The developmental milestones for children have been updated for the first time in years
Vani Venugopal
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA, and the American Academy of Pediatricians recently updated the developmental milestones for infants and young children. While the earlier milestones listed behaviors that 50% of children could perform at a particular age level, the new ones include behaviors that 75% or more children can perform at that age. This improves accuracy in monitoring developmental delays in children.
The updated checklist now includes milestones for the ages 15 months and 30 months and has checklists for all stages from ages two months to 5 years. It also includes more social and emotional milestones.
The new milestones are expected to make it easier for parents and doctors to identify developmental delays in children.
What are developmental milestones?
As babies grow, they start being able to do more complex tasks like smiling, taking steps and waving. Their ability to perform these tasks is an indicator of their development. While the term growth usually refers only to size, child development takes a whole gamut of skills into account, such as gross motor, fine motor, language, cognitive and social.
So how do we understand how our child is developing? That is where developmental milestones come in. These are age-specific physical skills or tasks that most children can perform at a certain age. While all children develop at their own pace, most children start performing certain tasks at approximately the same time as they grow older. Parents and pediatricians can track a child’s development at every stage using the framework of developmental milestones and keep an eye out for developmental delays.
Below are updated developmental milestone checklists for all age levels
Important Milestones: Your Baby By Two Months | CDC
Check the milestones your child has reached by the end of 2 months. Take this checklist with you and talk with your child's doctor at every visit about the milestones your child has reached and what to expect next.
Important Milestones: Your Baby By Four Months | CDC
Check the milestones your child has reached by the end of 4 months. Take this checklist with you and talk with your child's doctor at every visit about the milestones your child has reached and what to expect next.
Important Milestones: Your Baby By Six Months | CDC
Check the milestones your child has reached by the end of 6 months. Take this checklist with you and talk with your child's doctor at every visit about the milestones your child has reached and what to expect next.
Important Milestones: Your Baby By Nine Months | CDC
Check the milestones your child has reached by the end of 9 months. Take this checklist with you and talk with your child's doctor at every visit about the milestones your child has reached and what to expect next.
Important Milestones: Your Baby By One Year | CDC
Check the milestones your child has reached by the end of 1 year. Take this checklist with you and talk with your child's doctor at every visit about the milestones your child has reached and what to expect next.
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Important Milestones: Your Baby By Fifteen Months | CDC
Check the milestones your child has reached by the end of 15 months. Take this checklist with you and talk with your child's doctor at every visit about the milestones your child has reached and what to expect next.
Important Milestones: Your Baby By Eighteen Months | CDC
Check the milestones your child has reached by the end of 18 months. Take this checklist with you and talk with your child's doctor at every visit about the milestones your child has reached and what to expect next.
Important Milestones: Your Baby By Two Years | CDC
Check the milestones your child has reached by the end of 2 years. Take this checklist with you and talk with your child's doctor at every visit about the milestones your child has reached and what to expect next.
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Important Milestones: Your Baby By Thirty Months | CDC
Check the milestones your child has reached by the end of 2 months. Take this checklist with you and talk with your child's doctor at every visit about the milestones your child has reached and what to expect next.
Important Milestones: Your Baby By Three Years | CDC
Check the milestones your child has reached by the end of 3 years. Take this checklist with you and talk with your child's doctor at every visit about the milestones your child has reached and what to expect next.
Important Milestones: Your Baby By Four Years | CDC
Check the milestones your child has reached by the end of 4 years. Take this checklist with you and talk with your child's doctor at every visit about the milestones your child has reached and what to expect next.
Important Milestones: Your Baby By Five Years | CDC
Check the milestones your child has reached by the end of 5 years. Take this checklist with you and talk with your child's doctor at every visit about the milestones your child has reached and what to expect next.
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