The birth of a new person is the greatest miracle. Parents are ready to endlessly examine every feature of their baby’s face and be happy if he smiles back. But does the baby do this consciously? How do you know what's going on in that tiny head? When does a child begin to recognize his mother? Many parents draw a parallel between this ability and vision. But the possibilities of exploring the world are not limited to this.

A newborn baby does not immediately recognize his mother, but he learns this very quickly.

It has been scientifically proven that, while still in their mother’s belly, children already have a fairly developed nervous system. They can hear, but the sounds will be somewhat muffled. The mother's voice is perceived by the fetus during her pregnancy. Therefore, it is recommended to talk with the little person even before his birth. Already at this stage an emotional connection is established.

At first, the baby begins to recognize his mother only by her voice.

How many months will he be able to distinguish his native intonations from the world of foreign sounds? When does a child recognize his mother's voice? Depends on individual development. Most often - at three months. But there may also be deviations from the norm.

If a child does not respond well to sounds, and after three months does not turn his head when his mother calls him, you should consult a doctor. Perhaps the cause is hearing impairment.

How tasty and pleasant

In the first minutes of life, when the baby touches his mother, new sensations are added. Her smell, soft skin, warm milk make him happy. The little person recognizes his mother through tactile and taste experiences. For up to one month, he can search for the breast while in his grandmother’s arms. Then, when the newborn begins to recognize his mother, he will no longer confuse her smell with anyone. Some pediatricians say that his sense of smell develops very early. The baby begins to sense the smell of the closest person already on the third day of life.

You can use this feature to calm him down. A handkerchief dipped in mother's milk will do. It should be placed on the pillow next to the newborn.

An early developed sense of smell allows the baby to recognize its mother.

The world is beautiful

The most important moment comes when the little person is already following his mother with his eyes. No parent will doubt that the baby has begun to recognize him. Although vision is formed during pregnancy, in a newborn it has limited capabilities that develop gradually.

When showing objects to your child, you must hold them at a distance of 25 cm, no closer, right in front of your face. Otherwise, strabismus begins to develop.

Many people are concerned about the question: “How many months must pass before the mother begins to be visually recognized?” To do this, you can compare some data. Age is given in months.

• First second . Ability to briefly focus attention on large, close objects. The world is seen in black and white.
• Third . The gaze focuses on both near and distant objects. People have different facial features and bright colors (especially red and yellow). Binocular vision is finally formed - two eyes see simultaneously.
• Third fourth. Recognizing parents by their faces.
• Fourth fifth. Interest in moving objects. Tracking them.
• Fifth - sixth. The ability to distinguish basic colors and shapes, emotions and moods of others.
• Seventh – ninth. Identification of features of objects by shape, color, size.
• Eighth - tenth. Recognizing people who are often in the house.

After this age threshold, children clearly draw the line between “friend and stranger.” And the smile of a stranger can be answered with loud crying.

Summary

Now it is very easy to understand when a baby can begin to recognize its mother. This usually happens around the fourth month. And after another three or four weeks, her image becomes complete. Smiling, the baby sends greetings not to the whole world, but to the only person closest to him. He does this consciously. Although many women are sure that the very first smile of a newborn has its addressee. Who knows…

The mechanism of recognition in infants is quite complex from a developmental point of view. To develop it, a certain amount of experience is required, i.e. The baby needs time to get to know its mother and remember her appearance. In addition, the newborn’s senses have not yet completed their development. And yet, parents look forward to the moment when the child recognizes mom and dad and rejoices at their appearance.

Birth, a new important stage in a baby’s life, triggers the functioning of innate reflexes that regulate the processes necessary for survival in new conditions. At the same time, the senses are not yet developed and the baby cannot fully perceive the surrounding space or recognize loved ones.

