What is a Developmental Delay?
Developmental delay is when a child does not develop certain skills within an expected age range. Developmental milestones are broken down into five categories:
- Cognition: making decisions, solving problems.
- Motor: movement
- Social: interaction with family and strangers.
- Communication/language: understanding and using words and body language.
- Self-help: eating, dressing, and washing self.
Examples of Normal Developmental Milestones
| COGNITIVE | SOCIAL | COMMUNICATION | MOTOR | SELF-HELP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 MONTHS | Follows things with eyes, gets bored if nothing is happening | Smiles, looks at parent | Coos, turns head towards sounds | Holds head up and begins to push on arms when lying on tummy | Turns head towards the stimulated side |
| 4 MONTHS | Reaches for toys, inspects toys, recognizes faces | Copies some expressions, cries when play stops | Babbles, copies some sounds, starts to develop different cry patterns | Swipes at dangling toys, brings hands to mouth, pushes on legs when held upright | Pats bottle |
| 6 MONTHS | Shows curiosity in things out of reach | Likes to look at the mirror, can tell family and strangers apart | Takes turns babbling with someone else, begins to say consonants “m” and “b” | Brings things to mouth, rolls back to front and front to back, begins sitting unsupported | Uses tongue to move food in mouth, holds bottle |
| 9 MONTHS | Drops things and watches them fall, looks for hidden things | Plays peek-a-boo, may be clingy and afraid of strangers | Responds to own name, points to things, says “mamama” and “bababa” | Pulls to standing, starts crawling | Feeds herself cheerios, bites food |
| 12 MONTHS | Explores things in different ways, like shaking, banging, throwing, points | Repeats sounds or actions to get attention | Responds to simple requests, waves bye-bye, says “mama” and “dada” | Pokes with index (pointer) finger, walks holding on to furniture, puts things in and out of the box | Puts out arm or leg to help with dressing, holds a spoon, takes off socks |
| 18 MONTHS | Knows the purpose of common tools: brush, spoon, points to one body part, follows one step commands | Enjoys handing things to others, explores with a caregiver in sight, begins to pretend play: feed a doll, drive a car | Points to show someone what he wants, points to the objects he wants | Walks, squats and stands up, goes up the stairs while holding a hand, goes down a slide, throws a ball | Feeds self with spoon and fork, drinks out of a regular cup, lift feet up and reaches arms when dressing |