In this article, we will discuss the development of children aged 7–9 months. During this period, babies can already sit confidently (around 7 months), and closer to 8–9 months, they start crawling. As the child has noticeably strengthened and becomes increasingly active day after day, there is a greater variety of activities available to progress in your baby’s development.
You will find advice on activities to promote your child’s development, as well as tips on which developmental toys are important and necessary for the 7–9-month-old babies.
Similar to our previous articles for 0–3 months and 4–6 months old babies, we will break down all these tips separately for each of the seven blocks of essential skills.
Activities for fine motor skills
At the age of 7 to 9 months, toys and activities that support the development of fine motor skills should encourage gripping, finger manipulation, and hand-eye coordination. Placing different objects—balls, cubes, figurines—into sorters, cups, jars, and boxes is a common job associated with toys and games.
Stacking cups games
Babies may discover size connections and improve fine motor skills by nestling or stacking these different-sized cups on top of one another.
We go into further depth about this item in a previous piece. I suggest learning about its use and presenting it to your infant if you don’t already have it.
The majority of the activities covered in the article on development at 4-6 months remain applicable. But now that they can sit by themselves, your youngster can sort, stack cups, and build towers.
These cups may also be used for your infant to hold various objects, such as sorter figurines, cubes, sensory balls, and so on.
Games with multifunctional cubes
For babies 7-9 months old, it’s crucial to engage in activities that involve arranging diverse items (of varying sizes and shapes). These kinds of jobs are ideal for multipurpose cubes like Montessori Toys Kit – 5 Games in 1. Babies can enjoy the thrill of five fun games with this unique toy set, including ball drop, carrot harvest, color sticks matching and dropping, catching fish, and sorting shapes.
Hand function and finger handling will be enhanced by the use of various sized and shaped components. A toy like this fosters the development of fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, sorting ability, color perception, and reasoning.
Games with sorters
Children are encouraged to use their fingers to match forms on simple sorters with volumetric, easily comprehensible shapes, which helps them improve their fine motor abilities. Sorters also aid in the development of problem-solving abilities.
In the article on child development at 4–6 months, we detailed how to introduce a child to such a sorter. Most of the activities described there are still relevant for ages 7–9 months.
Your infant may now independently arrange various shapes if they were only observers when they first saw this item. The circle is the most basic form to start with. Your kid will benefit from the positive reinforcement of placing other shapes more quickly when they succeed.
Games with ring stacker
A ring stacker is one of those toys that every house needs to have. It aids in the hand-eye coordination, object grasping, and manipulating skills development of newborns. The hands, fingers, and wrists get stronger as a result.
Due to the different shapes, sizes, and colors, assembling the stacker in the correct sequence by size helps develop sensory and cognitive skills.
Your kid can even stack a few rings on their own by now, if not according to size. They can even practice “pulling up.”
Don’t forget to praise your baby for their efforts and celebrate their successes. When the baby stacks several rings, you can cheerfully clap your hands, which the child will enjoy, and they will likely repeat it. And clapping also helps develop hand movement coordination.
Games with wooden puzzles
Simple wooden-shape sorter puzzles with large, easy-to-grasp pieces are beneficial for developing babies’ fine motor skills. Below are 2 of the most convenient options for such puzzles.
Geometric puzzles have a little handle at the top that you grasp with your fingers. For newborns, learning to position their fingers in a way that makes the activity easier is first fairly challenging. As a result, these puzzles are great for improving overall movement coordination and finger dexterity.
Introduce the infant to the shape sorter first, and advise starting with a circle because it’s the most basic shape. They must comprehend the fundamentals of how to hold the part on their own. After understanding the circle, introduce shapes such as squares, triangles, and rectangles.
Games with busy boards
One of the most common types of busy boards is a board with sliders and doors that can be opened and closed. This toy will be an interesting and engaging activity, beneficial for fine motor skills development. Each slider requires different finger movements to open. Additionally, such games with sliders develop problem-solving skills.
Games with opening jars and bottles
Food containers can work just great for this game; you surely have several different-sized jars and bottles at home. Let your baby attempt to open them. This will strengthen your hands and improve your grip. It’s great if they are different lids, for example, screw-on lids and insert lids.
At this age, you may still utilize the following toys and activities in addition to the ones already listed:
- various rattles, tactile balls, soft rubber toys, and soft books. Spread them around different places in the room and ask the baby to crawl towards them;
- contrast pictures, which you can now divide into separate cards and also spread around the room and ask the baby to crawl towards a cow or a butterfly, etc.
Such games will simultaneously develop both fine motor skills (the act of grasping the toy in hand) and gross motor skills—crawling.
