Your 7-month-old is changing quickly. His thinking skills, like his ability to plan ahead and hold an image in his mind, are matching his widening field of physical exploration. So play away!
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Life gets exciting with a seven-month old in the house. An infant at this stage is undergoing rapid developmental changes and parents can observe their little one learning new things every day. Cognitive, language and motor skills are all progressing as a baby starts to develop more of her own personality. Parents can monitor their baby and watch her reach milestones to know she is on track for a seven month old.
Cognitive Skills of a Seven-Month-Old
Babies use their toys to learn about cause and effect.
A seven-month-old baby is learning new things all the time. Parents can almost watch her little brain growing as she inspects her toys and concentrates on how they look and work. One of the main milestones a seven month old should acquire by the end of the month is object permanence. Up until this point, an infant believes that when something leaves her line of sight, it ceases to exist. With object permanence, the baby starts to understand that even though a toy, pet, or even mommy and daddy leave the room, they are still there and will eventually come back.
Parents who want to see if their baby understands object permanence can simply take a toy that the baby is playing with and place it under a scarf or light blanket. If the baby moves the blanket to retrieve the toy then she is starting to understand this concept.
Much of what a baby learns at this stage is cause and effect. According to "Cognitive Development" by Healthy Children, infants this age will experiment with whatever is available to them to figure out a pattern of cause and effect. For instance, a baby will shake a rattle and figure out that the movement of her hand is causing the sound. When she pushes the cow on her electronic toy, it says "moo." When she throws her spoon on the ground, Mommy picks it up. By repeating these things over and over, a baby's cognitive skills are progressing.