From birth to 5 years, your child should reach milestones in how he plays, learns, speaks, acts, and moves. Track your child’s development and act early if you see a concern.
Sathish Chandra Segar, MSc, OT — Clinical Director, QISH, Doha provides answers to commonly asked questions...
What are developmental milestones?
Developmental milestones are things most children can do by a certain age. Skills such as taking the first step, smiling for the first time, and waving “bye-bye” are a few examples of developmental milestones.
What does it offer?
Developmental milestones offer important clues about a child’s developmental health. Reaching milestones at the typical ages shows a child is developing as expected. Reaching milestones much earlier means a child may be advanced compared with his/her peers of the same age.
Not reaching milestones or reaching them much later than children of the same age can be the earliest indication that a child may have a developmental delay which is a warning sign or red flag. Children who don’t reach milestones may need extra support and services to reach their full potential.
What are the domains of developmental milestones?
Social/Emotional
Examples
• Smiling spontaneously, especially at people
• Cooperating with other children
• Showing affection for friends without prompting
• Crying when mom or dad leaves
• Imitating other children
Communication
Examples
• Cooing/babbling
• Pointing to show others what he/she wants
• Singing a song from memory
Cognitive (learning, thinking, problem-solving)
Examples
• Reaching for a toy with one hand
• Exploring things in different ways like shaking, banging, throwing
• Building towers of at least four blocks
• An infant staring at mom’s face as she leans over his crib
Movement /physical development
Examples
• Crawling
• Catching a bounced ball most of the time
• Eating with a spoon
Why monitoring your child’s development is important.
Many children with developmental delays or behaviour concerns are not identified as early as possible. As a result, these children must wait to get the help they need to do well in social and educational settings (for example, in school, at home and in the community)
At what age should I do the developmental screening?
Developmental and behavioural screening for all the children is necessary at the ages of 9 months, 18 months, and 30 months.
Why do I need to do the screening for my child?
Developmental delays/disabilities are surprisingly common nowadays due to the changes in lifestyle, increased use of electronic gadgets, and other environmental factors. Most children with developmental delays are not identified early enough for them to benefit from early intervention services. Developmental screening would help to predict future difficulties and to address those as early as possible.
What should I do now?
If you have an infant, monitor his/her developmental milestones with the help of medical professionals to make sure all is right with your child.
What if I have an older child who already has some difficulties in his/her academics, speech and behaviour, etc?
We can still check whether your son/daughter had achieved all his/her milestones properly during their infant life or not. If he/she did not achieve, skipped, or inadequate achievement specific developmental milestones, we can correct those problems through age-appropriate remedial exercises and activities. Remember delay/skipping/inadequate milestones will definitely have an impact on academic, speech, behaviour, and social skills.
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