Activities for gross motor skills
Providing a secure and comfortable setting for babies to crawl as much as possible and to practice standing with support (closer to 9 months) is the major way to help them develop gross motor skills. Babies aged 7 to 9 months are best served by this approach.
Ensure a safe environment:
- take care of cabinets that open. Use special fasteners to prevent the child from opening cabinets containing dangerous items, such as sharp objects, breakables, and household chemicals. Also, make sure to close cabinets that could hit the baby when opened abruptly.
- ensure that the child does not have access to electrical outlets and appliances.
Ensure a comfortable environment:
- make sure there’s no excessive cold on the floor. Rubber mats work great for this. They also prevent the baby from slipping while they crawl, which is crucial when they are still having trouble controlling their hands and legs.
Encourage crawling as often as possible
Since crawling uses almost all of the body muscles, it is the greatest activity for this age group to improve gross motor abilities.
You can put different toys out of the baby’s reach and urge them to crawl toward them to promote crawling more frequently. Remember to give the baby some praise as soon as they complete this activity. It will provide further motivation to keep playing this game.
A toy car will be an excellent motivator to start crawling. The child’s attention span will grow since they have to follow the car’s whereabouts.
In addition to the toy cars, and other toys, ask the baby to crawl towards you. This motivation works better than any toy 🙂 So step aside and call the baby to you.
Dancing
The infant may “create” music and dance to it by using a music center. Give the baby a dance demonstration. Clap your hands and move to the beat of the song as soon as it starts. The infant will soon begin to mimic this.
Outdoor games
Take the baby outside to the playground when the weather is great, and when the infant is closer to nine months old, expose them to swings. As usual, be cautious, swing lightly, and stay close to them.
Games with large puzzle mats
At 7–9 months old, the main activity for the baby will be dismantling these puzzles. Since the pieces are large, the baby will need to lift their hands from a seated position to dismantle such a mat. This will help develop hand strength. Later, the baby will also find it interesting to put these puzzles back together. This activity is also interesting at 3 years old, so such a mat will serve you for a long time. Puzzle assembly will help cognitive development.
Light hammer games
We will now use a hammer more frequently when the infant sits and eventually stands with support: it’s been discussed in the essay on 4–6 month baby’s development.
The most important thing is to create a secure atmosphere and lay out the guidelines for when and where hammer tapping is permitted.
Using a hammer like this to tap is an excellent way to strengthen their hands.
Activities for sensory skills
Games with sensory bags
In some sets, there are many bags with soft fillings but different outer fabrics, which allows developing various tactile sensations in the child.
Other sets have many bags filled with various materials such as sand, pebbles, cotton, beads, or other shapes and sizes.
Additionally, there are empty bags that you may stockpile with items like spaghetti, cotton, sand, beads, and pebbles. Just make sure the baby cannot open the bags and they are secured.
Sensory bags work great for tactile stimulation. By exploring them and touching different textures, babies can improve their tactile perception and better understand the sense of touch. Here’s how you can use them:
- place the bags in a circle and encourage the baby to reach out and select their favorite.
- Ask the infant to crawl to the bags and touch each one in turn after you’ve placed them in various places in the room.
- Put all these bags into one big bag and ask the baby to pull out what they can grab with their hands. As soon as the baby takes out one bag, offer them to explore it, feel it with their fingers, and describe what they feel. Be sure to articulate it. For example: “You are touching large pebbles, they are hard,” “now you are touching soft sand, there are very fine grains,” etc.
By the way, when the baby gets older and can already grasp what the bags are packed with, these kinds of activities will still be useful. With their eyes closed, they can touch the bags in a huge bag and describe in detail what they feel as well as what they feel.
Playing with sensory books
Sensory books with inserts of different fabrics and textures are great for sensory development. In addition to different fabrics and colors, as well as items of various shapes that stimulate sensory development, these books have Velcro, fasteners, tied strings, buttons, clips, and buttons. With such a variety of everything, these books are useful not only for sensory development but also for fine motor skills and cognitive development.
Sit the baby on your lap and open the book together. Examine the contents carefully with the youngster. They won’t likely be interested in everything at once. Give them time to select a topic that interests them the most, then study it together. As a result, if you focus on what the youngster is interested in right away, their attention span will grow.
Playing with musical instruments
With the help of musical instruments, kids may learn about various sounds and rhythms and develop their hearing.
Xylophones and music centers are still quite relevant; we covered them in depth in the block about the development of 4-6-month-old babies.
Outdoor walks
Naturally, outdoor walks become even more pertinent and—above all—more enjoyable. The infant can touch, smell, and feel things like grass, sand, and leaves at this age, which allows them to notice more details from their environment.
