Can hold a cup

Your baby has started to hold objects using their thumb and fingers, they will be enjoying gripping different shapes. They will be using their emerging coordination to pass items hand to hand or to move the items they hold.  

You will start to notice your baby taking a more active role in their daily routine and reaching for familiar objects. Cups are an appealing item to grasp, shake and bang on surfaces, especially when they’re full! Depending on the type of cup you offer, your baby may use one or both hands to hold it firmly. 

Does this mean they will drink independently?  

Their developing fine motor skills have opened a world of curiosity for your baby. The gross motor skills they’ve been building will improve their core strength, allowing them to use their arms and hands more freely[1]. Along with their improving hand-eye coordination your baby can use their fine motor skills to explore different textures, shapes and sounds in order to become confident with familiar objects.  

Although still learning to coordinate their bodies in order to use items as tools, your baby will be fascinated by exploring familiar items. They will most likely not be ready to drink independently just yet, but allowing your baby to play freely with their cup will build their understanding of how to hold it, which positions are comfortable (or not) for manipulating the cup and importantly allow them to test many cause and effect ideas such as “I wonder what happens when I drop this, again”.  

Circular reactions, again and again! 

Your baby's physical, sensory and cognitive development is all linked[2]. Piaget observed that babies enjoy circular reactions, they realise that an action (such as sucking their thumb) has a pleasing sensory result, so they repeat that action. Piaget extended this to observe that as babies grow they begin to involve objects and/or other people in their actions, as well as their own bodies[3].  

By shaking or banging their cup your baby might be exploring these secondary circular reactions by enjoying the sound, feel or response they get. We can encourage this learning by increasing the sensory feedback they receive - give your baby a closed cup with a little liquid inside, put a small baby-safe toy or rattle inside their cup or simply offer a joyful reaction for your baby to bask in.  

What next? 

Your baby will soon be using their fine motor skills to coordinate their movements with greater purpose, bringing objects to their mouth for further exploration. Over time they will refine these skills and enjoy attempting to use cups and cutlery to feed themselves.  

They will continue to explore how their actions cause a reaction, as they grow this will help them in developing an understanding of how to work simple mechanical toys.  

References 

[1] Soska, K.C & Adolph, K.E. (2014) Postural position constrains multimodal object exploration in infants. Infancy 19(2) 138-161. Available online at  Postural position constrains multimodal object exploration in infants   

[2] K.E. Adolph and J.M. Franchak. (2017) The Development of Motor Behaviour. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci. 8(1-2) 10.1002/wcs.1430. Available online at The development of motor behavior (nih.gov) 

[3] Piek, J. (2006) Infant Motor Development. United States of America: Human Kinetics