For your baby, this process of learning to control balance has been happening since they first began to lift their head and move their body.
As their movements are getting bigger, and they head towards getting around independently, they will be honing the control of their head movements and posture to create a strong base for balance as they grow.
You can help them develop their sense of balance as you hold them and move them in your arms
When you move your baby or help them change position, notice how they move their head, arms and spine to account for the motion. This keeps them balanced and helps them to learn what it feels like in their body when they move, using the feedback they are getting from their senses, such what they see.
Discovering their sense of proprioception (their own movement) and their vestibular sense (balance)
As well as learning how their sense of sight helps them to balance, your baby is getting messages from their joints about how the action feels and what pressure they are experiencing – this is the sense of proprioception. They are also discovering how the position of their head affects balance, linked to the vestibular sense which has receptors in their inner ear.[1]
It's incredible how much babies have to learn and adapt in their first year
They will begin to recognise all these new sensations to help them balance when they learn a new skill, like sitting, and then have to learn all over again how to balance when they move on to being able to crawl, and then stand, as their experience of movement and centre of balance shifts yet again.[2]
For now, when your baby changes position, either independently or when being held by you, watch how they move their head to adjust their view and take in their new position.
They’re absorbing information and building the systems in their body which will help them balance as they grow into active toddlers, children and adults.
References:
[1] Sheridan, M., Sharma, A. and Cockerill, H. (2014) From Birth to Five Years: Children’s Developmental Progress (4th ed.) Abingdon: Routledge.
[2] Adolph K.E. and Hoch J.E. (2019) ‘Motor Development: Embodied, Embedded, Enculturated, and Enabling’. Annual Review of Psychology. Jan 4;70:141-164. Available online: doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-102836.