Developmental Milestones

We want all children to grow up confident and successful. Developmental milestones are behaviors and skills that emerge over time forming the building blocks for skill acquisition.  In the first years of life, the child’s brain and body are developing at a rapid pace, setting the foundation for how they move, act, learn, communicate, and play.

It is important to note that all children develop at their own pace, and each experience is unique. These resources were created as a tool to increase awareness of early childhood milestones to support each child’s growth, development and success. When you have concerns it is always helpful to speak to your pediatrician as a first step.  If you are seeing difficulties in the areas below it may also be beneficial to call South Shore Therapies and set up a free clinical intake call with one of our pediatric occupational or speech therapists:

• Difficulties with self-regulation (poor sleeping, inconsolable, unable to self sooth)
• Eating concerns (bottle/breast feeding, transition to baby foods and table foods)
• Slow motor development (late meeting milestones, clumsy, fearful of movement)
• Behavioral disorganization (overly sensitive reactions to daily sensory events, can’t slow down, poor safety, does not develop independent play skills, excessively clingy to caregiver, frequent sustained meltdowns with difficulty re-grouping)
• Delayed acquisition of speech (babbling, words, and sentences)
• Difficulty understanding language (responding to questions, following directions)
• Inconsistent social interactions (not responding to name, not initiating interactions, does not look at others to gauge their reactions to events, not pointing to objects)

Learn more about developmental milestones by clicking the appropriate age range below: