Is Your Child On Track Developmentally?

Are you concerned that your child isn’t on target in areas of social, emotional, and cognitive development? How do you know if your baby is meeting his or her developmental milestones?

While each child develops at their own pace, understanding these child development milestones can help you better understand your child’s progress.

If you are concerned that your child may be behind in a certain area, or if you’re asking yourself, “Is my child developing properly?“, read on for our mini child development checklist:

0-6 Months Milestones

Babies develop at different rates from child to child. Here are some of the things your baby should be doing by 6 months:

• Lifts her head and chest off the floor
• Rolls from back to stomach
• Kicks with both feet
• She can see you, track moving objects and focus on faces
• Expressing emotion through crying, smiling, and laughing
• May also engage in play by making eye contact and waving her arms or kicking her legs in excitement
• Your baby will coo, squeal, and babble, but don’t expect words yet

6-12 Months Milestones

By 12 months, you should have a busy little bundle on your hands. Here is what you can expect by his or her first birthday:

• Should be able to roll over, sit up and crawl
• Recognizes more objects, people, and sounds
• May begin to show a preference for some people over others, including you.
• May respond to your voice by making sounds and babbling back at you.

It’s normal for some babies not to start talking until later. Also, don’t force him into speaking if he’s not ready yet

Developmental Milestones of a 2-Year-Old

Your baby isn’t a baby anymore. By 2 years old, your toddler should have reached these milestones:

• Should be able to stand and walk unassisted
• Push a wheeled toy and maybe even climb stairs with help
• Developing better coordination
• Will understand cause and effect
• She may be able to count to three or four
• She knows her name and other words (like “no” or “mama”)
• Can follow simple instructions (“Get your shoes”)
• Starting to show empathy toward others
• Beginning to understand their own emotions
• Understands more words than he can say at this point

Developmental Milestones of a 3-Year-Old

Your little tyke is far more independent and prefers to do things for himself.

He may be able to solve simple puzzles like putting together a shape sorter toy. These toys are invaluable when you’re using a child development screening checklist to ascertain which milestones your child has reached.

He should also be able to share toys with friends and play cooperatively with others.

Here are some of the other things you can expect from your 3-year-old:

• May use his hands to imitate your actions, such as picking up a spoon and pretending to eat
• May stand on one foot while you hold his hands
• He can walk up the stairs (mostly) unaided
• Jump three times without falling down
• May start showing signs of separation anxiety, such as crying when you leave him at daycare
• Learning language skills and will understand simple sentences like “Where’s your nose?”
• May begin pointing to things he wants and using more two-word sentences like “Want milk.”
• Your toddler will continue learning new words every day and should be able to say about 50 words clearly enough for others to understand

After Using This Child Development Checklist, What’s Next?

This is a very brief development checklist for a child. Use it to track your child’s development, but remember, every child is different and proper child development is a broad spectrum. It’s important not to compare your child to other kids or worry too much about what they are doing or not doing on a given day.

Record your child’s milestones on the child development checklist. If you have any concerns about your child’s development, talk with your pediatrician. Together you can work out what might be causing the delay and how to best address it.

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