It is crucial to spend time outside talking to the youngster and sharing your observations on the surroundings. It would be wonderful if you could include further information, such as the type of flower, its name, its color, and other specifics. Try to describe the items in the immediate vicinity using the following characteristics:
- what material it is made of;
- size — big/small;
- shape;
- color;
- what it is used for.
Therefore, each walk will become a developmental activity for the child. This is the development of tactile sensations, hearing, sight, smells. During such conversations, the child’s passive memory is formed.
Activities for cognitive development
Object permanence games
Engage the baby in basic games where things are exposed after being concealed. For instance, tuck a toy behind a cloth and let the child raise it to see what’s below. This aids in the baby’s comprehension that things exist even when they are invisible to them.
You can scatter different toys around the room and ask the child to crawl to them. For instance, you can scatter tactile balls of different colors in different places in the room and ask to find a specific one. Start with one color. Tell the child what color it is, for example, red. Then scatter all the balls around the room and ask to find the red one. This way, the baby will develop memory, attention, and sensory perception to distinguish the required color.
Games like hide-and-seek also aid in reinforcing the idea of item persistence. You may use it to hide a toy or to hide beneath a fabric. The baby will take pleasure in pulling the fabric to reveal you or their preferred toy.
Sorting games
First and foremost, it’s the shape-sorting game. Matching shapes to holes promotes the development of hand-eye coordination and problem-solving abilities. The shape sorter choices are shown above and are also covered in-depth in the article over the next four to six months.
Sorting activities can also be played with other safe objects and toys. To help the baby acquire early categorization abilities, encourage them to arrange related objects together. As an illustration, there are colored rings for a pyramid, colored balls, and form sorting figures. First, have the baby sort all of the red pieces, then the green ones, and so on. Or ask to separate soft toys and hard ones.
If you have stacking cups of different colors, you can ask to put balls (or shape sorter figures) into cups of the corresponding color.
Reading books
Reading books helps increase the child’s attention span and also builds their vocabulary. Tell the story with expressive voices, and describe the details you see in the pictures in the book.
Imitation games
Encourage the child to mimic simple actions, such as clapping hands, waving, making a fist, and opening the palm. Imitation is an important cognitive skill that aids in learning and social development.
Puzzle games
Puzzle mats and insert puzzles, like the one we’ve shown above, are ideal for this type of activity. Puzzle games aid in the improvement of fine motor coordination and problem-solving abilities.
Ball or car games
Roll balls (or a toy car) back and forth with the baby. This activity promotes visual tracking and develops gross motor skills.
Flash cards games
Playing card games with kids might improve their vocabulary and visual memory. We covered how to play with them in the article on the development of 4–6 month olds.
When the baby is 7–9 months old, you can arrange many cards (for instance, three distinct shapes: square, triangle, and circle) in front of them and ask them to point out where the square is in addition to displaying the cards and asking them to name the images on them. You may display crops, fruits, animals, etc.
Communicative and speech activities
Working on fine motor skills is essential because language development and the development of fine motor skills are strongly related. Learn more about it here) by utilizing the previously mentioned exercises.
Additionally, developing communicative skills in children 7–9 months old involves engaging them in exploring sounds, and gestures, and interacting with you. Communicate with your child as much as possible. It is during communication that a child’s vocabulary develops, and they begin to understand how to express their thoughts and emotions.
- Talk to your child throughout the day. Speak clearly, using proper language sounds.
- Describe your actions. Tell your child what you are doing around the house or what plans you have. When offering a toy to your child, always verbalize what it is and how to play with it. Talk about the characteristics of objects (color, shape, size, material, purpose). Vocabulary is formed during such conversations.
Point out and name objects that your child interacts with, such as toys, food, and household items. For example: “Look, this is an apple! It is green, tasty, and juicy.”
- Repetition helps children associate words with objects.
- Sing songs and tell rhymes. Children find it easier to remember rhyming sentences. Thus, listening to songs and rhymes helps children develop passive memory. You can also play children’s songs on YouTube and sing along, or just listen. It is important that the lyrics of the song are easily understandable.
- Read to your child every day. Tell them what you see in the pictures. After reading, you can also briefly retell it in your own words. Try to show your emotions while reading.
- Work with cards (as described above in the cognitive development section) to build your child’s vocabulary.
- Practice mimicking. Encourage your child to mimic your facial expressions, gestures, and sounds. This is a fun and interactive way to develop communication.
- Listen actively. When your child makes sounds or gestures, react attentively. Show your child that you are interested in what they are saying, which encourages them to engage in more active communication.
Activities for emotional development
Emotional development is an important aspect of overall child development and well-being.
Hug your baby as often as possible
Give your child lots of cuddles and physical attention. Emotional growth depends on physical contact. They support the bond’s strengthening and emotional stability.
