Health Library

Developmental milestones record - 6 months

Normal childhood growth milestones - 6 months; Childhood growth milestones - 6 months; Growth milestones for children - 6 months

This article describes the skills and growth targets for 6-month-old infants. These skills are called developmental milestones.

I Would Like to Learn About:

Information

All children develop a little differently. If you are concerned about your child's development, talk to your child's health care provider.

Physical and motor skill markers:

• Able to hold almost all weight when supported in a standing position
• Able to transfer objects from one hand to the other
• Able to lift chest and head while on stomach, holding the weight on hands (often occurs by 4 months)
• Able to pick up a dropped object
• Able to roll from back to stomach (by 7 months)
• Able to sit in a high chair with a straight back
• Able to sit on the floor with lower back support
• Beginning of teething
• Increased drooling
• Should be able to sleep 6 to 8 hour stretches at night
• Should have doubled birth weight (birth weight often doubles by 4 months, and it would be cause for concern if this hasn't happened by 6 months)

Sensory and cognitive markers:

• Begins to fear strangers
• Begins to imitate actions and sounds
• Begins to realize that if an object is dropped, it is still there and just needs to be picked up
• Can locate sounds not made directly at the ear level
• Enjoys hearing own voice
• Makes sounds (vocalizes) to mirror and toys
• Makes sounds resembling one-syllable words (example: da-da, ba-ba)
• Prefers more complex sounds
• Recognizes parents
• Vision is between 20/60 and 20/40

Play recommendations:

• Read, sing, and talk to your child
• Imitate words such as "mama" to help baby learn language
• Play peek-a-boo
• Provide an unbreakable mirror
• Provide large, bright-colored toys that make noise or have moving parts (avoid toys with small parts)
• Provide paper to tear
• Blow bubbles
• Speak clearly
• Start pointing to and naming parts of the body and the environment
• Use body movements and actions to teach language
• Use the word "no" infrequently

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Learn the signs. Act early. CDC's developmental milestones. www.cdc.gov/act-early/milestones/. Updated February 16, 2026. Accessed May 21, 2026.

Goode R, Lawrence A, Reimschisel T. Global developmental delay and regression. In: Jankovic J, Mazziotta JC, Pomeroy SL, Newman NJ, eds. Bradley and Daroff's Neurology in Clinical Practice. 8th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2022:chap 8.

Onigbanjo MT, Feigelman S. The first year. In: Kliegman RM, St. Geme JW, Blum NJ, et al, eds. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 22nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2025:chap 23.

Review Date: 1/1/2026  

Reviewed By: Charles I. Schwartz, MD, FAAP, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Regional Medical Director of Penn Medicine Primary and Specialty Care, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, General Pediatrician at PennCare for Kids, Phoenixville, PA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, for Health Content Provider (www.urac.org). URAC's accreditation program is an independent audit to verify that A.D.A.M. follows rigorous standards of quality and accountability. A.D.A.M. is among the first to achieve this important distinction for online health information and services. Learn more about A.D.A.M.'s editorial policy, editorial process and privacy policy. A.D.A.M. is also a founding member of Hi-Ethics. This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here.

The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability, timeliness, or correctness of any translations made by a third-party service of the information provided herein into any other language.

© 1997- 2026 A.D.A.M., a business unit of Ebix, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.

All content on this site including text, images, graphics, audio, video, data, metadata, and compilations is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may view the content for personal, noncommercial use. Any other use requires prior written consent from Ebix. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, display, publish, reverse-engineer, adapt, modify, store beyond ordinary browser caching, index, mine, scrape, or create derivative works from this content. You may not use automated tools to access or extract content, including to create embeddings, vectors, datasets, or indexes for retrieval systems. Use of any content for training, fine-tuning, calibrating, testing, evaluating, or improving AI systems of any kind is prohibited without express written consent. This includes large language models, machine learning models, neural networks, generative systems, retrieval-augmented systems, and any software that ingests content to produce outputs. Any unauthorized use of the content including AI-related use is a violation of our rights and may result in legal action, damages, and statutory penalties to the fullest extent permitted by law. Ebix reserves the right to enforce its rights through legal, technological, and contractual measures.