Learning about Developmental Milestones

As a child develops we look closely at various skills he/she achieves by a certain age. These are known as developmental milestones. Developmental Milestones give us, as professionals, an idea of whether a child is developing typically when compared to children his/her age or if there are any signs of delays in any area. This also allows us to make recommendations for intervention as early as possible. We observe areas such as how a child crawls, walks, talks, plays, interacts with others etc.

It is also recommended that parents/caregivers are aware of these milestones, to have a good idea of how their child is developing, and where he/she should be at each age level for various skills.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a great website and milestones tracker app, which outlines developmental milestones from birth to 5 years. Did you know that by 18 months a child should be saying several single words, following one step verbal commands without gesture, and showing early pretend play skills? Check out more of the birth-5 milestones here . These are especially useful to share with new parents who are unsure of what to expect from their child at each level.

Another favourite chart we like to share focuses on developmental milestones in typical language acquisition. This allows parents/caregivers to have a clearer idea of speech, language and social communication development from birth to 16 years old. This can be found here .

Remember that you can always speak to your paediatrician or speech and language therapist if you have any concerns about your child’s speech and language development.