Oh boy.

But this is one of the best parts about being around babies.

They get physical as a parent, we want to make sure they learn how to build muscle and do all those movements to roll, to crawl, to walk.

But I got a lot of questions like what exactly does all that start and how will I know if they're doing it correctly?

Yeah, Okay, so experts separate a baby's motor skills into two categories.

Gross and fine motor skills.

Gross motor skills are skills that require the use of large muscles of the body.

So in a newborn, gross motor skill would be more like just holding their head up or maybe visually tracking something and using their head for that.

And fine motor skills are motor skills that use the smaller muscles of your hand in your upper extremities and fine motor skills would be just like grabbing a hand.

Now my youngest is the smallest of four boys.

He just kinda had a sense about how this whole walking thing worked.

I think the most important thing is that what we're really learning about infant development is that Children need to have child initiated movement, it's really, really important.

And even though a bar couldn't really keep up with his older brothers, all those wiggles and tumbles were actually helping him develop his muscles.

Now, if you have a baby, you get used to go into the pediatrician every couple of months for checkups when you're there, you get asked a lot of questions, especially about your baby's development milestones.

Here's a quick cheat sheet about some of the major ones to look out for and went to look out for them.

So from birth to three months really what the child is doing is trying to learn to control their head and also being able to visually track things from side to side when they're on their stomach.

You can see them pushing up onto their elbows and having their head upright and again looking around to explore their environment.

It's actually these early months that I really love when I start speaking and my baby hears my voice and they turn their head to look for me.

I live for that moment.

He's not only learning how to turn, but he's also learning how to recognize me.

It's so exciting From 4 to 6 months, it's all about controlling the trunk.

So when they're laying on their back now they can grab their feet and play with their feet.

They can start to roll from there back to their stomach in terms of sitting usually around the age of six months is when Children start sitting independently because they have the trunk control in order to do that.

One of my favorite things was when my baby would wrap his little hand around my finger, they would grab it with their whole hand and just gently waving back and forth.

Oh, it made my heart melt, turns out this adorable moment is actually an involuntary reflex at birth, but soon becomes voluntary.

From 9 to 12 months, you really see a lot of mobility and so that will be a lot of rolling and combat crawling and creeping and even starting to walk.

And then over the age of a year, you see all the running and walking and jumping and things like that.

Out of all my kids um are started walking the earliest at nine months.

He was able to balance standing by himself super early.

So I knew we had trouble on our hands crawling.

Yes, that's something because they're fast like little sewer rats, but walking is something else because then their heads are at levels where they can hit their head on the corner of something.

So you're always having to like watch out Now each kid is built differently.

I think we all know that and not every child is going to hit milestones at the exact time on this timeline, Children are assessed with the standardized motor assessment by a physical or occupational therapist.

Under delay is when a child is not performing the motor skills that are appropriate for their age.

All right, I'll say it hearing motor delay, it's just scary no matter how it's phrased, but there's hope in a lot of help available.

If they meet the criteria, then they'll receive physical or occupational therapy services that are primarily focused on kind of teaching and coaching the parents what they can do with their child at home in order to promote more normal motor development.

I think the most important thing is just if you have concerns about your child's motor development to bring them to your pediatrician immediately and then also know that resources are there.

So the early start programs are available in all states and they will do free developmental assessments and therapeutic intervention for Children who need it.

You might be wondering what causes these delays in developing motor skills?

Well, according to the CDC, most developmental delays like motor skills can happen to anyone and can come from a complex mix of places.

For example, motor delays can also be a symptom of congenital cmV.

E, which is an infection that gets passed to a baby while the mother is still pregnant.

So if you notice anything that seems like your baby's motor skills are really lagging.

Don't hesitate to talk to your child's pediatrician.

Thank you for watching seeker baby.

I'm Angel Akita more and I hope you're learning as much about babies as I am.

If there's a baby topic you want us to cover.