Developmental Milestones...
Stages Of Your Child's Development
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...As a parent who understands basic child growth and development you will know what to expect in terms of when your child should be reaching his development milestone.
Your child’s development refers to the rate at which he grows and change physically, mentally, emotionally and socially.
His development milestones refer to when he acquires a new accomplishment in any of those categories, whether it is his first tooth or the first time he rolls over.
Developmental scales are lists of characteristics which are considered normal for your child to have achieved by a certain age.
He may reach his development milestones at an age which is above average, in terms of a developmental scale …such as speaking in full sentences at 18 months… or well below average on the scale …not speaking at 18 months.
It is important for you to note that your child reaches his development milestones at his own pace. The developmental scale gives lots of room for him to reach those development milestones.
A child who is developing at a healthy rate may crawl at 5 months or at 8 months. You should not panic if he has not reached his development milestones within the exact time frame listed.
But being aware of developmental scales allows you to be better aware if there is any significant delay in his development by allowing you to note if your child is falling well behind in reaching his developmental milestones.
For example, as your child develops his ability to speak he will go through the following development milestones;
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At one month he will respond to voices and begin to coo. At five months he will coo with vowel sounds, and attempt to imitate sounds. At nine months he will say 'mama' and 'da da' meaningfully. And by 12 months he will be saying three words meaningfully. |
Now if your child isn’t saying three words by his first birthday, there is no reason to panic! But if he is not attempting to imitate sounds by this time, he has fallen short of his development milestones and you will want to discuss this with your doctor.
The explanation for why your child falls short of reaching his development milestones typically falls into three categories; there may be a biological explanation, a psychological explanation, or a social explanation.
Once it has been determined that he is falling behind in reaching his developmental milestones, there may be testing to determine the explanation.
At this point he is given the support he needs to help him reach his developmental milestones. For example, he may not be speaking because he is tongue tied -- biological explanation -- this can be remedied with a simple medical procedure.
He may then receive extra support with speech therapy to allow him to catch up in his language acquisition. At this point he can be expected to reach future language milestone at a normal rate.
See Also...
- Child Development Milestone From Birth To Six Years
- Child Growth and Development -- Understanding Your Child Better
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