Mental Leaps: What No One Told Me About The First Year

We end up doing so much research when it comes to the first year of our little ones’ life that we may end up over-looking some information, or perhaps we are simply not told about some.

I only found out about mental leaps once my son was born and already going through them!

Mental leaps or ‘wonder weeks’ are periods of developmental changes in your babies' cognitive and emotional functioning.

These periods are fairly easy to predict and they may last from anywhere between a few days to a few weeks.

Mental leaps tend to become periods of extreme fussiness, changes in eating and sleeping habits and increased clinginess towards you.

Below is a simple timeline of the 10 mental leaps

LEAP 1 (Week 5) Changing sensations:

Baby's senses begin to sharpen, a whole new world of information starts coming to them. This will be the first time your little one is able to differentiate life outside the womb vs life inside womb.

Increased crying, clinginess and sleep disturbances will be noted.

A sleep regression may be experienced at around 6 weeks due to a growth spurt. Further sleep regressions will be expected as your baby grows.

TIPS: skin-to-skin contact is beneficial. Lots of cuddles, talking and singing will soothe baby during this time.

LEAP 2 (Week 8) Patterns:

There is an increased focus on mastering new actions and movements within this new-found environment.

Baby will have increased clinginess and crying during this period, with a decrease in appetite.

TIPS: Sucking a dummy or thumb is very soothing during this period. Engage your little one's senses with bright colours and different sounds.

LEAP 3 (Week 12) Smooth transitions:

Sharpening of the senses. Improved eyesight, hearing and controlled movements develop here.

Sleep disturbances and decreased appetite are expected, your little one may also be quieter than usual.

TIPS: Help baby to explore different textures, encourage them to reach and grab objects.

LEAP 4 (Week 19) Events:

Understanding experiences, that objects and their interactions have a cause and effect.

Increased crying and clinginess are expected.

TIPS: Help baby practice rolling from tummy to back, use various toys to encourage this movement.

LEAP 5 (Week 26) Relationships:

Understanding of distance and perception. Frustrations may develop as baby realises they cannot reach certain objects. Clinginess may increase as they begin to comprehend when there is physical distance between the two of you.

Poor sleeping patterns will also be anticipated here, baby may also begin to protest during diaper changes.

TIPS: Playing peek-a-boo is a great game at this stage, experiment with coming and going using various toys.

LEAP 6 (Week 37) Categories:

Similarities between certain objects and their interactions are being identified. A lot of brainpower is vested into creating these various categories.

Increased clinginess and changes to sleeping patterns will be noted during this period.

TIPS: Encourage imitating of gestures, use descriptive words and ask baby to pass you a specific object.

LEAP 7 (Week 46) Sequences:

Perfecting methods of interaction for success. Movements become more controlled and smooth, colour matching and shape-sorting are of high interest.

Baby may demonstrate shyness with strangers as well as jealousy. There will be further sleep disturbances at this stage.

TIPS: Point at and name objects often, provide your little one with some kind of feedback during exploration, such as praise.

LEAP 8 (Week 55) Programs:

Around their first birthday, your little one will be fine-tuning their knowledge of methods and sequences that are needed to achieve a desired outcome. Different outcomes follow different sequences or different sequences can lead to the same outcome.

Changes to appetite and sleeping as well as increased clinginess will be noted here.

TIPS: Introduce more complex toys or objects to interact with. Packing away groceries is a great task to do together.

LEAP 9 (Week 64) Principles:

Social skills development, a lot of copying takes place here! It is particularly important to model correct behaviour during this time as our little ones are learning how to cooperate with others. Vocabulary increases.

Your little one will want more physical contact during this period, they will have sleep disturbances and may become bored more easily, demanding more interaction from you.

TIPS: Play singing and rhyming games, action songs and practice different animal sounds.

LEAP 10 (Week 75) Systems:

Now that your little one has an understanding of how things work, they begin to adjust and change the rules they have previously set out for themselves in terms of interacting with the world around them. Think of this stage as thinking outside of the box, they realise they can now choose how to behave.

Clinginess, jealousy and poor sleeping habits are noticed here.

TIPS: Lots of physical games are encouraged during this time, practice developing your little one's balance and blow lots of bubbles.

GENERAL TIPS FOR HANDLING BEHAVIOUR CHANGES DURING MENTAL LEAPS

1. If you are breastfeeding, I encourage you to continue, especially during these leaps. Baby will have an increased demand for drinking and one of the best calming techniques is to “wear” baby or provide skin on skin contact. Breastfeeding is an excellent way to do this.

2. Allow baby to explore and interact with objects and their environment as independently as possible. Always ensure there are no safety hazards so that baby is able to explore freely and safely. Only step in when it is extremely necessary, once baby becomes frustrated or overwhelmed.

3. Linked to a lot of these mental leaps is a sleep regression, this means sleeping during this time becomes increasingly difficult. Just keep in mind that baby feeds off of your energy, the more flustered you become, baby does too. This is why it’s important to keep calm, allow baby to go to another family member for a while, whilst you calm down and gather yourself. Personally, I have noted that the only thing that got me through difficult sleeping times was to not force the issue, but rather follow baby’s lead. I know we want to keep to our schedules and time frames but sometimes we require some leniency, as long as it does not become a habit in the future.

Conclusion

Over the course of the next 75 weeks or so, your little one will go through 10 mental leaps. These 'wonder weeks' are characterized by increased fussiness and clinginess, changes in appetite and sleeping patterns. Behaviour may prove to be challenging, but if you remain calm, encourage and allow baby to explore their environment as much as possible, provide a lot of cuddles and skin-to-skin contact, you will make it through with ease!