A Guide to Your Kid’s Developmental Milestone

What are developmental milestones?

From the moment your baby first enters the world, they are ready to learn. In fact, one of the most crucial time periods in a child’s development and learning is from birth to 5 years old.

It is said that “Eighty-five to ninety percent of a child’s brain develops by age five”. This means your child is able to grow and develop new skills quickly—from thinking and speaking skills to social and emotional skills.”

As the new- born grows and develops, the Parents often wonder “When will my child walk?” or “When will they talk?” These major achievements are called "Developmental Milestones”

To be precise, Developmental milestones are a set of skills or age-specific tasks that most children achieve by a certain age.

Understanding Milestones

As their kids grow, Parents can understand and relate with these milestones as under :

• Social and emotional: child’s ability to express emotions effectively, follow rules and directions and form positive, healthy relationships


• Speech and language: child’s ability to absorb and learn to speak language


• Cognitive: child’s ability to think, learn and solve problems


• Physical: child’s ability to learn large and fine motor skills, such as sitting up, crawling and walking

Why developmental milestones matter ?

By looking at the different milestones, you as a parent can pick up on when development is not going according to plan.

Watching your child’s development is an amazing and unique experience. But these markers can give some parents a combination of excitement and anxiousness. You look forward to your baby’s first smile, their first steps and first words, but you also worry that they could be “falling behind” their peers.The most frequently asked question on many parents' minds is typically, “Is my child developing normally?”

“It’s important to remember that growth and development can vary from child to child. One child may start walking at 10 months, while another child may start walking at 15 months. But, if you think your child is “falling behind” developmentally, these missed or delayed developmental milestones can be very concerning.

Developmental skills by age

Regular well-baby and well-child visits during the first several years of life are critical to identify health, behavioural and developmental problems that could have long-lasting effects.During your child’s regular or well baby check-ups , their Pediatrician will spend time watching your child and talking with you to find out if your child is meeting normal developmental milestones. The visit will also include a physical examination, vaccinations and tests for hearing, vision and other functions.To know more, feel free to contact your Paediatrician - Dr Poonam Singh at neo care (New Born & Child Clinic) @ Sector-104, Noida or visit www.drpoonamsingh.in for more information.