The more time my daughter spends with her older (three months and four weeks) female cousins, the more she learns by following their example. My daughter seemed to have very little interest in sitting up on her own to play until she had a playdate with her four week older cousin. The two girls sat together interacting with one another for a good twenty minutes before going down unto their tummies. Following her cousin’s example, my daughter began to manipulate the toys differently than she had before our playdate. Within two short days she has mastered the ability to sit up without support. However, once she moves to her tummy or back she is unable to maneuver herself into a sitting position again. I am sure she will have this feat mastered soon as well.
We have also been spending a lot of time with my sister and her daughter who is three months older than my daughter. My sister’s daughter has reached many developmental markers which should be a ways off for my daughter. When we get together, I noticed that my daughter watches her cousin intently as she (the cousin) crawls around and plays with various toys (and non toys) in her path. On our second get together, my daughter started trying to emulate her cousin’s crawling movements. She started by pulling herself onto her hands and knees but was unable to coordinate movement like her cousin and she (my daughter) found this very upsetting. Then she started to kick off the floor and would move a little bit. Then she would roll over and kick off again slowly making her way towards her cousin. Not even a week later she is army crawling all over the place stretching, pulling, and rolling herself wherever she wants to go. Before long she will be crawling!