Milestones: 2 months
- Smiles responsively; looks at faces.
- Follows to midline.
- Vocalizes making cooing or short vowel sounds.
- Lifts head.
Milestones: 4 months
- Smiles responsively; smiles spontaneously; stares at own hand.
- Grasps a rattle; follows past midline; brings hands to middle of body.
- Laughs and squeals out loud; vocalizes; makes "ooh" sounds.
- Lifts head and chest 45 and 90 degrees when prone; head steady when sitting.
Milestones: 6 months
- Reaches for toy out of reach; looks at hand; smiles spontaneously.
- Looks at raisin placed on contrasting surface; reaches out; follows completely side to side.
- Turns to rattle sound made out of vision on each side; squeals; laughs.
- Rolls over both directions; no head lag; lifts head and chest completely.
Milestones: 9 months
- Feeds self finger foods; tries to get toys; looks at hands.
- Transfers; rakes a raisin or cheerio; picks up and holds a small object in each hand.
- Imitates sounds; says single syllables; begins to put syllables together.
- No head lag; sits without support; stands holding onto furniture.
Milestones: 12 months
- Plays pat-a-cake; feeds self; works to get a toy.
- Developed pincer grasp; bangs objects together; picks up two cubes.
- Jabbers; combines syllables; mama/dada is nonspecific.
- Stands briefly without support; gets to sitting position; pulls to stand.
Milestones: 15 - 18 months
- Begins to imitate; helps in the house; feeds self with increasing skill (still rotates the spoon, if used) and holds a cup.
- Builds a tower with increasing number of blocks; scribbles; able to put a block in a cup.
- Says 3 to 10 single words; can point to several body parts.
- Walks well forward and backward; stoops and recovers.
Milestones: 2 years
- Removes one article of clothing; feeds a doll; uses a spoon or fork.
- Holds a pencil and spontaneously scribbles; dumps a raisin out of a bottle on command after demonstration; builds a two-block tower.
- Points to two pictures; says three to six words.
- Runs; walks up steps; kicks a ball forward.
Milestones: 3 years
- Brushes teeth with help, puts on clothing, feeds a doll.
- Builds a tower of at least four to six cubes.
- Points to and names four familiar pictures (cat, horse, bird, dog, man); speech understandable 50% of the time.
- Throws a ball overhand; jumps; kicks a ball forward.
Milestones: 4 years
- Puts on a T-shirt; washes and dries hands; names a friend.
- Imitates a vertical line; wiggles thumbs; builds a tower of eight cubes.
- Knows two adjectives (e.g. tired, hungry, cold); identifies one color; knows the use of two objects (e.g. cup, chair, pencil).
- Balances on each foot for 1 second; jumps forward; throws a ball overhand.
Milestones: 6 - 8 years
- Develops positive self-esteem through skill acquisition and task completion; peer group becoming the primary socializing force.
- Ties shoelaces, buttons and zips clothes, dresses and undresses without help.
- Vocabulary expands; understands the different properties of language: play on words, puns, mnemonics, jokes.
- Improved muscle mass and coordination allow for participation in various sports and games.
Milestones: 9 - 11 years
- Peers' opinions become more important than parents'.
- Hand-eye coordination fully developed; fine motor control approximates adults.
- Reads more and enjoys comics and newspapers; understands fractions, conservation of volume and weight; likes to talk on the telephone; interested in how things work.
- May begin to be more awkward as growth spurt begins; may drop out of team sports to avoid embarrassment.
Milestones: Adolescent
- Experiences emotional and social turmoil associated with rapid changes in development and altered body image; is interested in opposite-sex relationships.
- Adult fine motor control.
- Becomes future oriented; views the world in broad perspective; hypothesizes several alternatives to a problem; thinks and reasons abstractly; develops moral reasoning.
- Early growth-related awkwardness develops into coordinated muscle control.