11 months is the age of perfection of previously acquired skills. The main task of parents is to support the baby and help him improve.
A month before a year, a child pleases parents with qualitative indicators of development rather than quantitative ones. All the skills that the baby has mastered during the incomplete first year of his life are now being intensively improved.
At eleven months, the child's daily regimen shifts towards a reduction in daytime sleep. Most children at this age sleep 2 times during the day, but some babies go to one nap. The nature of the pastime during the day also changes, and the behavior of the toddler also changes.
At 11 months, a child already knows so much that from this age he begins to gradually separate from an adult in social and everyday life. Mothers notice that it becomes a little easier for them, because the period of complete dependence of the baby on adults is behind.
What a child should be able to do at 11 months
- Eleven months is the age of the first steps of the baby. The child has been able to stand at the support for a long time, by 11 months he has already trained his legs well and is able to move quickly enough along the support. However, interest and thirst for knowledge are often so strong that, while playing, the baby forgets that he is no longer holding on and takes his first steps without any support. Usually, children love to stomp their feet and take the initiative to walk themselves, urging an adult to serve as a support. Parents should be puzzled by the purchase of high-quality orthopedic shoes for the baby and be patient, because the child is still very uncertain about his legs, he constantly needs insurance;
- On this topic:
- When the child starts to walk
- If a child is afraid to walk
- 10 tips to teach your child to walk
- Knows how to climb on an armchair, sofa, step;
- Games are getting harder. Various manipulations with objects, a tower made of cubes, folding a pyramid - this is part of what a child can do at 11 months. The first signs of a role-playing game appear, which immediately transfers the child to a higher stage of development. Kids try to roll a doll's carriage, rock dolls in a crib, feed them. The child repeats all this, observing the actions of an adult. It is through the role-playing game that children master the rules of life in society, the norms of social interaction and develop certain stereotypes of sex-role behavior. And although at an early age the child does not yet identify his belonging to one or another sex, in role-playing games the behavior of girls and boys is noticeably different now;
- The development of thinking becomes obvious and noticeable. The kid masters the simplest mental operations, such as generalization and specification. This means that he is able to combine objects into groups on a common basis and vice versa, to isolate single objects from a similar set. Behind this complex formulation is a phenomenon constantly observed in everyday life. For example, if a child is asked to pitch a ball without pointing to a specific toy, he can serve an inflatable ball, a rubber, plastic ball - everything that falls into the category of balls in his mind. At the same time, if parents differentiate toys on any basis, then the child will learn to separate these toys. For example, if a Lena doll, a Masha doll and a Dasha doll are sitting on the shelf, the baby will bring the desired doll upon request, while maintaining the understanding that all these are dolls. Of course, these mental operations are not yet perfect and the child can combine objects into groups according to completely unexpected signs, understandable only to him, but everything is ahead;
- Together with thinking, speech develops. Eleven months is the age at which so-called autonomous speech appears. This is a very important stage in mastering speech, since it is directly associated with an attempt to name an object or action with a word. The name “autonomous” children's speech was given because they understand it only within the family. This is such a language of its own, understandable only to the baby and his parents, it is almost impossible for the person of the side to understand what the baby wants to express;
- In addition to the emergence of autonomous speech, there is another innovation in speech development. Active onomatopoeia - what a child must be able to do at 11 months. How a dog barks, how a cat meows, how a car and an airplane hums, how a bell rings - the baby copies any known sounds as best he can. You can activate this process with the help of special games. Your favorite theme is, of course, animals, but you can depict the sounds of any objects;
- Simulates many parenting gestures and actions (“Reads” a newspaper or a book, puts the telephone receiver to his ear, “cooks” soup in a toy saucepan), often prefers “adult” objects to toys: telephone, TV remote control, spoons, plates;
- Some babies delight loved ones with real, conscious words. Most often these are the words "mom", "give", "na". In general, the main engine of speech development is the need for the child to inform about their needs, so it is important for parents to stop being too understanding and give the child the opportunity to ask or communicate something himself;
- Knows how to cheat, understands how to attract the attention of adults. May begin to whimper to be noticed or picked up. Realizing that mom becomes more accommodating when he cries, the baby will start shedding tears for any reason;
- Actively gestures and includes facial expressions to express any feelings: shakes his head negatively or frowns his eyebrows as a sign of disagreement, nods in the affirmative, waves his hand goodbye, pulls his arms if he wants a hug;
- At 11 months, you can already try to teach your child to go to the potty, especially if there are plans for a kindergarten. Usually, in a month or two, kids master all the wisdom of this process and begin to ask themselves in most cases. However, if the child categorically does not want to be friends with the pot, this is not scary. Neurologists say that the parts of the brain responsible for toilet training fully mature only by 2-2.5 years, so before this age flaws and problems with the pot are completely normal (See the article How to potty train);
- Child's table behavior skills are strengthened and developed... At 11 months, children are already ready to eat food from the common table: they show increased nutritional interest, are able to chew and swallow pieces. Many children at this age already drink from a mug, try to eat on their own with a spoon. Often for the mother, this becomes a signal that it is time to wean the baby from the breast. Of course, in terms of nutrition, breast milk is no longer the main source of nutrition, but in terms of the mother-baby relationship, it is a great way to maintain contact with the baby, so you should not rush to weaning too much (See article How to wean).
Development test
The child develops normally, in accordance with age if:
- Knows how to get up in a crib or playpen, holding on to a support;
- Knows how to crawl, kneeling;
- Knows how to clap his hands;
- Knows how to pronounce onomatopoeic words;
- Knows how to hold a spoon, a mug in his hand;
- Knows how to point to objects that an adult names;
- Knows how to string rings on the rod of the pyramid, and put the cubes one on top of the other (at least 2-3 cubes).
If the delay in physical and mental development is obvious, the child should be shown to a neurologist or pediatrician.
The main thing - remember, every child is different!
In a month, the baby will blow out the first candle on the cake and continue to delight mom and dad with his achievements and skills. If at 11 months the child has not yet learned something, he will surely catch up with his peers in the near future. (See article How to celebrate your first birthday)
- Next month: baby skills at 1 year old
- Previous month: baby skills at 10 months