Traditionally, the ability to recognize a familiar face is associated with the formation of visual processes, which in a newborn are the least developed in comparison with the sense of smell, touch, and hearing. A one-month-old baby is not able to discern a clear picture of the environment, but vision is constantly improving. Being in the mother's belly in the status of a fetus, the child distinguishes between light and darkness. In addition, the baby is familiar with the mother’s voice and the beat of her heart.

When he is born, he does not see a clear picture of the world: space consists of a cluster of light and dark spots, blurry silhouettes, unclear objects and faces. By the end of the second or third week, the child feels a fuzzy outline of a loved one at a distance of 25 centimeters. This is the approximate size between the faces of the mother and baby when breastfeeding.

The first month allows the baby to distinguish silhouettes more clearly, and by the end of the second or third month the child is able to determine whether an object is flat or three-dimensional.

At the same time, the baby can also “recognize” the mother, identify the closest person from among other close people. Vision has not yet been fully developed, but the sense of smell allows the baby to feel the proximity of the mother’s body and smell the milk. The baby is close to the sound of his native voice, its timbre. Tactile contact is also important. Soft and gentle strokes, their character and sequence are also stored in the newborn’s memory. Contact with mom is associated with satisfaction, security, and comfort.

When the skill manifests itself

The totality of all these sensations is remembered by the baby and associated with the image of the mother. You can often hear the expression that a baby with his eyes closed will sense his mother. This statement is only partly true, since a child of this age perceives the image of mommy as a combination of her inherent smells, voice, clothes, manner of speaking, characteristics of touch, etc. Those. If a woman uses deodorant, perfume, or slightly changes her appearance, hairstyle or clothing, such actions can disrupt the integrity of the mother’s image in the child’s mind. This discrepancy can adversely affect the condition of the baby: lead to breast refusal, frequent and prolonged anxiety, the child will cry and call for the “real” mother. That is why it is too early to talk about conscious recognition during this period.

The vision of a three-month-old baby continues to improve and becomes sharper. The child sees the existing reality, is able to concentrate his gaze, and begins to recognize faces. The fourth month can be considered the period when the child begins to consciously recognize his mother. At the same time, he sincerely demonstrates animation: he begins to smile, reaches out, shows activity and a willingness to “communicate.” By the fifth month, the baby is already able to capture mommy’s mood, peering into facial features and remembering their expression.

Why doesn't he find out

How long it will take for recognition depends on many factors. If the baby is cared for by numerous family members: grandparents, brothers or nannies, the period of recognition of the mother changes. In the case when a woman likes to experiment with her appearance, constant violation of the image often has negative consequences: children often have a hard time with such changes.

Particular attention should be paid to children who do not show interest in their mother, i.e. there is no emotional reaction to its appearance. If the baby does not respond to his own name, is indifferent to toys, there is passivity, monotony or poor facial expressions, you should consult a doctor. Such manifestations are characteristic of mental disorders and autism.

Vision is one of the main functions of cognition of the world. Thanks to visual images, the child receives up to 90% of information about what is happening around him. There are many speculations about the vision of newborn children: some claim that babies see everything upside down, in an inverted position, others are sure that babies are not able to distinguish colors.

In this material we will look at how our world is seen by a newborn, and we will also find out when the baby begins to focus his gaze and how to help the baby develop visual functions.

Visual organs before birth

The visual analyzers of the fetus develop in the second week of pregnancy. The mother is not yet aware of her “interesting situation,” but the embryo is already developing eye vesicles, which will later become its eyes. The lenses develop towards the end of the first month of pregnancy. By the end of the third month, the baby’s blood vessels have formed and the blood supply to the eyes has been established.

The formation of the sclera occurs at 4-5 months of pregnancy, by the same period the baby’s eyelids are fully formed.

The fetus cannot see in the full understanding of this word in the space of the uterus until the formation of the center of vision in the brain is completed. In the third trimester of pregnancy, the baby, through his tightly closed eyelids, begins to detect and differentiate light and darkness outside the mother's belly.

