Baby Development, Tummy Time and Play (Emma Hubbard)

Grounded in: the topics covered by Emma Hubbard, a paediatric occupational therapist who makes videos on baby development on YouTube (search her channel). This card summarises widely accepted developmental guidance on those topics in Cradle's own words; it does not quote her. Her videos show the positions and activities far better than text can.

Tummy time

• Start from the early weeks with short, frequent sessions while the baby is awake and supervised, building up gradually over the first months.
• It doesn't have to be on the floor: lying on a parent's chest, across the lap, or carried tummy-down all count.
• Many babies protest at first. Shorter sessions, getting down at their eye level, a mirror or a rolled towel under the chest can help.

Movement milestones come in ranges

• Head control, rolling, sitting, crawling (some babies skip it), pulling to stand and walking each arrive over a wide window of months.
• Floor time lets babies practise; long stretches in containers (bouncers, swings, car seats outside the car) limit that practice.
• Babies usually do best reaching milestones by themselves rather than being propped into positions they can't yet get into alone.

Play by stage

• Early months: faces, voices, high-contrast images, gentle movement.
• Around the middle of the first year: reaching, grasping, mouthing and passing toys between hands.
• Later in the first year: cause and effect, containers, stacking, cruising along furniture.
• Simple household objects are as good as special toys.

When to check in

Talk to the pediatrician or a paediatric physiotherapist about a persistent head-turning preference or flat spot, stiffness or floppiness, using one side much more than the other, or loss of skills a baby already had.

Themes

Emma Hubbard, occupational therapist, baby development, tummy time, hates tummy time, rolling, sitting, crawling, standing, walking, motor milestones, milestones, play ideas, baby play, toys, flat head, head tilt, torticollis, bouncer, swing, container time