Reaching and swiping--Neonates don’t realize that their hands belong to them until about two months of age. Babies seem to “discover” their hands at about eight weeks when reflexive grasping gives way to purposeful batting or swiping at objects (anywhere from two to four months). Scholars name voluntary reaching as the most important motor skill for cognitive development.
Ulnar grasp, or raking grasp--By about six months all that reaching practice pays off and an infant’s accuracy improves. Now babies can use a rake (or whole hand) to grab toys. Babies will now also explore the toy by shaking, banging, mouthing, and using other strategies.
Pincer grasp--At about seven or eight months, infants start using the thumb and fingers to pick up objects. This crude pincer grasp will become more refined in a few months until they will be able to pick up a small object (such as a Cheerio) with just the thumb and forefinger (12 months). Learning this grasp is every bit as significant developmentally as learning to walk, since the pincer grasp is the basis for most fine motor activities.
Bilateral coordination--The ability to use both hands together in a coordinated way. This develops between two and four months alongside eye-hand coordination. At first, babies use two hands to hold a toy and then transfer the object from hand to hand.
Motor learning schemes--Different ways the infant will use to explore objects. The earliest is mouthing objects, which happens as soon as babies can bring things to their mouths (between four and six months). Infant schemes will expand to include banging, shaking, poking, dropping, and more. By age one, most infants can stack and nest objects, hold a cup by its handle, feed themselves, clap, wave, and transfer objects hand to hand.