Play hide and seek
Play hide and seek with your baby, covering your face with your hands and then revealing it. This game helps children understand the concept of object permanence and can evoke joy and laughter.
Respond to your child’s cues
Keep an eye out for your child’s cues, such when they cry or alter in expression. Giving a child’s demands prompt attention makes them feel safer.
Name emotions
When your baby exhibits various emotions, name them. For instance, “You look so happy!” or “I see you’re feeling a bit sad.” Or you may say “I see you’re upset.” This helps youngsters connect words to their emotional experiences. It is critical to attempt to react gently to emotions such as rage rather than yelling at the child when they express it. Explain calmly to the kid what is occurring (keep in mind that it is also unpleasant for the youngster because they do not yet comprehend what is going on, and this ignorance causes even more concern). This skill will be useful for you many times in the future:) But already now, at the age of 7-9 months, you can introduce the baby to their “different emotions” to make it easier for them in the future.
Emotional imitation
Make exaggerated facial expressions to express different emotions, such as happiness, surprise, and sadness. Encourage your child to mimic these expressions, which will help them learn to recognize and express emotions.
Music and dancing
Turn on calming or upbeat music and dance with your child. Music can be a powerful tool for emotional expression and bonding.
Comfort object
Many children become attached to comfort objects, such as a soft blanket or a plush toy. Allow the baby to have a special comfort object that provides emotional security.
Tickle games
Gently tickle the child and encourage them to explore different sensations and react to them. This can create joyful moments of communication and help the child understand their physical reactions to stimuli.
Celebrate your child’s achievements
Celebrate your child’s new accomplishments. Clap your hands and demonstrate your joy when they hit a developmental milestone, like crawling for the first time. This is a great accomplishment! It is also vital to recognize modest milestones, such as the first ring placed on a tower or the precise placement of a puzzle piece. Positive feedback encourages the baby to participate in certain activities. Moments of delight draw us closer together.
Activities for imagination and creativity
Sensory games
Provide your baby with sensory bags, sensory books, soft blankets, and other safe objects (such as fruits and vegetables) for the baby to explore through touch.
Sensory games foster curiosity and exploration in babies. This is critical for fostering imagination and creativity, as well as demonstrating environmental interest.
Exploring everyday items
Safe household goods (for example, food containers stored in your kitchen’s lowest drawer:) encourage imaginative play. When a baby investigates everyday objects, it inspires them to imagine scenarios and utilize them in new ways.
At 7-9 months old, your infant can already crawl and unlock lower drawers in furniture. It would be ideal if you could place safe objects for the infant in one of the drawers, which would assist in satisfying their curiosity and hence foster creativity.
- You need to understand that after such “explorations,” of course, there will be some mess, and you need to accept it calmly and not yell at the child, otherwise, instead of creative development, it can become traumatic for the child. So allow the baby to explore only if you are ready for it yourself so that this process brings pleasant emotions to both of you.
- Also, remember that the baby will not be opening the same drawer forever 🙂 This period will pass (and there will be order in your kitchen again), and the sooner you satisfy the baby’s curiosity, the faster it will pass, and most importantly, it will be beneficial for the baby’s development.
Reading books
Read books with pictures, with colorful illustrations to stimulate visual imagination.
Tell stories
Use your creativity to make simple stories. At this moment, the baby will be attentive to you. For the time being, you are demonstrating by example that a tale may be created from scratch rather than simply reading from a book. Later, when the baby begins to communicate, they will attempt to make a tale based on a picture or create one on their own.
Music and dancing
Dancing develops a sense of rhythm and coordination, allowing the child to express themselves through movement. At the age of 7-9 months, these will be sitting dances, often with clapping 🙂 But this is also important, the main thing is that the child understands that their body can move differently to music.
When playing with musical toys, the child learns to create their own melody, which is also important for developing creative skills.
Imaginary games
Playing with diverse toys and household things may spark the imagination and lead to novel uses for them. For example, while playing with a pyramid, you may create a bracelet for your arm out of the rings. You may even tap your hands on a chair or sofa and pretend you’re playing a drum.
Even without toys, you can have a lot of fun by using your imagination.
- Sit the child next to you and imagine that your hands are the steering wheel of a car, and then you’re not just sitting next to each other on the couch, but driving a car on an adventure.
- Portray the movements of a robot for the child or imitate the sounds (and perhaps movements) of different animals.
- Sit the child on your back and pretend you’re a horse.
- Lift the child in your arms and imagine they’re a little airplane.
This is only a sample of what you could come up with. The important thing is to start doing it. It’s a lot of fun, and you’ll probably come up with some new ideas along the way. Such activities help you become closer to your child. Most importantly, by setting a good example, you teach the baby how to use their imagination, which is extremely beneficial to their growth.
