Anyone else notice that their baby....

[KimberleyDawn]

started developing faster once they started day care? I don't know if this is just coincidence or what but the crawling and pulling himself up all started once he was at day care. Since mat. leave here goes to 1 year, William is one of the younger kids in his group so the others are always walking and chatting around him.
Kim

[lizajane]

we don't use day care, but i did realize at about 4-5 months that schuyler didn't roll over and his friends did. (he is the oldest, too) then i realized that i rarely put him down! how could he roll over if i never put him on his back! we just did the official tummy time, but i didn't leave him on his back for free play because the ped told me not to (so his head wouldn't flatten)

so i wonder if part of it is that the childcare providers need to let the babies have lots of freeplay because they can't hold them all.

what a great benefit! i bet he is learning all kinds of great stuff from those other kids!

[Momof3Labs]

I have a playgroup of six babies, all within one month of age, and it does seem that after a get-together, at least one of them shows off a new skill. I do believe that babies imitate each other (mothers of multiples will testify to this) and so it is very likely that he's learning from the older babies.

[billysmommy]

I definately think so....when Billy started dc he became much more talkative and started rolling both ways (he had previously just been rolling back to tummy). Now he is starting to move all over the place...mostly log-rolling but also doing what we call the "inchworm"

I'm sure sitting isn't too far away :)

[sntm]

yup. convinced Jack learned to roll over after i pointed to another baby who was 2 weeks younger as she rolled over and then plopped jack on his tummy.

shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03
mama to Jack 6/6/03

[kransden]

I really think they do. My dd was really doing a lot of things when she was watching the "big girls". Now she is the "big girl" and the younger kids watch her. When she gets to visit her older buddies, she almost always comes home with a new trick. For instance, she sat in a chair at the table and ate with them and didn't try to leave on her birthday. In the baby room, she wouldn't sit still at the table, she was always roaming.

Karin and Katie 10/24/02

[egoldber]

There is definitely something to this. Since I enrolled Sarah in preschool at the beginning of September, her language skills have improved dramatically. Her vocabulary has more than quadrupled. Her gross motor skills have also improved as well, although not as dramatically.

[Melanie]

I can't speak to daycare, but I have noticed that Ds learns faster from other children. Just wait, they pick up the bad habits quickly, too. >:}