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Healthy Children > Ages & Stages > Baby > Cognitive Development: 4 to 7 Months
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Cognitive Development: 4 to 7 Months
During your baby s first four months, did you have doubts that she really understo
od much that was happening around her? This parental reaction is not surprising.
After all, although you knew when she was comfortable and uncomfortable, she pr
obably showed few signs of actually thinking. But studies show that from the min
ute your baby is born, she is learning about the world around her, even though i
t may not be apparent to you or others. Now, as her memory and attention span in
crease, you ll start to see evidence that she s not only absorbing information but a
lso applying it to her day-to-day activities.
During this period, one of the most important concepts she ll refine is the princi
ple of cause and effect. She ll probably stumble on this notion by accident somewh
ere between four and five months. Perhaps while kicking her mattress, she ll notic
e the crib shaking. Or maybe she ll realize that her rattle makes a noise when she
hits or waves it. Once she understands that she can cause these interesting rea

ctions, she ll continue to experiment with other ways to make things happen.
Your baby will quickly discover that some things, such as bells and keys, make i
nteresting sounds when moved or shaken. When she bangs certain things on the tab
le or drops them on the floor, she ll start a chain of responses from her audience
, including funny faces, groans, and other reactions that may lead to the reappe
arance or disappearance of the object. Before long, she ll begin dropping things inten
tionally to see you pick them up. As annoying as this may be at times, it s one im
portant way for her to learn about cause and effect and her personal ability to
influence her environment.
It s important that you give your child the objects she needs for these experiment
s and encourage her to test her theories. But make sure that everything you give h
er to play with is unbreakable, lightweight, and large enough that she can t possi
bly swallow it. If you run out of the usual toys or she loses interest in them,
plastic or wooden spoons, unbreakable cups, and jar or bowl lids and boxes are e
ndlessly entertaining and inexpensive.
Another major discovery that your baby will make toward the end of this period i
s that objects continue to exist when they re out of her sight a principle called ob
ject permanence. During her first few months, she assumed that the world consist
ed only of things that she could see. When you left her room, she assumed you va
nished; when you returned, you were a whole new person to her. In much the same
way, when you hid a toy under a cloth or a box, she thought it was gone for good
and wouldn t bother looking for it. But sometime after four months, she ll begin to
realize that the world is more permanent than she thought. You re the same person
who greets her every morning. Her teddy bear on the floor is the same one that
was in bed with her the night before. The block that you hid under the can did n
ot actually vanish after all. By playing hiding games like peekaboo and observin
g the comings and goings of people and things around her, your baby will continu
e to learn about object permanence for many months to come.
Last Updated
8/1/2009
Source
Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5 (Copyright 2009 America
n Academy of Pediatrics)
The information contained on this Web site should not be used as a substitute fo
r the medical care and advice of your pediatrician. There may be variations in t
reatment that your pediatrician may recommend based on individual facts and circ
umstances.
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