This is the stretch where your baby starts touching the world. Until now they watched. Now they reach — clumsily at first, with the whole hand, then with increasing accuracy — and everything they catch goes into the mouth. That is not a bad habit; it is the main way a baby this age investigates texture, shape and temperature.
The skills most children pick up somewhere inside this age range, grouped the way development actually happens rather than as one long checklist.
Motor
Holds head steady
Keeps head upright and steady while sitting.
Pushes up on arms
Props up on arms and lifts chest during tummy time.
Rolls over
Rolls from tummy to back or back to tummy.
Sits with support
Stays upright when propped with cushions or hands.
Fine motor
Grasps objects
Reaches for and holds objects securely.
Reaches for a toy
Stretches out an arm toward something they want.
Shakes a toy to make sound
Holds a rattle and shakes it on purpose.
Language
Takes turns making sounds
Waits, then answers with sounds when spoken to.
Social
Laughs out loud
A real belly laugh.
Cognitive
Explores by touch
Investigates objects by touching and feeling.
Notices smells
Reacts to smells, e.g. turns toward a familiar scent.
Reacts to their reflection
Looks at, smiles at or touches the mirror image.
Self-care
Self-soothes
Calms independently, e.g. by sucking thumb.
Settles into a daily rhythm
Sleeping and feeding follow a rough daily pattern.
Firsts
First solid food
Every range below is a window, not a deadline. Children arrive at these in their own order, and a skill that comes late says far less than one that disappears.
Reaching is the milestone everything else hangs off. First the fist opens at all, then the hand travels toward an object, then it connects. The shift from accidental contact to deliberate grabbing lands around the fourth or fifth month for most babies.
Rolling usually comes one way first — often front to back, because it is easier. From the moment a baby can roll, the changing table stops being a safe surface, including for ten seconds. That is the most practically important consequence of this age.
And then there is laughing. Not smiling — the loud, startled burst. It usually arrives between four and six months, and it is the first time your baby responds to a joke they worked out themselves: an expectation, broken.
Offer objects in different sizes and textures rather than more toys. A wooden spoon, a flannel and a ring do more for hand development than anything with batteries, because each one demands a different grip.
Take faces seriously. In this stretch your baby starts telling faces apart and responding differently to familiar and unfamiliar people. That is the run-up to the stranger wariness that often shows up in the next stretch.
Raise it if, by six months, your baby is not reaching for anything, keeps their hands mostly fisted, cannot hold their head steady during tummy time, or barely responds to your voice and face. Absent laughing or babbling in this stretch is also worth a mention.
One late milestone is rarely the issue. Several at once, or a clear difference between the left and right sides of the body, should always be looked at.
This page is general information, not medical advice. Your paediatrician or health visitor knows your child; a chart never will. If something worries you, ask them — that is what the appointment is for.
How we built this
The milestone windows follow the developmental ranges used in routine child health checks, cross-checked against the WHO motor development study and the CDC's milestone guidance. They describe when most children reach a skill, not when yours has to.
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