Category: Developmental Milestones

  • Peekaboo

    Ed Tronick’s Mutual Regulation Model describes the “dynamic organization of the behavioral communicative system” between a child and adult, “which regulates behavior moment by moment and shapes development over time” (Tronick p56). From this perspective, Dani’s development is shaped by an increasing capacity to comprehend my actions and intentions in any given moment, and to…

  • The Meaning of Crawling

    During my midwifery training, we considered a baby’s 9-month birthday to be the end of a “second gestation”, a time of major transition in the mother-child relationship. Pregnancy and birth were valuable metaphors to normalize the intensity of change many mothers experience around this time. As a baby begins to move outwards into the world,…

  • The New Dance: Developmental Changes in Emotional Regulation

    I always knew 3-months was a major developmental marker, yet I have been blown away by Dani recently. It is as though the moment she began holding her head up, she became a whole new person. She is more alert and aware of her environment, more interactive, and I am seeing the first hints of her…

  • Language Magic

    I have been fascinated by language development since long before I was a mother. It is a window into the extraordinary flexibility and plasticity of the infant brain – you can almost see the neurons firing as they master new words.  From birth to three years old, the brain makes 700 new synaptic connections per…