Your child is between the6 to 12 months
A baby’s development during the second stage
Children develop of their own accord, but they do need those around them to provide them with experiences and the right kind of guidance. In this timeline, you will get to know the milestones related to motor skills, language development, social and emotional and cognitive/sensory development, and personality development. You can also read about how Kindergarden sets up the children's environment to help them develop optimally. We make use of the “recurring” moments in which we’re tending to them individually, such as while dressing and undressing them, changing their diapers, or putting them to bed, to give them a little extra one-on-one attention. This turns an everyday care moment into a special development moment.
Did you know that children start making attempts to communicate at around 8 months? And that red is the first color that babies perceive, after black and white?
Development occurs during the interactions between the children themselves, and their interactions with the childcare staff and the environment. Our horizontal groups enable us to provide guidance appropriate to the different developmental stages. In doing so, we are guided by the pace and preferences of the children. After all, children are individuals and experience their milestones at a time appropriate to them. This timeline indicates the things you might encounter during the first important years of a child's life, but we also allow the children the space to reach their own milestones and develop at their own pace!
Motor development (physical development)
At Kindergarden, we always hand children games and other materials at eye level. For example, the common room is designed for, and adapted to, your child’s stage of development.
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Pre-crawling and crawling
Young children start pre-crawling and, after a while, crawling by lying down in the prone (belly down) position and tucking their legs underneath.
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Standing on their own
At 11 or 12 months, some children can walk while holding an adult’s hand, while others can even stand on their own and a small number can walk on their own.
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Motor skills
Babies can start pointing at objects and hold small objects the same way you would hold a pair of tweezers. This helps them improve their fine motor skills.
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Pulling up
Sitting down on their own by rolling over on their belly and pushing themselves up. Sitting down, a child can start pulling themselves up around 10 months of age until they can stand on their own two legs. Sitting down again is still challenging at this stage.
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Sitting down independently
Children can support themselves if they are held up straight under their arms. With a little assistance, they may be able to raise themselves up from a seated to a standing position.
How does Kindergarden support children in their motor development (physical development)?
Playing ball is fun!
Young children love playing ball games, which also happens to promote physical development: they’ll try to sit down while rolling the ball. The rolling in itself is also a good motor exercise. We use flexible, rubber open balls that children can control with their little fingers. Unlike other balls, they won’t roll away as easily; regular balls for older children sometimes cause frustration in smaller children if they find they can’t grab hold of them.
At a child’s height
The common room is designed for, and adapted to, children’s various developmental stages. At Kindergarden, we always hand children games and other materials at eye level. We offer a variety of textures, balancing and climbing equipment, and quiet little corners. Children who are just learning to walk enjoy pushing a trolley – this teaches them to take small steps, while still giving them the support they need.
Giving children space
Since children’s motor skills develop rapidly at this stage, children become increasingly independent and no longer need our help in discovering and experiencing everything around them. You will find educational toys and games in various parts of the room and at different heights, ensuring that the room as a whole is used. This makes it exciting for children who have just started rolling over and pre-crawling to take the next step.
Social and emotional development
By observing a child and discussing them with our colleagues, we know where a child is in terms of their development and can identify the next challenge. While we challenge the children, we also make sure not to overwhelm them. We always prepare the way ahead for them too.
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Emotions
Children develop a better understanding of other people’s feelings At this stage, anger and anxiety may increase, especially fear of strangers.
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Shyness/timidity
Children learn to distinguish between strange and familiar faces. This is when they become clingy and want only their parent or a particular caregiver, a stage that may last from a few months to one year. Children find it scary to be left on their own (fear of abandonment).
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Crying with others
Children become more sensitive to other people’s moods. Children can cry when other children are crying without needing a reason of their own.
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Kisses
Babies demonstrate affection for those familiar to them by giving little kisses. Between 10 and 12 months, they can turn their face away or show other facial expressions to express discontent or disagreement.
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Exploration
Children view each other as living “playthings” and explore each other’s bodies. This generally goes well, though in some cases it might cause some irritation, for example if one child grabs hold of a playmate.
How does Kindergarden support children in their social and emotional development?
Peek-a-boo!
