At Nine-Twelve Months, Your Child will Likely…

Physical Development:

Enjoys drinking from a cup.
Begins to eat finger food.
Eats 3 meals a day.
Has tripled birth weight and doubled in length.
Continues to explore everything by mouth.
Enjoys opening and closing cabinet doors.
Crawls well.
Pulls self up to a standing positions.
Stands alone holding onto furniture for support.
Walks holding onto furniture or with adult help.

Social & Emotional Development:

Imitates adult actions such as drinking from a cup, or talking on the phone.
Responds more to adults than to other infants.
Likes to watch self in the mirror.
Wants parent or caregiver to be in constant sight.
Expresses fear toward strangers.
Offers toys or objects to others but wants them to be returned.
Points to desired objects.
Pushes away toys, food and other items when she/he does not want them.
May become attached to a favorite toy or blanket.

Intellectual Development:

Says first word.
Says "da-da" and "ma-ma" or equivalent.
Imitates animals.
Dances or bounces to music.
Interested in picture books.
Plays pat-a-cake.
Likes to place objects inside one another.
Pays attention to conversations.
Claps hands, waves goodbye, if prompted.

Delevopmental milestones associated with feeding:

Picks up small morsels or food (finger foods) and feeds self.
Holds own bottle and drinks from it.
Drinks from a household cup without assistance but spills some.
Uses a spoon with much spilling.

Birth to 18 Months - First Connections with Families
First Connections with Families provides information about child development, reading to your child, and child health and safety.

The Early Learning Guidelines for Ages Birth to 3
This exciting new resource is being written to assist early childhood caregivers/teachers, parents and other adults with information about supporting the learning and development of young children. The Guidelines provide information related to seven domains or areas of learning and development: