‘If you’re Happy and you know it, Clap your Hands!’
That’s not something you’ll be needing to tell a baby, when they are around 12 months old. By then, they would have mastered the nuances of baby hand movements, such as ‘clapping’!
Believe it or not, but your baby is trying just as hard to communicate with you, as you are with them over the course of their growing years. If you have come here looking for answers to questions like ‘When do babies start Clapping’ and ‘When do babies start Pointing’, you can rest assured you’ve come to the right place.
In this article from the EuroKids stable, we have compiled some interesting facts related to those baby hand movements that are employed by your little one, to relay what they are feeling. From baby clapping to baby pointing, you will find all the pertinent information here, vis a vis your baby’s motor movements that are directed towards getting your attention.
Can’t wait to learn the finer nuances of baby clapping and other baby movements? Begin, with a closer look at the finer nuances of those precious baby movements!
Table of Contents
- Baby Clapping and more Baby Milestones
- Tips to get your Baby to Clap and Point
- When to get Worried about Baby not Clapping or Pointing
Baby Clapping and more Baby Milestones
Right before babies learn to communicate through the use of words, they learn nonverbal cues of communication like clapping, waving and pointing.
- Baby Clapping
- Baby Pointing
- Baby Waving
So, when do babies start clapping? The answer is, somewhere around the 9-month mark!
Note: Baby clapping can be especially seen in response to your clapping yourself, in front of them.
If you’re looking at the answer to When do babies start pointing, this cool developmental milestone in babies, just like baby clapping, occurs at around 9 months. This is important, as it’s a way of your baby telling you that something has caught their attention. Like perhaps, that furry soft toy on the edge of the bed!
Cool Fact: Baby pointing is also referred to by some experts as ‘shared attention’.
Another 9-month developmental milestone, this one makes its presence felt in the form of a ‘bird-like flapping’, that certainly catches the eye of whoever is around your baby!
Tips to get your Baby to Clap and Point
Can’t get enough of all that baby clapping and pointing? Here are some cool tips that will ensure that your baby finds themselves clapping and pointing with even greater gusto!
- Be their Role Model
- If you’re listening to a groovy song with them,you might want to clap your hands along with the beat.
- If you’re in the car on a long drive, try pointing to the sights around you, like perhaps a cow in the middle of the road!
- Get them to play with Blocks
- Point to things
Your baby sees you as the perfect example of someone to emulate. The following are some tips you could use to get them to clap and point even more.
Playing with blocks is great for teaching them things like hand-eye coordination and sharpening their motor skills, but there’s even more benefits here. When your child plays with blocks, you will find them clap their hands in excitement at times, and even point to some blocks in excitement.
Tip: For instance, you might want to create a cool structure out of those blocks. Then, knock it down and yell ‘Yay!’, before clapping your hands. This will in all probability work like a ‘magic charm’, where it comes to getting your baby to clap in glee!
Cool Fact: Not only blocks, all toys in general can elicit the above reactions in your little one.
One of the best ways for babies to learn about pointing, is to point to things yourself, in their presence. For instance, you might point to the cat that lives on the street and say to them, ‘Look, there’s a cat!’
Tip: Another cool alternative would be to take their finger in your hand, and point it to the cat as you utter the above statement. That will perhaps drill the meaning of that ‘pointing’ action, well in their minds.
When to get Worried about Baby not Clapping or Pointing
While all that ‘clapping’ and ‘pointing’ by babies is indeed a source of great joy to parents, it can be a cause of concern when it doesn’t happen for the longest time.
The good news here is, there is usually no need to worry if your baby is not clapping or pointing well over the 9-month mark. There could also be a situation, where you find that your baby is indeed clapping, but has not started pointing as yet.
What you need to understand here, is that clapping, waving and pointing are all social developmental milestones. While they might be inextricably connected in a sense, not all babies hit those milestones at the same time. Some take longer than others to reach them, and that’s perfectly natural!
Note: If your child is not clapping or pointing by the time they are one year old, then you might want to call your pediatrician.
At EuroKids we believe that babies, like all adults out there, like to ‘make noise’ in some way or the other, if only to make their presence felt. To that effect, baby clapping and pointing are indeed milestones that warrant some nurturing your baby towards. Gently prod your baby towards clapping and pointing whenever you can, and watch their delight (and yours, too) as they clap and point with wild abandon!
