6.5 month old twisting hands/waving/conducting an imaginary orchestra movements a lot of the time....sign of anything or just a cute habit?

[bigpinkellie]

DS is 6.5 months old and since he was born spends a good few hours each day (if you add up across the day, not a few hours at once) waving/twisting his hands, almost like he is conducting an orchestra
In fact, if we put ClassicFM on, he looks quite professional :)
I just wondered if anybody else's baby does this?
Is it just a cute habit, or could this be a sign of anything I should be concerned about?
Otherwise, he is a very engaging baby - loves music, colours, peekaboo, laughing, good eye contact, good hand-eye coordination, likes his food etc.

Yes! My 10 month DS has been doing this since he was 6 months old and sitting in his highchair eating.

No idea at all what it means, but he also twirls his wrists and waves them around as if conducting.

He seems totally normal, as far as I can tell!! I guess we just have cute little boys!

it's absolutely normal. it's what babies do

I agree. Just delightedly discovering his own body: where it starts and finishes and what it can do

If you want to see a really good YouTube clip of a 3 yr old conducting it is

My DD does this too and also when eating, she inspects the food by waving it about at all angles in front of her. Her hands are quite fascinating to her....although she has just poked herself in the eye with a porridge covered hand.....cue lots of blinking and squinting....

Hi I know this is very old but any update on this. Worried momma here

Hi - I am the OP.. I got a username notification for this reply on an old email, but can’t get into the account so replying from my new one.

Anyway - long story short is that I pushed down my nagging feeling and followed everyone’s assurances that all was as it should be - both on here and in day to day life too. I noticed plenty of little things that didn’t feel quite right over the years, but equally, nothing enormously alarming. The “conducting” habit passed fairly quickly.
As he got older there was never anything that ever caused teachers any stress in primary school and he always had excellent grades but he could be v tricky to manage at home. I was always 2-3 steps ahead to make adjustments for him (without realising that was what I was doing)

A decade or so later my son’s extremely high-masking high-functioning Autism and ADHD was diagnosed after he moved to secondary school and had a major burnout. It’s been pretty horrendous the last couple of years (Yr8 and Yr9 at school) as the union of neurodivergence and puberty is rarely a happy/easy one.

He’s doing better going into Year 10 - but then, he is on three medications a day and sees a psychiatrist and a therapist.

I have three boys now - and thankful to be spotting the traits much earlier in my youngest, who is in primary school. This time I hope to have my eyes open and get support much earlier than I did the first time round.

I’ll feel guilty for a long time that I sensed something was ever so slightly off from 6 months old (enough to post online and raise with friends and family) but it took until age 13/Yr8 for me to put the pieces together because he is so high masking.

I have no idea if this helps or not, but thanks for posting - I had forgotten I wrote this and it’s a little bit validating for me to see that my instinct was there and I can trust it/not doubt myself