Developmental Milestones
Children typically develop certain skills at certain ages. These milestones give you an idea of general development for gross motor, fine motor, and speech-language skills. If you are concerned that your child has not met these developmental milestones at the appropriate ages, please contact your child's physician.
0 - 3 MONTHS
- Turn their heads toward bright colors and lights
- Recognize bottle or breast
- Respond to their mother's voice
- Bring their hands together
- Wiggle and kick with arms and legs
- Lift head when on stomach
- Become quiet in response to sound, especially to speech
- Brings hands within range of eyes and mouth
- Make cooing sounds
- Grasps and shakes hand toys
- Attempts to imitate sounds
3 - 6 MONTHS
- Reach and grasp for objects
- Play with toes
- Roll over
- Sit with only a little support
- Bounce when held in a standing position
- Move toys from one hand to another
- Laugh and squeal in delight
- Smile at themselves in a mirror
6 - 9 MONTHS
- Supports all weight on their legs
- Finds partially hidden object
- Rolls both ways (front to back, back to front)
- Responds to own name
- Responds to sound by making sounds
- Reaches with one hand
- Sits with, and then without, support of their hands
- Explores with hands and mouth
9 - 12 MONTHS
- Get to a sitting position
- Stand briefly without support
- Crawl
- Imitate adults using a cup or telephone
- Play peek-a-boo and patty cake
- Wave bye-bye
- Put objects in a container
- Make "ma-ma" or "da-da" sounds
- Drink from a cup with help
- Grasp small objects using thumb and index/forefinger
- Pull themselves to stand or takes steps by holding onto furniture
- Put small blocks in and take them out of a container
- Feed themselves finger foods like raisins
- Copy sounds and actions you make
1 - 2 YEARS
- Like to push and pull objects
- Say at least six words
- Follow simple directions
- Pull off shoes, socks, and mittens
- Can point to a picture that you name in a book
- Feed themselves
- Make marks on paper with crayons
- Walk without help
- Walk backwards
- Point, make sounds and try to use words to ask for things
- Stack two blocks
- Says 8-10 words you can understand
- Ask for something by pointing or using one word
- Drink from straw
- Feed themselves with a spoon
- Toss or roll a ball
2 - 3 YEARS
- Use two-to-three-word sentences
- Say about 50 words
- Recognize familiar pictures
- Kick a ball forward
- Feed themselves with a spoon
- Demands a lot of your attention
- Turn two or three pages together
- Identify hair, eyes, ears, and nose by pointing
- Shows affection
- Hum or try to sing
- Imitates others
- Apply pretend actions on others
- Refer to self by name or use "me" and "mine"
- Verbalize desires and feelings
- Enjoys looking at one book repeatedly
3 - 4 YEARS
- Throw a ball overhand
- Ride a tricycle
- Put on their shoes
- Open the door
- Turn one page at a time
- Play with other children for a few minutes
- Repeat common rhymes
- Use three -to-five-word sentences
- Name at least one color correctly
- Dresses and undresses themselves
- Draws circles and squares
- Kick ball forward
- Hops and stands on one foot up to five seconds
- Follows a three-part command
- Understands the concept of counting
4 - 5 YEARS
- Use five to six word sentences
- Go up and down stairs without support
- Understand the concept of counting and may know a few numbers
- Draw a person with two to four body parts
- Recall parts of a story
- Begin to have a clearer sense of time
- Understand the concepts of "same" and "different"
- Imagine that many unfamiliar images may be "monsters"
- Stands on one foot for ten seconds or longer
- Swings, climbs
- Cares for own toilet needs
- Uses future tense
- Understands the concept of time
- Prints some letters
- Build a tower of six to eight blocks