Physical Development at 10 months

Back dated post : Feb 2009

Observation made on baby C's Physical Development (10 minutes) at the living room

C is sitting alone on the floor mat. Around him, there is a small basket contains few pieces of Duplo blocks, a fist-size yellow ball and a cloth book. Two metres away on his right is a kid-size table and chair; and half a meter away on his left is the sofa where his grandmother is sitting, watching a television program.

Time	Observation
0900	C sits on the floor mat by himself, babbling. He sees a basket, takes it using his right hand and swings it, causing the things to fall out from the basket. His attention is at the yellow ball. He picks up the yellow ball using his left hand. He looks at the ball and puts it next to his ear. Then he looks at it again, and tosses it. The ball flies upward and falls near his left foot. He picks the ball up using his left hand and looks at it again. He then knocks the ball on the floor mat.  He notices few pieces of the Duplo blocks on the floor. Picks one block up using his right hand and knocks both the ball and block together. He smiles and squeals. Knocks the ball and the Duplo again, and this time accompanies with his babbling. He stops knocking and then wiggles his body, as if he is dancing.
0903	He sees the colourful cloth book on the floor. He lets go of the block. He stares at the patterns in book and feels its surface using his fingers of his right hand. Then he starts babbling. He takes the book with his right hand while the yellow ball is hold tightly in his left hand. He waves and shakes the book and throws it on to the floor. He then squeals with delight and looks at his grandmother.
0904	The yellow ball is transferred from his left to his right hand. He crawls towards his grandmother while still holding the ball tight. He pulls himself up, with his left hand to hold on to the sofa and stand next to his grandmother’s leg. He spots the TV remote control on the sofa, gazes at it for a while and looks at his grandmother. Then he leans forward to grab it. The yellow ball falls from his hand and rolls towards the kid-size table. He turns back while his left hand grabs the cloth of the sofa, trying to support himself. His eyes follow the ball and sees that it goes under the table. He looks at his grandmother. Then he lets go of his grip and sits on the floor. Then he turns towards the table, looking for his yellow ball. He crawls to the table.
0906	Near the table, he turns behind him, looks at his grandmother. Then his hand is touching something on the floor and he tries to pick it up using his pincer grip. Noticing this, his grandmother calls him, goes over to where he is. There is a small piece of paper on the floor and C is trying to get hold of it. His grandmother picks it up before C does and throws it in to the rubbish bin. Then she returns to her seat.  C sits and watches her action. Then he crawls towards the chair. He kneels and pulls himself up with both hands, using the chair as a support. Then he pushes the chair and cruises along for a while. He looks at his grandmother and let go off his hands, trying to stand without support. Smirking at her, he falls with his butt hit first on the floor
0910	He turns to the grandmother and starts crawling towards her. He stands up by holding onto the sofa and pulls himself up with his left hand. Then, he stretches his both hands holding the sofa material with strong grip and lifts his right thigh as if he tries to climb on to the sofa, next to his grandmother. When he fails to climb, he pulls his grandmother’s blouse, he cries a little as if he trying to inform that he wants to be carried.

INTERPRETATION

At 10 months old, C sits independently and is able to manoeuvre around within a short range by crawling and cruising along pushing the chair as support. He is also able to stand by pulling himself up with support and once in a while, he lets go off his hand for a few seconds before he falls sitting on the floor.

He loves pinching food - crawls everywhere searching for food

Cruising, with the help of a walker

(He does not use a baby walker)

C uses both his right and left hand equally the same. Based on the observation made, he used his right hand to pick up objects and left hand to support himself. It is hard to tell if he is going to be a right handed or a left handed in future.

Playing with his brother's latest construction block - LEPAO

Oh so yummy!

He loves cooking too!

C’s fine motor skills are developing tremendously well. He loves to explore and manipulate objects in his hands. These are shown from the observation where he swung and waved objects like the basket (sequence 0900) and the book (sequence 0903), feels texture where he rubs his hand on the surface of the book (sequence 0903), transfers objects like the yellow ball from one hand to the other (sequence 0904), knocks and bangs objects like the ball on the floor and with the blocks (sequence 0900), feels texture where he rubs his hand on the surface of the book (sequence 0903) as well as picks up small object like the small piece of paper with pincer grip (sequence 0906).

C tries to reach on objects that catch his eyes, whether the object is close to him or far selectively by giving a good look at the objects that he desires. Before he tried to reach for the TV remote control (sequence 0904), he gazed at it for a while. To get it, he needed to lean forward to extend the reach. At this attempt during this observation, he failed at his attempt and he got distracted with the yellow ball that fell out from his grip. According to the research done, the improvement of reaching will improve by time and by practice.

Developing his motor skills - dexterity for wrist movement skill (future writing)

Pincer grip development - for communication purpose & fine motor skills

C is very comfortable with the fist-size yellow ball as it fits his palm size properly. In this observation, he was clutching the ball tight in his hand, with the assistance of his thumb. Even though he can grasp and “throw” objects, the palmar grasp has not yet disappeared. The grasping reflex will only decline slowly when he turns 12 months old. This is one of the reasons where the ball was always in tact in his palm, until he saw the TV remote control. In fact, in the beginning session of the observation (sequence 0900), I personally believe that he did not mean to throw or toss the ball as the ball didn’t go forward, instead it flung upward. He actually swung and shook his hand and the yellow ball was release from his grip unintentionally. He also unintentionally let go of other objects in his hand because his attention had diverted to a preferred object. This is seen he immediately dropped the block as he saw the book (sequence 0903) and finally the yellow ball as he was trying to get hold of the TV remote control (sequence 0904).

His pincer gripping skill has also emerged where he tried to pick up small items that he sees within reach (sequence 0906). To execute pincer grasp, C needs to separate the forefinger from the other fingers, using his thumb and forefingers to pick up objects.

Montessori’s famous quote “The hand is the instrument of man’s intelligence” (Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, 27), the child needs work with his hands and collaborate with the brain for a continuous action of learning and developing. As the child starts to move about freely, he will explore his surroundings and discover more things. “He will become fully conscious and construct a future man, by means of his activities”.