8 month old not banging objects together

[mongo123]

Hello everyone. My 8mth old is not banging 2 toys together. She also is not properly clapping yet. She has tried a couple times but does not really do it or try much yet.

She is ahead with other gross motor milestones for her age like pulling to stand etc sitting and she can army crawl but not crawl on all fours. she can get into all fours and rock. She also never plays with her feet when lying down and never did. She is quite chunky with short legs so this is hard anyway. She grabbed them a few times if she is in a boppy or bum is slightly propped up. She has never put her feet in her mouth. Since birth she has been on her tummy a lot and loves it and prefers this thru the day as she never really lay on her back since she learned to roll over.

These are milestones on the ages and stages asq questionnaires. Should i be very concerned. She also hardly bangs toys on a surface now also as she has 4 teeth coming through and is focused on mouthing everything these days.

Could this be a bilateral coordination issue or is this less common of gross and fine motor on track?. For those with experience can you say if this lead to learning disabilities down the line?

Thanks a lot

No you don't need to worry in the slightest. Neither of my children have been remotely interested in their feet and literally never did those milestones. Banging things together isn't a red flag for anything. I'm an SEND teacher of 15+ years.

Thank you so much. I swear those checklists are sending me into panic attacks. I wouldnt normally have worriee but my 5 year old likely has mild dyspraxia and had many delays so i am extra vigilant

Not an expert, but she sounds fine to me as well.

If you're looking at the ASQs, make sure you find a version with the scoring sheet – they don't generally expect a baby to be doing all 6 things in a category. Usually 4 or 5 puts baby in the 'development appears to be on track' category. No point getting stressed because baby only doing 5 out of 6 when actually only 4 are expected!

Anecdotally, I think it's also very common for babies to score a little low in one or two categories, simply because they happen to have been focusing on something else or because the questionnaire happened to be done just before they suddenly gain some skills.

In terms of the specific things you mention, the feet in mouth seems to be quite a common one to skip. (My daughter did it a lot – for about two days, and then virtually never again. I just happen to have photos from one of those two days.) For clapping hands and clapping toys, I think 8 months is on the early side. I think clapping toys is on the 10 month questionnaire, and 2 months is ages yet at this age.