A baby learns a huge amount of things over the course of his or her first year of life. This includes mental and physical development. Infants learn language skills, to move and play and they learn to interact with those around them.
Cognitive
Cognitive development refers to an infant's ability to learn and solve problems. For example, a 3- to 6-month old baby develops depth perception and can begin to reach for and grab toys. A 12-month old infant learns to go over or under things when they are in the way and learns to sit still and look at books. One of the best ways to help your baby's cognition development is to provide toys that produce cause and effect, meaning when a baby manipulates them they do something. This includes rattles, noise makers and toys that light up or play music.
Social and Emotional Development
Social and emotional development is important to how a child learns to interact with those around her. At an early age she begins to pick up on socially acceptable ways to behave around other people, such as not hitting or grabbing things from a friend. Infants also learn to help themselves by learning to get their own toys, tell their caregivers what they want and soothe themselves when upset.
Twelve-month old babies learn to mimic those around them and also begin to develop stranger anxiety. This is important because it helps an infant be wary of strangers and stay close to her caregiver.
Language
Babies in the first year of life make great strides in using and understanding language. This includes learning to respond when spoken to even if their response is not understood. At 12-months a baby can point and recognize words, such as "no" and is able to reproduce some words. A good way to nurture language acquisition and development is to provide a baby with lots of cloth and board books. Babies especially like pictures of faces or of other babies. This will help them begin to connect letters and words to speech.
Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills refer to skills that require the use of small muscles in the body. A 3- to 6- month old baby will use these muscles to reach for and eventually grab at toys and other objects that get within his grasp. A 9- to 12-month old baby will use them for banging toys together and feeding himself with a spoon. A good way to build these skills is to provide shape sorters, stacking and nesting toys and blocks that can be stacked and knocked over.
Gross Motor
Gross motor skills require the use of the large muscles in the body. For a 3-to 6-month old baby, this allows them to hold their head up and begin to sit alone. For a 12-month old baby she uses these muscles to crawl, pull to herself to a standing position and begin to walk. Giving a her plenty of safe places to play and explore helps her develop gross motor skills.
