Gross Motor Skills To Expect

Sitting skills.

Expected Age Range: 6-8 months, or so.

Sitting has a profound impact on a baby’s ability to learn about the objects in the world around them because it offers a new view and their hands are free to play. This is what you can expect to see around the time that sitting skills are emerging:

On Their Tummy:

• Your baby is pushing themselves backward on their belly using their arms.

• They press up through their hands lifting their chest off the floor.

• They may begin to assume a push-up position with their belly off the floor.

• Your baby should be comfortable with their palms on the floor, their hands should not be fisted.

In Sitting:

• Your baby will be able to “prop sit” with their hands propped on the floor in front of them, slightly folded over, but with their chest off their legs.

• When your baby is placed in sitting, they are able to balance without propping themselves with their hands.

• Your baby is able to maintain sitting balance while holding a toy with both hands.

• Your baby begins to demonstrate protective extension to the left and right. That means, when they lose their balance to the side, they put out their arm to block their fall. 

• They are able to get out of sitting by placing their hands on the floor in front of them, slightly to the side, and lowering down to their belly. Their legs will become untucked and straighten behind them. They should be able to do this to the left and right sides comfortably. 

• You baby learns to get up into sitting through side sitting. 

• Your baby is able to get into and maintain a side sitting position, comfortably to the left and right sides.

Protective Extension Reflex to the Side.