Is My Child Meeting His/Her Developmental Milestones?

As a speech-language pathologist who loves to work within the early intervention realm (birth-3 years), I see it as being SO important to catch speech, occupational, physical and feeding delays early. It is better to have received speech therapy, occupational therapy, feeding therapy and/or physical therapy early and offset delays sooner, than to have not received therapy and need it for much longer at a later age. If you have concerns about any areas of development (speech, feeding, fine motor, gross motor, behavior), it is best to seek out help from a professional therapist and possibly get a therapy evaluation to rule out delays. Typically your pediatrician is a great place to start, as he/she will know which professional to refer you to first.

Sometimes it can be hard to know if your child is meeting his/her developmental milestones for speech therapy, feeding therapy, occupational therapy, and/or physical therapy, with such a wide range of “normal.” Below are some websites that I often refer to as a reference for typical developmental milestones.

*Raising Special Kids: WWW.RaisingSpecialKids.org

RaisingSpecialKids.org is a “non-profit organization that provides support and information for parents of children, from birth to age 26, with a full range of disabilities and special health care needs. Programs are offered at no cost to families, and are available in English and Spanish.”

*Zero to Three: www.zerotothree.org/about-us/areas-of-expertise/free-parent-brochures-and-guides/age-based-handouts.html

This website provides age-based handouts from birth through 36 months for which milestones you can expect your child to achieve.

*First Things First: www.azftf.gov/WhatWeDo/Programs/Pages/BirthtoFiveHelpline.aspx

“Staffed by early childhood development specialists, registered nurses, disabilities specialists, early literacy specialists, and mental health counselors, the Helpline provides a toll-free number for all Arizona families with young children, and parents-to-be, to call with questions or concerns about their infants, toddlers and preschoolers.”

*Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/

This is another website that provides a list of developmental milestones based on your child’s age.

*Playing with Words 365 and Little Stories

http://www.playingwithwords365.com/

http://thelittlestories.com/

Both of these websites are mostly speech-based, but I love them as resources for parents to get information about developmental milestones, recommended activities, and generally what to expect in language development at an early age. I often provide handouts from both of these very family-friendly websites written by moms/speech therapists.

We hope this helped a bit with any developmental milestone questions you may have had and where to find additional resources. Please send us an email or give us a call if you have any further questions.

We will post a new blog each week, so please email with any questions or new ideas that we can cover!

Kristina, Speech Language Pathologist