At birth, a child’s eyes have a structure identical to the eye of an adult, but all sections are not physiologically mature, are smaller in size, and functionally lag behind the analyzers of adults.

Stages of development after birth

Vision continues to develop after birth, the eyes and nerves mature. This process occurs simultaneously with the development and formation of brain functions.

After birth, babies' vision is weak and they cannot boast of its sharpness. The big and bright (compared to the mother’s womb) world is a great stress for the baby, who, moreover, cannot really see what is happening around him. What we see for a baby in the first month of life is a “patchwork quilt” - a cluster of multi-colored spots that do not have clear boundaries.

But the process of formation of visual organs and neural connections in the brain occurs continuously and also very intensively, and therefore, already at the age of one month, the baby can generally distinguish certain shapes if you bring an object close to his eyes.

However, it is still very difficult for a baby of this age to maintain a focused gaze; the muscles responsible for moving the eyeballs and fixing the gaze are still very weak.

Do newborns see everything in black and white? The answer to this question is rather negative, but the newly born child does not perceive a special variety of colors. Rather, it is a set of spots in halftones. Statements that babies perceive everything upside down are generally far from reality. Your newborn sees everything in the correct projection, only very vaguely.

Since the eyeballs are significantly smaller in size than adults (16 mm in newborns versus 24 mm in an adult), the image is formed not on the retina, but immediately behind it, so all newborns, without exception, are characterized by a certain physiological farsightedness.

As the eyeballs grow, the image begins to form correctly and precisely where it should appear - directly on the retina.

Let's look at the main stages in the development of visual ability in infants.

Newborn

In the first days after birth, the child distinguishes only between light and darkness. He cannot see his mother, father, or even his grandmother, no matter how hard his relatives try to prove the opposite.

If you shine too bright a light on a child, he may cry; a sudden change in lighting (from darkness to light) causes lacrimation and quite understandable indignation in the little man. These abilities belong to the category of visual reflex reactions; they are assessed in the parental home after the baby is born. If there are reactions, the child is considered to be sighted.

3 weeks after birth

A period of primary adaptation passes, the baby adapts to the new conditions of his environment. After 21 days, color vision begins to form, the baby will begin to distinguish some spots as more or less bright.

At a distance of about 40 centimeters from the face, he can see them best. But the baby is not yet able to understand or analyze what he saw. He cannot distinguish faces, cannot see his mother, but he can feel her - by smell, by voice, by touches that are familiar to him.

1 month

After the first month, the baby begins to briefly hold his gaze on an object that is no more than 50-60 centimeters away from him. But it’s not working out well yet, and so the parents start ringing all the bells: “the baby is squinting,” “his eyes are looking in different directions,” “one pupil is trembling.”

All these are not signs of pathology, but signs of immaturity of the eye muscles; quite a bit more time will pass, and the infant will learn to look at objects longer.

2 months

By the end of the second month, the child can focus his gaze on a large toy a little longer. But it is still very difficult for him to follow her with his eyes.

The baby begins to recognize his mother, and this is an undeniable breakthrough. The rudiments of color discrimination appear - the baby perceives the color red.

3 months

By this age, the child’s visual organs have “stepped” far forward. Now he can not only follow a static object, but also try to keep his gaze on a moving object, however, provided that this object moves unsharply and smoothly.

The baby's eyes can already move left and right, up and down. The ability to distinguish colors improves - the baby begins to see yellow.

4-5 months

By the end of the fifth month, the baby distinguishes between blue and green, as well as all the basic colors of the spectrum, but halftones are not yet available to him.

He will learn to see them by 7-8 months. The child recognizes his relatives, distinguishes faces, and can quite clearly see objects that are a meter away from him.

6 months

At six months, the child’s facial expression begins to acquire a “living” look, quite conscious and reasonable. The eyes no longer look in different directions, do not run back and forth, the baby can clearly see faces and toys at a distance of up to three meters, and fix his gaze on them.

