An article published in Healthy Life Magazine in Issue December 2012
The best experience
that any parent‘s come across watching their little one growing from a small
dependent kid to a mature independent individual.
Developmental milestones are a
set of functional skills or age-specific tasks that most children can do at a
certain age range. Although each milestone has an age level, the actual
age when a normally developing child reaches that milestone can very quite a
bit. As Every child is unique!
Child growth only refers to the
child getting bigger in size while Child development refers to how a child becomes able
to do more complex things as they get older and it mainly occur in four domains
like: gross motor, fine motor, language, social-personal.
The individual level of functioning of a child depends upon its level of growth
and development in his childhood and it depends on both Genetic (nature) and Environment (nurture), hence biological
psychological and social factors play a major role to shape development of any child.
Your baby
will go through many changes in terms of growth and development during the
first year of life before you know that your tiny helpless newborn will be a
person in his own right. And growth being an indicator for overall well being, chronic
disease and interpersonal and psychological stress, it is very important for
the parents to know some age specific milestones for a normal full term baby which
is given in short as below:
Age of a child
|
Age appropriate milestones
|
New Born
|
Sleeps most of the time and drink milk.
Continue Exclusive Breast feeding.
|
6-9 Weeks
|
Starts smiling and turn head
towards sound.
|
10-13 Weeks
|
Neck holding, Cooing sound,
recognizes mother.
|
14-19 Weeks
|
Head control present.
Smiles and plays with hand and feet.
Grasp rattle and rings and bring to mouth.
|
20-24 weeks
|
Sits with support.
Kicks and roll over.
Enjoy mirror.
|
6-7 Months
|
Start sitting
without support.
Transfer object
from one hand to other.
Speaks Ma, Ba.
Teething starts (lower central incisor).
Start Weaning.
|
8 Months
|
Starts crawling.
Hold toys with crude
grasp.
Stranger anxiety
develops.
Upper central incisor
teeth erupts.
|
9 Months
|
Stands with support.
Waves bye – bye.
Speaks – Mama, Baba.
|
10-12 Months
|
Walk with support.
Responds to oral
command.
Lower lateral incisor
teeth erupts.
|
12-15 Months
|
Stands without support
Tries to feed himself
Sits on toilet
Speaks 2 words with
meaning
Upper lateral incisor
teeth erupts
|
15-18 Months
|
Walk without support
Make tower of 2-3
cubes
Feed himself with
spoon
|
18-24 Months
|
Runs
Feed himself with cup
Scribbles on paper,
Make tower of 4-6 cubes
Speak 8-10 words
with meaning
|
2-3 Years
|
Walk upstairs slowly
Draw a lines, Make
tower of 8-9
cubes,
Makes simple sentence,
point to body parts, name pictures
Start toilet
training
Start feeding child
from the family pot
|
3-4 Years
|
Ride a tricycle, Walk
downstairs, Broad jump.
Can dress himself and
brush teeth.
Draw a circle, Knows gender, Give name, Name colors, Group play
Can post pond his
toilet.
|
4-5 Years
|
Walk up and down steps
with alternate feet.
Copy a square (box).
Can undress himself ,
throw ball over head, role play present, Locate person and place.
Tells story, goes to
toilet alone.
|
5-6 Years
|
Skips.
Copies triangle,
counts till 10-15.
Knows number of
fingers, Names a week.
Repeat five digits,
Ask questions regarding meaning of the word.
|
Thus, milestone is the
phases in the growth and development in all domains that any child grows
through from a
dependent kid to an independent individual.
Every baby develops at his own pace and that the age listed above
are not set in stone for development of the healthy baby who was born at full
term. But a baby who was born prematurely would meet these milestones a bit
later than a full term baby. There are certain diseases where child growth and
development may be abnormal like: preterm babies, IUGR babies, metabolic
disorders, malnutrition, genetic disorders, chronic systemic disorders, CNS
abnormalities i.e.cerebral palsy etc. In these children the milestones could be
delayed, abnormal or sometime even the regression of the attained milestones
could be seen. In case of the above child may be subnormal, abnormal or they may
not be able to do their normal day to day activities.
Now
parents being the first teacher of any child and since they play a supreme role
in the proper growth and development of any child it’s very important for any
parents to watch closely the normal and it should strike them if there is any
deviation from the normal like abnormal or delay in their milestones and ask
these to their pediatrician when they visit them for vaccination especially
during the first year of life. That’s why the time when you vaccinate your
child is the right time when you can have your baby’s milestones checked in the
Well Baby Clinic.
Now as a pediatrician we play an
important role in examining the child for their age appropriate milestones when
they come to us regularly for the vaccination till five years of life
especially during the first year and advice parents for any abnormality seen so
that the timely investigations early diagnosis and treatment can be done to
prevent further deterioration and complication
and giving a chance to every single
child to live a normal and healthy life.
Note: As a
Pediatrician I would request to all the parents to consult their pediatric
doctor while vaccinating your kids, to examine for their age appropriate
milestones.
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