Bath time with your 9 month old

At this age your baby is physically abounding with energy, she is mobile and constantly moving. Her gross motor skills like crawling, standing without support, squatting up and down and cruising are being mastered at every opportunity including her swimming classes and bath time. She’s also developing her pincer grasp, bringing her thumb and index finger together to pick up food and toys.

The last few months of babyhood are here and as much as you try and soak it all up it just feels like it fly’s by all too quick doesn’t it. Enjoy playing, singing and chatting to your baby at swimming lessons and throughout your days together and watch as she masters some big milestones this month both in the water and on land. 

Her communication skills are growing each day, if she hasn’t already this might be the month she starts to shake her head ‘no’, wave bye-bye and point at things she wants. By now she is responding to her name or looking up when she hears it, she’s making sounds like 'Ma' and 'Da' that resemble words. This new found communication will begin to show in her swimming lessons too, meaning she can let you know more easily if she is enjoying an activity or if she has had enough or that maybe she doesn’t want to do the activity at all today. This is completely normal and shows good cognitive development, communication skills and independence. Try not to get frustrated if she doesn’t want to do something she normally loves, move onto another activity, modify it or try again another day. Remember to keep swimming a fun and enjoyable activity where you respect her feelings and respond to her communication cues and body language.

Her personality and emotions are really starting to show too, this month will give you a good insight into what sort of personality traits your little one might develop by showing signs of resilience, determination, joy and independence. Creating space and time for her in the pool and bath to try things independently first before doing it for her are very beneficial for her development during this age, it helps her to foster a sense of achievement and mastery. Follow her lead with pool and bath activities and encourage her with new and developing skills by demonstrating the skill yourself and letting her copy you as well as smiling, interacting with her and making it fun and playful.

At this age a child emotionally will have a growth spurt of self confidence as a result of their abilities to move about and master their environment but may still have a little separation anxiety that can come and go. Some days they may keen and raring to go during their swimming lesson, others they may feel they need your support more for some activities. Pick up on how they are feeling in the moment for each activity and vary the support you offer to suit their mood and feelings. 

They look for lots of recognition of achievements so give them lots of praise and feedback on each activity, this will help them master the skills sooner. Their attempts at independence can be brief, they are still dependent on you for some support with most activities in the pool. By letting them try independently first you can really begin to see where they are at for each skill, you can then offer support needed for the second try and give them feedback on what to try. Try thinking of the elements of independence they can have during each activity and let them attempt these.

They learn so much from your reactions to things around them, your facial expressions and body language teach them so much about their experiences (good, bad, scary, happy, calm, nervous) and the world around them. This is why they always look to you to ‘check in’ on your reaction. Making good eye contact and responding to what they are doing regularly throughout the day and during their swimming lesson and bath time is very beneficial to their development and towards the mastery of skills. Positive reinforcement (though body language, facial expressions and verbal feedback) can help them learn and master the correct skills sooner.