Vision becomes stereoscopic. This means that the baby begins to see the world not as flat as before, but three-dimensional, three-dimensional, the way we adults see it. Without difficulty, a child can see the toy, reach it, and pick it up.

7 months and older

At the age of 7 months and after that, basic vision is formed. But this does not mean that the improvement processes in the organs of vision and brain stop. Visual analyzers will develop for up to 3 years inclusive, but the foundation has already been laid.

The child begins to fix his gaze on distant objects, quickly “switching” his gaze from distant objects to near ones and vice versa. At 8-9 months, a child can estimate the distance between objects.

It should be noted that the most dramatic changes in a child’s visual organs occur during the entire first year of life, and therefore parents must do everything possible to ensure that the baby’s vision develops harmoniously and correctly. This will help avoid problems in the future.

Premature babies are somewhat behind in the stages of vision formation. It all depends on how early the baby is born. The eyes of babies born prematurely will take a little longer to ripen, and this is quite natural.

How to develop visual functions?

Parents should take care that the baby’s vision is normal from the first days. The room in which the baby will be should not be very dark. In twilight, all stages of vision development will be delayed. But the room should not be too brightly lit: in the first months, bright light will irritate the baby and cause noticeable inconvenience to him.

Avoid having a light source near the crib. It is also undesirable to have large mirrors in the room.

Do not move the crib to the wall - you need to approach the baby from different sides so that he can learn to perceive objects both to his right and to his left.

It is better to start using mobile phones, rattles and other “cutes and delights” that mothers prepare for the baby during pregnancy when the child reaches one month of age. Previously, he simply would not see them and would not appreciate them. After a month, toys are hung at a distance of at least 50 centimeters from the baby’s face.

Classes to develop vision will be useful for your little one from the age of one and a half months. To begin, show your baby black and white geometric images.

From three months, start working with your child using colored objects and toys. At the same time, remember that first you need to offer items in red and yellow, and only by six months - blue and green.

As soon as the child learns to crawl, give him free rein. A playpen is an excellent device that makes mom’s life much easier and saves nerves and effort, but in it stereoscopic vision will develop much more slowly.

While exploring space with his own hands and knees, the baby also comprehends the laws of distance and volume, do not forget about this.

Be sure to take your child for a walk. The sun's rays contribute to the development of the retina, and besides, the child gets excellent training in tracking moving objects outside, which he is not yet tired of, unlike at home - a dog is running, a car is driving, a flower is swaying in the wind, etc.

Self-vision test

Looking at the baby’s squinting and cloudy eyes (and they are like this in almost all babies up to a certain age), parents no, no, and they begin to wonder if everything is okay with the child’s vision. Of course, only an ophthalmologist can give a final answer to this question, but the child’s parents can easily identify some signs and alarming symptoms of visual impairment on their own in order to immediately visit the same ophthalmologist. So, problems most often arise in children who:

• were born premature, ahead of schedule;
• were born into a family where close relatives have vision problems (ophthalmological problems are quite often inherited);
• per month do not demonstrate pupil reaction to light (the pupil does not become smaller in response to bright lighting);
• at three months they do not focus their gaze on large objects that do not make sounds, they show interest only in toys that can make sounds;
• at four months they do not follow moving objects;
• in six months they do not recognize the faces of relatives, do not differentiate them from strangers;
• at six months they demonstrate involuntary nystagmus (quivering and spontaneous movement of the pupils from side to side or from top to bottom);
• at six months they demonstrate pronounced unilateral strabismus;
• at one year of age, they do not pay attention to dogs, birds or cats on the street, and are not interested in moving objects.

From birth to 6 months: a companion for everyone

A newborn child cannot understand from the very beginning how the world works. Every time his mother takes him in her arms, the baby recognizes her smell, touch, voice, and soon begins to understand that caresses and feeding follow.

Thus, the child brings his mother into the confines of his small world. He can distinguish her from other people by her voice, smell, and affectionate touches.

