child is unique, and the pace of development of different babies may vary. At five months, some children are just starting to roll over from their backs to their stomachs, while others are sitting confidently and even trying to stand on their feet. But nevertheless, there are a number of indicators that should be guided by when assessing the level of physical and psychoemotional development of a child of the first year of life.
For a monthly baby, the main achievement can be considered successful attempts to hold his head upright for several seconds. The child begins to recognize his mother, he has the first facial expression.
The motor activity is characterized by the entire period of the baby's life from 2 to 5 months. What should a child be able to do at this time? At the age of two months, he begins to actively move his arms and legs, smile at his relatives, listen to the sound of the rattle and follow her eyes. Until the end of next month, the baby will learn to roll over from back to side, so that soon it will be able to lie on its tummy on its own.
What should a child be able to do at 3.5 months? Lying on his stomach, the baby confidently raises his head, holds it and freely turns in the direction he needs. But the four-month-old baby is already seriously interested in toys and even tries to reach them. During this period of life, crumbs can be heard loud and deliberate children's laughter.
Physiological development of the baby at 5 months
Mentally and physically, the child continues to develop at an intense pace. Every day is full of discoveries for him. It is not enough for him to just eat and sleep. The kid feels the need to communicate with loved ones, in movement and knowledge of the world around him.
Parents very often compare children of different sexes in order to understand what a child-girl should be able to do at 5 months and what should be a boy. In fact, there is no difference in skills at this age, and specialists equally evaluate all children in terms of their psycho-emotional development. Here , the child’s temperament, genetic predisposition, body weight and other factors play a large role. But physically, babies of different sexes develop differently.
By the age of 5 months, the child gains an average weight of 3.2-3.4 kg and grows by 12-14 cm. Boys by this age have a body weight of 6.6-8.3 kg, and girls - 6.0-7, 7 kg On average, over a 5 month period of life, a child recovers by 700 g and grows by 2 cm. By this time, boys are already 63.6-68 cm tall and girls 61.6-66.2 cm tall.
At 5 months of life, the baby can begin the process of teething. Moreover, in girls, the first milk teeth appear usually earlier than in boys.
Daily routine and feeding
It is very important for a five-month-old baby to observe the daily routine established from birth. Sleep, feeding, playing with mom should occur at about the same time. Then the child will grow calm and cheerful.
At the age of five months, the baby usually sleeps 3 times a day. Each dream has a duration of approximately 1.5-2 hours. The same interval is present between waking hours. At night, the baby sleeps on average about 10 hours. But for this you need to create and maintain the necessary conditions - regularly ventilate and moisten the room.
The intervals between meals in a baby while breastfeeding, as well as on artificial, are 3-3.5 hours. Complementary feeding will begin only in a month, so it’s time for mom to think about what she will feed her baby.
Motor skills
The physical development of the baby at this age allows him to learn new poses and different types of activity. Here is what a child should be able to do at 4-5 months:
- Confidently flips on its side, and by the end of the month - from the back to the stomach and back.
- Holds his head well, lying on his tummy.
- He grabs and holds the toy in his hands without the help of an adult.
- Confidently rises on the forearm, lying on his stomach, which allows the baby to better see the room.
- Tries to straighten his arms, resting on the palms of his hands, which helps to strengthen the hands.
- Tends to crawl, holding on to the support of the crib.
If we compare what a child-boy should be able to do at 5 months compared with a girl, then the latter develop motor activity with a slight advance.
Sight, hearing and touch
The development of the eye muscles at this stage is nearing completion. The kid with pleasure and for a long time examines bright objects, watches moving objects and focuses his eyes on them. The child recognizes his loved ones well and joyfully reacts to them with a smile or leg movements. But the appearance of strangers in the house can cause tears in the baby.
Regarding what a child of 5 months should be able to do in terms of the development of hearing organs, it should be said here that every little one already knows how to distinguish voices: he will be able to recognize his mother from ten other people. At this age, you can check whether the baby hears well. To do this, just step back 5-6 meters and clap your hands. Normally, the child should turn his head to the sound.
In addition to vision and hearing, the baby at this age develops a good sense of touch. For example, light stroking with my mother’s hands calms the baby, and massage movements, on the contrary, invigorate.
Emotional and social development
If we talk about what a child should be able to do at 5 months in terms of mental development, then here he is subject to a wide range of emotions. Kroha can:
- laugh out loud;
- require;
- to be upset and rejoice;
- express their dissatisfaction with the intonation of baby talk.
At this age, the child enjoys spending time with loved ones. If a stranger tries to pick him up, then the baby will immediately react to this with discontent or loud crying. The same reaction is observed in a child when he gets into an unfamiliar environment. In this case, the presence of a loved one nearby is extremely necessary.
Speech development
At this age, the child begins to learn new sounds. He now and then sings "aaaa", "and-and-and", which contributes to the development of his speech breathing. At the same time, the baby reproduces movements with both arms and legs. From the side it may seem that he is not only singing, but also dancing, lying on his back.
Regarding what a child should be able to speak at 5 months, it is worth noting that the main development of speech skills occurs in the period from 5 to 6 months. At this time, the baby can pronounce his first syllables, such as "ma", "pa", "ba".
In order for the baby to learn to understand speech as quickly as possible, mother is recommended to pronounce all her actions that she performs during the day. Even simple questions, for example: “Where is mom?”, “Where is dad?”, “Where is the crib?” Contribute to the development of the passive vocabulary of the baby. Typically, girls learn speech skills a little earlier than boys, whose development in this regard is slightly slower.
New features for the game
At this stage of development, the baby’s wakefulness should take place in the game. At the age of five months, the child begins to be interested in new objects and toys, he tries to reach them and hold them in his hand. But this does not mean that he will certainly begin to play with them. Rather, he will send all his finds directly to his mouth.
Below we consider what a child should be able to do at 5 months:
- She watches her mother with interest and listens to what she says while doing finger exercises and telling the comic book of the “White-sided Magpie”.
- Shows emotions when he manages to reach the subject that interested him.
- She tries to find her mother, who hides for a short while, playing ku-ku with him, and rejoices when she finds her.
- Likes to swim and play in the water. To do this, he is advised to purchase special toys for the bathroom. You can also perform elementary gymnastic exercises in the water, for example, "bicycle".
- He looks at his reflection in the mirror.
Dr. Komarovsky on the development of a five-month-old baby
A well-known pediatrician largely agrees with the above information about what a child should be able to do at 5 months. Komarovsky E.O. believes that normally a baby at this age should perform the following actions:
- distinguish loved ones from strangers in appearance;
- recognize the voice of a mother or loved one;
- to distinguish between strict and gentle intonation in the voice when speaking to him, to respond differently to them;
- Rejoice at any child, gladly take a toy from him, walk around;
- to take an object that interests him from the hands of an adult;
- hold the toy in your hand for at least 1-2 minutes;
- lie on the stomach for a long time, resting on the palms of straightened hands;
- Roll from back to stomach;
- stand steady and supportive under the armpits;
- long walk melodiously;
- in case of early introduction of complementary foods, it can independently eat thick food from a spoon.
At 5 months, the baby should be surrounded by care and attention from all sides. He is able to feel his mother’s mood and reacts violently to his change. And even in this period of life is inextricably linked with falls from the couch, changing table, etc. It is important not to leave the child alone in the room unattended in order to avoid physical injuries.