Watching your baby learn new skills is one of the most exciting parts of parenthood. From rolling and crawling to talking and problem-solving, children continuously build new abilities as they grow and develop.
These skills are known as developmental milestones, and they typically follow a predictable progression throughout infancy and childhood. Understanding how milestones work, how they’re tracked, and when to seek support can help parents feel more confident as they follow their child’s developmental journey.
Key Takeaways
- Developmental milestones are skills children typically learn by certain ages
- Milestones include motor, language, cognitive, and social-emotional development
- Pediatricians use milestone screenings to identify possible developmental delays early
- Parents play an important role in supporting and monitoring child development
- Early intervention services can help children strengthen developmental skills and improve outcomes
What Are Developmental Milestones?
Developmental milestones are skills acquired in infancy and childhood that follow a predictable course and timeline.2 These milestones fall into five categories based on the type of skills a child learns:2
Gross Motor
Gross motor milestones help children build strength, balance, and coordination. Motor development can be divided into gross motor skills and fine motor skills. Gross motor development refers to large muscle movements, such as rolling, sitting, crawling, and walking.2 Older children practice gross motor skills without thinking (just by walking and moving throughout their day). But babies and toddlers often need encouragement to practice these new skills. Activities like tummy time, placing toys so baby has to crawl to them, and encouraging games like:3
- Simon says
- Tag
- Throwing a ball
- Playground climbing
These activities help strengthen gross motor skills.
Related: 15 Fun Ways To Engage and Play With Your Baby
Fine Motor
Fine motor development supports many everyday tasks children use throughout life.
While gross motor skills involve full-body movements and large muscle groups, fine motor skills are more subtle and precise.2 They typically involve muscle groups in the fingers, lips, and tongue.3 Fine motor skills consist of things like hand motions and activities of daily living, like feeding oneself, writing, and fastening a button.2 To practice fine motor skills, allow your child to turn the pages of a book, stack blocks or cups, do finger painting, color using crayons, and feed themselves using their pincer grasp or utensils.3
Language
Language milestones begin long before children start speaking full sentences. In their first three years of life, babies and toddlers learn to interpret communication and express themselves through speech and nonverbal cues.2,4 From recognizing your voice to crying and cooing as a baby to following directions, forming sentences, and learning grammar, language development builds upon itself.4
Related: Speech Milestones for Babies: 6 to 12 Months
Cognitive
Cognitive development helps children learn how to think, reason, and solve problems.2,5 Examples of cognitive milestones include understanding object permanence and causation, developing an imagination, having fears and wishes, reading, and understanding numbers or counting.5
Social-Emotional/Behavioral
Social-emotional milestones help children build relationships, regulate emotions, and develop attachment, self-regulation, and interpersonal skills. Milestones in this category include social smiling, understanding stranger danger, recognizing faces and voices, showing empathy, engaging in pretend play, and developing friendships. Spending time with others and fostering close relationships can help with this milestone.2
Related: The Importance of Social-Emotional Development in Children
Why Are Developmental Milestones So Important?
Developmental milestones build upon one another, so mastering one milestone is essential to learning the next.2 Confirming that children are meeting these checkpoints in development ensures they don’t fall further behind as peers continue to build on their skills. For instance, a child must learn how to walk before learning to run. If they don’t get help with walking, they can’t “catch up” and meet the next milestone.
Studying trends and establishing milestone norms can help identify when children are falling behind. Catching developmental delays early can encourage parents to seek early interventions, such as physical, occupational, and speech therapy. These therapies can bridge the gap and help children catch up to their peers, continue building on their skills, and not fall further behind.2
How Are Developmental Milestones Tracked?
Your child’s pediatrician should assess their development at their routine pediatric visits. Using standardized, validated tools and trackers, the provider will assess milestone achievement based on your child’s age.2 Some examples of tools your pediatrician may use include the Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) and the Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ).6,7 If your child attends school or daycare, these institutions may also track milestones. When my first daughter attended a daycare center as a baby, they used the ASQ twice per school year and shared her results with me.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also publishes a milestone checklist and booklet to help parents understand when their children should reach each milestone. These resources go in-depth over baby milestones by month.1
Related: Baby Milestones Month by Month: Your Baby’s First Year Guide
Recognizing Developmental Delays
If your child’s developmental screening flags certain milestone delays, this doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be diagnosed with a condition. Tools such as the DDST and the ASQ are screening tools designed to detect potential delays early. If a delay is suspected, your child can be referred for further examination, testing, and intervention. More specialized experts will be able to assess them for specific issues and help your child make progress.2
How Parents Can Support Developmental Milestones
Most of the time, you can trust your gut to tell you when something isn’t right with your little one. You know your child best! But to keep your baby on track with their milestones or to help them catch up, there are a few things you can do:
1. Attend Well-Child Visits
It’s always a good idea to have an impartial and experienced set of eyes examine your baby. Your pediatrician should have a good general understanding of where a child should be at each age and will assess for monthly milestones. Staying on top of your baby’s physical exams and appointments will help ensure no red flags are missed.
Related: Signs of Developmental Delay in Children
2. Build Your Awareness
While your pediatrician should catch any major milestone delays, parents spend the most time with their children. You should educate yourself on upcoming milestones and recognize whether your child is meeting them. You can also provide some age-appropriate toys to help them meet milestones on time. For instance, consider an object permanence toy for a 6-month-old or a push walker for a 12-month-old.5
3. Advocate for Them
Never hesitate to reach out to your provider if you notice your child is falling behind in developmental progress. They should be happy to see you for an extra visit and to assess whether your concern warrants further investigation. You’ll either get extra reassurance or some helpful interventions!
4. Affirm Positive Development
If you’re working with your child on reaching certain milestones, celebrate and encourage them when they make progress. For instance, if your baby points at a book to indicate they want it, say, “I see that you want the book! Here you go!” This helps develop your little one’s communication and motivation.2
5. Interact With Your Child
Get involved with your baby, who should recognize your face and voice in the first few months of life! Continued face time with you will foster their social-emotional development.2 Play with them, talk to them, and involve them in activities you’re doing. Allow lots of floor time to encourage gross motor strengthening. All this interaction and play will foster motor, language, and cognitive development.2
6. Take Care of Yourself
Parents battling depression or substance abuse and those with low education and poor community support may struggle to form a secure attachment with their baby. If your own needs aren’t being met, it will be hard to prioritize meeting your child’s developmental needs. This is why it’s important to take care of yourself and use the support services that are available to you.2
7. Seek Early Intervention
It can feel overwhelming to address possible developmental delays. It’s as if you’re acknowledging that something might be wrong with your child. It can be easier to remain in denial than to admit they might need extra help.
However, studies show that early intervention for delayed milestones improves outcomes for that child. Early intervention also involves the child’s whole family in their developmental progress.2
For instance, my daughter had to attend physical therapy because she was struggling to sit unsupported or crawl at 9 months of age. Physical therapy was a fun activity to do together, and I got to learn just as much as my daughter about how to help her continue her progress at home.
While every child develops at their own pace, developmental milestones can help parents and providers better understand how children grow and learn over time. Milestones are not meant to create pressure or comparison but to identify areas where extra support may be helpful. With close monitoring, encouragement, and early intervention when needed, children can continue building the skills they need to thrive.
