Let us talk about the 10 Mental leaps or commonly known as the “Wonder Weeks”, this term was coined by Dutch doctors, Frans Plooj and Dr Hetty van de Rijt. Together their research found that all babies experience the same mental developmental leaps at ten specific times during their first 20 months. These leaps happen because of your child’s brain and nervous system changing at these specific times when they respond to new stimulation, expand their sensory and perceptual each time.
In the womb, the first sense that babies experience tends to be hearing, in that they respond to their mother’s voice and also to sudden loud noises. This is where you will notice more movement in the womb. After birth, all of the other senses suddenly kick in. This can be very exciting while also very overwhelming all at once.
At each mental leap or wonder week, the baby learns to use their senses and perception in new ways, which gives them a nudge forward in potential.
As with all phases your baby will go through these times can coincide with extra fussiness, crying, clinginess, changes in appetite and of course interrupt sleep patterns. In order to progress forward you will see a small regression. This is normal. Don’t give these set times an excuse to go back to old habits or introduce new ones.
During your child’s fourth trimester they will go through 3 different leaps in those first 12wks. After that the leaps are more apart from each other.
Leap 1 (around 5wks): Changing Sensations
Your baby’s perception of the world is changing. Simple things will start to stimulate them as they hear and become more aware of their surroundings. During this time their behavior might be more on the fussier side, will be clingier and will have trouble sleeping maybe more then normal. This is a great time to increase skin to skin with both parents. Some activities you can do with your baby is snuggle up, talk to them. sing songs, walk around and use a carrier to hold them so they don’t get use to your arms.
Leap 2 (around 8wks): Patterns
Around this age your baby is picking up patterns you are setting for them such as eat, play and sleep. Other patterns would be in room bedtime routine and the countdown sequence you have created. Your baby is also starting recognize themself in this world and their place. This is a huge paradigm shift. Some behavior shift you can start to notice is demanding more attention from you, increased crying, possible decrease in appetite and looking to suck on fingers if not using a pacifier. You can engage with your child introducing new sounds and getting outside for bright natural light.
Leap 3 (around 12wks): Smooth Cycle Transitions
You can start to notice that during sleep your baby will be less active. This is a sign there cycles are maturing and their sleep patterns are changing. As usual some behavior changes can be poor sleep, extra clingy and decreased appetite. Some activities you can do is focus on individual sounds, help your baby reach for things above them, introduce new textures and feelings.
Leap 4 (around 19wks): Events
Your baby is of age to now be able to conceptualize sequences of events such as grab toys, reach for toys above them and start putting things in their mouth including body parts they have discovered. You will notice during this time that your child is wanting more attention, increased crying spells again and will show some mood swings. Some activities to do with your age is focus on rolling tummy to back and vice versa, offer a variety of toys for play base play-time, show your child how to play with the toys and also start introducing the game peek a boo for object permanence.
Leap 5 (around 26wks): Cause and Effect
Around this age your baby is now perceiving distance between objects, people and starting to understand cause and effect. Usual behavior changes you can expect is demand for more attention, poor sleep habits, wants to be attached to you, extra crankiness and also will start to show a dislike for diaper changes. The best activities to do with your child is practice object permanence.
Leap 6 (around 37wks): Categories
Around this age your baby is noticing that different objects such as toys can be broken up into categories such as by color, food group, meals and other things that they can apply this too. Usual behavior changes are demands for more attention, poor sleep, will cling to you, will regress more into a “baby” demeanor and they might seem more quiet if they are usually loud. Some activities you can do with them is have them imitate your gestures and sounds. You can start introducing sharing at this age; have your baby give back a toy to you and have you ask for them to hand you an object.
Leap 7 (around 46wks): Sequences
This is the age where your baby is starting to notice the importance of method and also how to start putting things together such as introduction to new people, foods, routine, toys etc. Behavior changes will be more mature then the usual signs. You will notice they will start to become shy with strangers, moody, will start to show jealous behavior and will act more mischievous as they start to question more things and want to know the mechanics on things. When playing with your child provide play by play feedback and narrative, encourage lots of explorative playtime, and really break down objects to explain it in as much detail as possible.
Leap 8 (around 55wks): Cognitive
Your growing toddler has developed a more complex cognitive understanding of events and can now understand a multitude of cause and effect as well as different ways to get the same end result. They will start to show a sense of accomplishment as they figure things out and can achieve it multiple ways. You will see more mood swing behaviors, regress back into some baby demeanor, will act a bit more mischievous and might have a little bit less of an appetite. Challenge your toddler by bringing out more complex toys, show your child more day to day household things you do such as unloading/reloading dishwasher.
Leap 9 (around 64wks): Principles
Your toddler is now able to understand goals and accomplishing them. They are able to make choices and understand what those choices entail and also understanding that some choices will have consequences. Some behaviors they might experience can be wanting more physical contact, shyer with strangers, wanting you to entertain them more, moody, poor sleep, and again will show some baby behavior.
Leap 10 (around 75wks): Mechanics
Your toddler can now understand and differentiate between different processes such as friends and family, they can understand how they want to behave and start to develop an idea of self and conscience. Usual behaviors will be again clingy, shy with strangers, jealous, moody and again will act out in a more baby demeanor. Explain to your toddler what they are feeling, experiencing, talk to them in detail about things they question, encourage physical playtime and work on further language development.
These are non avoidable leaps that your child will experience up to 1.5yr old. Every baby will take to these leaps differently, some maybe won’t show any change in behavior and some might be a little more fussier then usual. Either way this is very normal. Let it pass, encourage your child to use their new understandings and keep moving forward on progress.
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