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Important Milestones: By the End of 7 Months
 

What is happening with your child when he or she is seven months old? Is your child responding to facial expressions? Can your child roll both ways? Use the “Important Milestones: By the End of Seven Months" part of the Centers for Disease Control's "Learn the Signs. Act Early” campaign to find out what usually happens when a child is seven months old. You can also use the information in the fact sheet to talk to your child's doctor about growth and development milestones.

The following fact sheet is provided courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control’s "Learn the Signs. Act Early." Campaign.

To read PDF files, get Get Adobe Reader here.

Important Milestones: By the End of 7 Months


Social and Emotional
Cognitive
Language
Movement
Vision
Developmental Health Watch

Babies develop at their own pace, so it's impossible to tell exactly when your child will learn a given skill. The developmental milestones listed below will give you a general idea of the changes you can expect, but don't be alarmed if your own baby's development takes a slightly different course.
photo of a child at seven months

Social and Emotional

  • Enjoys social play
  • Interested in mirror images
  • Responds to other people's expressions of emotion and appears joyful often
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Cognitive

  • Finds partially hidden object
  • Explores with hands and mouth
  • Struggles to get objects that are out of reach
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Language

  • Responds to own name
  • Begins to respond to "no"
  • Can tell emotions by tone of voice
  • Responds to sound by making sounds
  • Uses voice to express joy and displeasure
  • Babbles chains of sounds
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Movement

  • Rolls both ways (front to back, back to front)
  • Sits with, and then without, support on hands
  • Supports whole weight on legs
  • Reaches with one hand
  • Transfers object from hand to hand
  • Uses hand to rake objects
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Vision

  • Develops full color vision
  • Distance vision matures
  • Ability to track moving objects improves
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Developmental Health Watch
Alert your child's doctor or nurse if your child displays any of the following signs of possible developmental delay for this age range.

  • Seems very stiff, with tight muscles
  • Seems very floppy, like a rag doll
  • Head still flops back when body is pulled to a sitting position
  • Reaches with one hand only
  • Refuses to cuddle
  • Shows no affection for the person who cares for him or her
  • Doesn't seem to enjoy being around people
  • One or both eyes consistently turn in or out
  • Persistent tearing, eye drainage, or sensitivity to light
  • Does not respond to sounds around him or her
  • Has difficulty getting objects to mouth
  • Does not turn head to locate sounds by 4 months
  • Does not roll over in either direction (front to back or back to front) by 5 months
  • Seems impossible to comfort at night after 5 months
  • Does not smile on his or her own by 5 months
  • Cannot sit with help by 6 months
  • Does not laugh or make squealing sounds by 6 months
  • Does not actively reach for objects by 6 to 7 months
  • Does not follow objects with both eyes at near (1 foot) and far (6 feet) ranges by 7 months
  • Does not bear weight on legs by 7 months
  • Does not try to attract attention through actions by 7 months
  • Does not babble by 8 months
  • Shows no interest in games of peek-a-boo by 8 months
  • Experiences a dramatic loss of skills he or she once had
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From Caring for your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5, by Steven Shelov, Robert E. Hannermann, © 1991, 1993, 1998, 2004 by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Used by permission of Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

See PDF Version:
     Important Milestones: By the End of 7 Months [PDF, 141KB]

"Important Milestones: By the End of 7 Months." Learn the Signs. Act Early. DHHS/CDC. 2005. English. [PDF, 141KB]