By the age of 6-8 months typically developing babies are able to sit independently, reach in all directions, pick up and move toys with one or both hands. It is important to remember that their everyday life has provided many and varied opportunities for practicing sitting.
How babies learn to sit with good balance and the difficulties experienced by babies with joint hypermobility, low muscle tone, preterm birth, ASD and coordination difficulties.
An infant's first sitting practice is usually sitting on a carer's lap. The infant learns to keep the head erect and looks around to take stock of the world.
It takes time for an infant to learn the tricky art of balancing the body upright for the first time. Most infants master sitting balance quite quickly, others may need a little help.
Once your infant is able to sit with some support around the hips, or without any support for a short while, it is useful to spend time playing in sitting to improve their balance and stability.
I often see infants aged between 11-15 months who have learned to sit but are not rolling, hate being on the tummy and are not crawling. Parents are understandably getting anxious about their infants development and may have been advised to work on tummy time.
Infants who have joint hypermobility or were born very early often have some tightness in the hip muscles. Gently stretching activities are useful for improving hip flexibility for sitting, crawling and getting up onto hands and knees.
Sitting games help to improve your infant' confidence, balance and trunk muscle strength. It also encourages infants to put weight on their feet, and is a good starting position for pulling up to standing.
One of the fun ways to build a toddler"s trunk muscle strength and endurance is to play bouncing and tipping games with your infant or toddler sitting on your lap.