At about 3 months, the child clearly recognizes her face, in which previously he only caught familiar features. He also responds animatedly to his mother’s approach, distinguishing her from other people. However, throughout the entire six months the child is friendly and smiles at everyone, and also allows everyone to hold him.

It gives parents special pleasure to hear from friends about how friendly their child is. However, against the backdrop of general friendliness, the child gradually becomes more and more attached to his mother.

Half a year: fear of strangers

At about six months, the baby's behavior changes very much. At this time, the child is very attached to his mother, he wants to see her and only her, and begins to cry when strangers approach. Mom becomes his safe haven. Father and grandparents may feel unwanted. It may be unpleasant for a father to realize that his child does not want to spend time with him. Older relatives may be puzzled and worried that their little angel is no longer beaming with joy while sitting on their lap. The child does not like to be away from his mother, so he starts crying whenever she is far away.

There is nothing wrong with this behavior; it does not mean that the child has gone bad. A necessary step in a child’s development is to learn to recognize strangers.

During the previous months, his mother shared the sorrows and joys of the baby, looked after him during his illness, provided support in mastering his body, and understood him without words. This, as well as physical contact, allowed the mother to become the main person in the child’s life, with whom he likes to spend time most of all.

Now the baby knows that there is a whole world besides him and his mother, and is still afraid of it. Therefore, he turns for support to the person to whom he has become so attached. The child does not want to see anyone other than his mother, but this is temporary.

This “getting to know each other” phase can be confusing and exhausting for parents, but it is normal and essential to social and emotional development. This is the first step that a child takes on the path to learning to distinguish between strangers and those whom he truly loves. This ability will also help build strong relationships in adulthood.

Note to moms!

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After 9 months: building real relationships

Fear of strangers lasts from 2 to 8 weeks. During this period, the child may withdraw even from his father. However, between 8 and 9 months he will resume his relationship with daddy again, but in a more mature way. The degree of attachment of a child to his father depends on how much he... A child may recognize his father and love to play with him, but still he often does not occupy such a close position as his mother, since the role of breadwinner in the family involves less involvement in everyday worries. The father becomes much more significant in the eyes of the child after several months, or even years.

Gradually, the child establishes closer relationships with other family members or close friends of the parents, but the child's attachment is determined by the degree of adult involvement. The baby's behavior towards adults outside the family is very restrained. Now he clearly defines the difference between close relatives, friendly acquaintances and strangers. Blood relationship doesn't matter to him. His relationship with his neighbor may be closer than with his grandmother, who lives far away.

Over a year old

Over the course of 2 and 3 years, the child’s attachment to his parents becomes clearer. In his attitude towards them, a new aspect of giving love in return appears. He wants to share, even if he only has a piece of a dried bun. The baby shows concern if it seems to him that the parent is injured or upset about something. In such cases, the child wants to provide support; he can kiss as a sign of consolation. At this age, children learn to love.

As parents grow older, they begin to expect more restrained behavior, and since the child loves his mom and dad, he does not want to disappoint their expectations and does what adults tell him. Gradually, they begin to expect him to cope with disappointment himself, learn to go to the toilet, and instead of rash actions, first talk everything out.

A child can accept restrictions because they are imposed by those he loves so much. He wants to please his parents with something, wants to be in harmony with them, wants to be like them. Parents bond with the child, are sympathetic to the child's internal struggle, and give him time. They are patient and are ready at any time to encourage their son or daughter in their desire to behave in an appropriate manner.

At first, the child does what he is told only because he is reminded of it. After a little time, many behavior patterns are adopted and become natural for the child, which forms the basis for behavior in society outside the family.