Children develop an understanding and awareness of the presence and absence of objects or people. They love playing the peek-a-boo game, which teaches them in a playful way that we always come back, even if we briefly seem to have disappeared and they don’t see us. This is particularly important during the clingy stage.
Familiar faces
During this time, children see the difference between their parents and other people for the first time. We make sure we assign the same people with the same, familiar faces to your child’s group, so they will experience, step by step, that it’s OK to be with people other than their parents for a short while. We also play simple, relaxing music in the room.
Being proud of who you are
By observing a child and discussing them with our colleagues, we know where a child is in terms of their development and can identify the next challenge. We teach the children that they should be proud of who they are and of their talents, abilities, and accomplishments. We do this by giving everyone the same amount of undivided attention.
Language development
Did you know that babies love listening to songs? And that we make them drink from a regular cup early on? We do this by stimulating their oral muscles and oral motor skills.
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“Talking”
Long series of vowels and consonants are repeated. Children tend to “talk” at different pitches and make noises when you address them directly.
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Effort to communicate
Children learn to understand the meaning of various facial expressions and tones and start making an effort to communicate after eight months.
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Environmental language
Children imitate sounds, melodies, and facial expressions they have seen around them – this is known as “environmental language.”
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First word
Your child understands easy language. Most children start saying their first “real” word between 10 and 12 months of age.
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Gestures
Children learn a few simple gestures: pointing, shaking their head, and waving. At this stage – between 10 and 12 months of age – children can also learn to mimic others’ gestures.
How does Kindergarden support children in developing their language skills?
Changing your use of language
During this stage, we use a lot of gestures or images, for example from books or picture cards, to explain language and situations to the children. Of course, we also spend a lot of time talking to them and explaining things in short, simple sentences. All transition moments during the day are guided using certain language and songs. We communicate gently and respectfully. Repetition helps children remember words and sounds they will be able to use themselves later on.
Regular cups
We let children at our branches drink from regular cups early on and feed them small morsels of food. This helps stimulate their oral muscles and oral motor skills and, by extension, language and speech development. A regular cup helps your baby to get all the liquid from the cup and to consume the right quantity, since they can see how much of the drink is left in the cup.
Voice variations
Did you know that babies love listening to songs, especially when they include all kinds of intriguing sounds and motions? Children respond excitedly to changes in pitch and volume. Classic Dutch children’s songs such as Klap eens in de handjes, Dit zijn mijn wangetjes, Kiekeboe, and Appel, peertje en banaan are all firm favorites.
Cognitive and sensory development
In stimulating cognitive and sensory development, we aim to provide children with individual attention. We always attempt to create a sense of wonder, irrespective of whether we’re reading a sensory or other picture book with your child or enjoying a fresh vegetable snack together.
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Recognition
Children learn to identify objects they previously discovered through a different sense, often taste.
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Initiated by the child
Children slowly learn to differentiate between different sounds. They can engage in play for more sustained periods at around eight or nine months. Actions are no longer coincidental, but initiated by the child themself.
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Cause and effect
Children are intrigued by cause-and-effect relationships and discover that some actions are interrelated.
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Space and time
Between eight and twelve months of age, children become aware of space and time. For example, if toys are arranged vertically (space), a child must first remove one toy to grab the next one (time).
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Focus
Children have now begun processing their experiences in dreams, which may cause them to become more agitated and anxious. Children’s attention spans increase to around 1 minute at this stage.
How does Kindergarden support children in their cognitive and sensory development?
Red: the first color
Our childcare staff create situations that contribute to children’s sense of wonder. We use a variety of colors, starting with red, as this is the first color children can observe (after black and white). We also challenge each child to use materials that make a particular noise or that feel differently, such as aluminum and wood.
Fresh vegetable snack
Touch, smell, and taste. We stimulate children from a young age to develop their taste buds and involve parents in providing a healthy lifestyle for their child. As soon as a child is ready, and with their parents’ approval, we start giving the child fruit and vegetable snacks.
Baby corners
Reading to children is both educational and an opportunity to give them lots of personal attention. We read various books (including sensory books) together, describe pictures, turn the pages and feel the book’s texture. This turns books into something babies can hold, whose pages they can turn, and from which they’ll be able to read together with their parents as they grow older. They like hearing the voices of their parents and our childcare staff, and it makes them feel calm and relaxed.
