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Developmental Checklist
Gross Motor Skills
By 4 months
- Bears weight on forearms when on belly
- Plays with feet
- Holds head in midline
- Rolls from back to side
- Brings hands together when laying on back
By 6 months
- Grasps rattle when placed in hand
- Reaches toward and touches toy
- Hits at dangling objects with hands
- Responds to a smile with a smile
- Likes looking at a human face most
By 9 months
- Maintains sitting for at least 60 seconds with hands free to play
- Crawls independently
- Pulls to stands from floor
- Walks with 2 hands held
By 12 months
- Cruises along furniture
- Independent standing
- Gets into and out of sitting
- Corrals a ball with arms and hands in sitting
- Transitions sit to stand and stand to sit
By 18 Months (1 ½ years)
- Walks independently with arms at side
- Walks up and down 3-4 steps with railing
- Walks backwards 5 steps
- Throws a ball while maintaining balance
- Rides a push bike
By 24 Months (2 years)
- Stoops down to retrieve toy and returns to standing
- Jumps down off low surface
- Jumps forward about 4 inches
- Goes up stairs without rail (both feet on each step)
- Throws ball 3 feet in air
- Kicks ball 3 feet forward
By 30 Months (2 ½ years)
- Stands on one foot for 3 seconds (hands on hips)
- Jumps forward 24 inches
- Jumps down 24 inches
- Catches a large ball
- Throws ball underhand
By 36 Months (3 years)
- Walks up stairs without rail (one foot on each step)
- Rides a tricycle
- Hops 3 times on one foot
- Kicks a large ball in place
By 48 Months (4 years)
- Stands on one foot for 5 seconds (hands on hips)
- Hops 5-8 times on each foot
- Rides a 2-wheeled bike with training wheels
- Walks backwards on a line over 4 feet
- Jumps forward 30 inches
By 60 Months (5 years)
- Completes sit ups
- Able to skip
- Completes jumping jacks
- Rides a 2-wheeler without training wheels
- Completes push-ups
Fine Motor Skills
By 4 months
- Bears weight on forearms when on belly
- Plays with feet
- Holds head in midline
- Rolls from back to side
- Brings hands together when laying on back
By 6 months
- Reaches for a toy when playing on belly
- Holds a toy and shakes it
- Puts fingers in mouth
- Holds hands open at least 1/2 of the time
- Smiles at self in mirror
By 9 months
- Waves bye-bye
- Releases objects intentionally
- Feeds self finger foods
- Bangs a toy on the floor
- Passes a small object between hands
By 12 months
- Grasp thick crayon or pencil in fist, does not mark
- Turns page of a cardboard book
- Helps to pull off simple clothing
- Puts objects into others
- Pulls shoes off
By 18 Months (1 ½ years)
- Turns a container to pour or dump contents
- Turns a small knob
- Gets spoon in mouth right-side up
- Helps to dress and undress self
- Puts large round pegs into pegboard
By 24 Months (2 years)
- Drinks from cup independently
- Looks independently at picture books
- Zips and unzips easy zippers
- Uses play dough, paint and paper
- Scribbles without going off paper
- Builds a 4-6 block tower
By 30 Months (2 ½ years)
- Washes hands by self
- Hand preference is established
- Imitates drawing a vertical line
- Puts square, round and triangular shapes into board
- Spontaneously draws strokes, dots and circles
- Stacks 7-8 small blocks
By 36 Months (3 years)
- Grasps pencil with thumb and fingers instead of fist
- Screws and unscrews jar lids
- Eats with a fork (with spillage)
- Pours accurately from one container to another
- Completes a simple 3 piece puzzle
By 48 Months (4 years)
- Puts socks on correctly
- Colors almost entirely within lines of circle
- Draws a person with 3 different body parts
- Dresses and undresses without much help
- Copies a cross
By 60 Months (5 years)
- Copies and cuts a square
- Copies color/shape sequence
- Zips most zippers
- Traces around own hand with crayon
- Completes simple dot to dot pictures
Speech
By 4 months
- Sucks from breast or bottle
- Cooing: vowel sounds
- Vocalizes some sounds
- Produces a variety of facial expressions
By 6 months
- Cup drinking is introduced
- Soft, smooth solids
- Moves chewed food to center of mouth before swallowing
By 9 months
- Babbles same sounds
- Responds to “no”
- Vocalizes different syllables
- Tolerates smooth solid foods
- Makes sounds while eating with food in mouth
By 12 months
- Feeding self with fingers
- Babbles using different sounds
- Takes turns vocalizing
- Points/gestures
- Tolerates coarsely chopped food
By 18 Months (1 ½ years)
- Uses 10-20 words
- Combines 2 words (all done)
- Names at least 5 items
- Responds to “yes/no”
- Retrieves objects from another room when asked
By 24 Months (2 years)
- Frequently uses 2 word phrase
- Demonstrates verbal turn taking
- Has at least 100 words
- Eats table foods with mixed textures
By 30 Months (2 ½ years)
- Gives first name
- Answers “where” questions
- Uses 3-4 word utterances
- Identifies object by function
- Responds to greetings
- Has approximately 450 words
By 36 Months (3 years)
- Has about 1000 words
- Converses in sentences
- Ask questions
- Responds to “wh-” questions
- Is 75% intelligible
By 48 Months (4 years)
- Uses 4-5 word sentences
- Understands time concepts
- Uses contractions (don’t)
- Follows multi-step directions
- Asks many questions including “who” and “why”
By 60 Months (5 years)
- Uses a variety of sentences
- Vocabulary of 2000 words
- Can tell a story with plot
- Is 90-100% intelligible
- Asks questions to get more information
Interactive Developmental Checklist
Is your child meeting their developmental milestones? Use our interactive developmental checklist quiz.
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