Signs of normal child development
from 1 to 12 months

Quite often, young parents do not quite understand why a newborn needs to be examined by a neurologist. Meanwhile, it allows you to promptly notice the slightest deviations in the baby’s development. Only a doctor can assess the degree of maturity of the baby’s nervous system, the potential capabilities of his body, the characteristics of reactions to environmental conditions, and prevent developmental disorders or their consequences. The foundations of a person’s health or illness are laid at a very early age, so timely diagnosis and correction of existing disorders is one of the main tasks that a neurologist solves during the first examination of a newborn.

By the middle of the 1st month, and sometimes earlier, children begin to “meaningfully” look around, fixing their gaze longer and longer on objects that interest them. The first “objects” of increased attention are the faces of the closest people - mom, dad and those caring for the child. By the end of the 1st month, the child begins to quite consciously smile at the sight of loved ones, turn his head towards the source of sound, and briefly follow a moving object.

A newborn spends most of the day sleeping. However, those who believe that a sleeping child does not perceive the sounds of the surrounding world are mistaken. The baby reacts to sharp, loud sounds by turning his head towards the source of the sound and closing his eyes. And if they were closed, then the child closes his eyelids even more tightly, wrinkles his forehead, an expression of fear or displeasure appears on his face, his breathing quickens, and the baby begins to cry. In families where parents constantly talk in a raised voice, children's sleep is disturbed, irritability appears, and their appetite worsens. A lullaby sung by the mother, on the contrary, will help the child fall asleep peacefully, and the affectionate, friendly tone adopted in the family creates a sense of security and confidence in the baby in future adult life.

At the 2nd month, the child's tone in the flexor muscles of the limbs significantly decreases and the tone in the extensor muscles increases. The baby's movements become more varied - he raises his arms, spreads them to the sides, stretches, holds a toy placed in his hand and pulls it into his mouth.

The baby begins to become interested in bright, beautiful toys, looks at them for a long time, touches and pushes them with his hands, but is still unable to grasp them with his palm. Lying on his stomach, and then in an upright position, the child raises his head - this is the first conscious movement that he has mastered. Soon, being in his mother’s arms, he confidently looks around, and at first his attention is attracted by stationary objects located at a great distance. This is due to the structural features of the visual apparatus. Then the baby begins to look at closer objects, turn his head and follow the moving toy with his eyes. During this period, positive emotions predominate in children - smiling, motor animation, humming at the sight of their mother's face, in response to affectionate treatment.

At the 3rd month, the child becomes even more active, begins to roll over first from his back to his side, and then onto his stomach, holding his head confidently. The baby really likes to lie on his stomach, while he leans on his forearms, raises his head and upper body, carefully examines the objects and toys around him, and tries to reach them. Hand movements are varied. Lying on his back, the child quickly and accurately grabs an object placed in his palm and pulls it into his mouth. He already has his own preferences - some toys please him more than others, as a rule, these are small rattles that he can independently hold in his hand. He distinguishes faces and voices of his own and others, understands intonation.

At 4 months, the baby improves in the ability to turn from back to stomach and from stomach to back, and sits down with support from the hand. The infant's grasping reflex completely disappears, and is replaced by voluntary grasping of objects. At first, when trying to pick up and hold a toy, the baby misses, grabs it with both hands, makes many unnecessary movements and even opens his mouth, but soon the movements become more and more precise and clear. In addition to toys, a four-month-old baby begins to feel with his hands the blanket, diapers, his body and especially his hands, which he then carefully examines, holding in his field of vision for a long time. The significance of this action - looking at the hands - is that the child is forced to hold them in one position for a long time, which is impossible without prolonged contraction of individual muscle groups and requires a certain degree of maturity of the nervous system, visual analyzer and muscular system. The baby begins to compare his tactile sensations and visually perceived images, thereby expanding his ideas about the world around him.

