developmental milestones

How your child plays, learns, speaks, and acts offers important clues about your child’s development. Developmental milestones are things most children can do by a certain age. If you are concerned, act early. Beyond Early Intervention will happily come to your home to complete a no-cost assessment.
baby-on-floor-with-toy

2 MONTHS:

Begins to smile at people
Can briefly calm himself (may bring hands to mouth and suck on hand)
Tries to look at parent
Coos, makes gurgling sounds
Turns head toward sounds
Pays attention to faces
Begins to follow things with eyes and recognize people at a distance
Begins to act bored (cries, fussy) if activity doesn’t change
Can hold head up and begins to push up when lying on tummy
Makes smoother movements with arms and legs

 4 MONTHS:

Smiles spontaneously, especially at people
Likes to play with people and might cry when playing stops
Copies some movements and facial expressions, like smiling or frowning
Language/Communication
Babbles with expression and copies sounds he hears
Cries in different ways to show hunger, pain, or being tired
Lets you know if she is happy or sad
Responds to affection
Reaches for toy with one hand
Uses hands and eyes together, such as seeing a toy and reaching for it
Follows moving things with eyes from side to side
Watches faces closely
Recognizes familiar people and things at a distance
Holds head steady, unsupported
Pushes down on legs when feet are on a hard surface
May be able to roll over from tummy to back
Can hold a toy and shake it and swing at dangling toys
Brings hands to mouth
When lying on stomach, pushes up to elbow

milestone-3mo-new

 9 MONTHS:

May be afraid of strangers
May be clingy with familiar adults
Has favorite toys
Understands “no”
Makes a lot of different sounds like “mamamama” and “bababababa”
Copies sounds and gestures of others
Uses fingers to point at things
Watches the path of something as it falls
Looks for things he sees you hide
Plays peek-a-boo
Puts things in her mouth
Moves things smoothly from one hand to the other
Picks up things like cereal o’s between thumb and index finger
Stands, holding on
Can get into sitting position
Sits without support
Pulls to stand
Crawls

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 1 YEAR:

Is shy or nervous with strangers
Cries when mom or dad leaves
Has favorite things and people
Shows fear in some situations
Hands you a book when he wants to hear a story
Repeats sounds or actions to get attention
Puts out arm or leg to help with dressing
Plays games such as “peek-a-boo” and “pat-a-cake”
Responds to simple spoken requests
Uses simple gestures, like shaking head “no” or waving “bye-bye”
Makes sounds with changes in tone (sounds more like speech)
Says “mama” and “dada” and exclamations like “uh-oh!”
Tries to say words you say
Explores things in different ways, like shaking, banging, throwing
Finds hidden things easily
Looks at the right picture or thing when it’s named
Copies gestures
Starts to use things correctly; for example, drinks from a cup, brushes hair
Bangs two things together
Puts things in a container, takes things out of a container
Lets things go without help
Pokes with index (pointer) finger
Follows simple directions like “pick up the toy”
Gets to a sitting position without help
Pulls up to stand, walks holding on to furniture (“cruising”)
May take a few steps without holding on
May stand alone