By 5-6 months, the baby confidently takes and holds various objects within his reach. Everything that falls into the hands of a child at this age, after feeling and examining, inexorably ends up in the mouth. This worries and even upsets some parents, as it seems to them that the baby is developing bad habits that will then be difficult to wean. But the fact is that an infant exploring the world, in addition to the sight, hearing and smell familiar to an adult, actively uses touch and taste, the importance of which for the process of cognition at this age is difficult to overestimate. Therefore, in no case should one interfere with the child’s research interest, which strives to “test everything.” However, parents should ensure that there are no small or sharp objects nearby that are dangerous to the baby.

When communicating with adults, a 4-5 month old child develops a revival complex, which includes emotional, motor and speech reactions - smiling, energetic movements, prolonged humming with many vowel sounds.

The child turns over on his side and, leaning on his hand, sits down. Lying on his back, he quickly and accurately reaches out for the toy and confidently grabs it. Speech is actively developing, the baby pronounces consonants, the syllables “ba”, “ma”, “da”, babbles, and begins to react differently to mom, dad, relatives and strangers.

At 7-8 months, as balance reactions develop, the baby begins to sit up independently, without support, from a position on his back and on his stomach with the help of his hands. Lying on his stomach, he rests on his forearms, his head is raised, his gaze is directed forward - this is the most optimal position for crawling, which is still carried out only with the help of his hands, on which the child is pulled forward, his legs do not participate in the movement. With support, the baby gets to his feet and stands for a short time, and at first he can lean on his toes, and then on his full foot. Sitting, he plays for a long time with rattles and cubes, examines them, transferring them from one hand to another, changing places.

A child of this age gradually tries to attract the attention of adults, clearly distinguishes all family members, reaches out to them, imitates their gestures, and begins to understand the meaning of the words addressed to him. In babbling, the intonations of pleasure and displeasure are clearly distinguished. The first reaction to strangers is often negative.

By 9-10 months of age crawling on the stomach is replaced by crawling on all fours, when the crossed arm and leg move simultaneously - this requires good coordination of movements. The baby moves around the apartment at such a speed that it is difficult to follow him; he grabs and pulls into his mouth everything that catches his eye, including the wires of electrical appliances and equipment buttons. Given the capabilities of this age, parents need to ensure the safety of the ubiquitous baby in advance. By 10 months, the child gets up from a position on all fours, pushing strongly from the floor with his hands, stands and steps with his feet, holding onto the support with both hands. The child happily imitates the movements of adults, waves his hand, takes out scattered toys from a box or collects scattered toys, takes small objects with two fingers, knows the name of his favorite toys, finds them at the request of his parents, plays “okay”, “magpie”, “hide and seek”. He repeats syllables for a long time, copies various speech intonations, expresses emotions in his voice, fulfills some of the demands of adults, understands prohibitions, pronounces individual words - “mom”, “dad”, “baba”.

At 11th and 12th months Children begin to stand and walk independently. The baby steps his feet, holding onto the furniture or railing with one hand, crouches, takes a toy, and stands up again. Then he releases his hand from the barrier and begins to walk alone. At first, he walks with his torso bent forward, on his legs widely spaced and half bent at the hip and knee joints. As his coordination response improves, his gait becomes more and more confident; while walking, he stops, turns, bends over a toy, while maintaining balance.

The baby gets to know the parts of the body and learns to show them at the request of adults, holds a spoon in his hand and tries to eat on his own, drinks from a cup, supporting it with both hands, nods his head as a sign of affirmation or denial, happily carries out simple instructions from his parents: find a toy, call his grandmother , bring your shoes.

His vocabulary, as a rule, already contains several words. However, you should not be upset if your baby still does not pronounce individual words, since speech is one of the most complex higher mental functions and its development is very individual. Boys usually begin to speak several months later than girls, which is due to the peculiarities of the formation and maturation of their nervous system. Speech delay is often observed in children whose parents belong to different language groups and each communicate with the child in their own language. Members of such families are recommended, in the interests of the child, to choose a single language of communication until the child fully masters it, and only then teach him a second one. Most children develop speech in short phrases between one and two years of age, and then it becomes more complex and improved.