Developmental Milestones Checklist
The Early Intervention Program's Developmental Monitoring Unit assists families in tracking their child's development from birth to age 3.
At 3 months, children should be able to:
- Turn their head toward bright colors and lights
- Move eyes in the same direction together
- Cries differently when tired, hungry or in pain
- Recognize the bottle or breast
- Become quiet in response to sounds (especially to speech)
- Make fists with both hands
- Grasp rattles or hair
- Wiggle and kick with arms and legs
- Lift head and chest when on belly
- Smile or coos in response to person’s smile or voice
At 6 months, children should be able to:
- Follow moving objects with their eyes
- Turn toward the source of normal sound
- Reach for objects and pick them up
- Switch toys from one hand to the other
- Play with their toes
- Help hold the bottle during feeding
- Recognize familiar faces
- Imitate speech sounds
- Respond to soft sounds, especially talking
- Roll over
At 9 months, children should be able to:
- Enjoy peek-a-boo and patty cake
- Have different vocalizations for different states
- Imitate familiar sounds and actions
- Cry when parent leaves room
- Reach to request object
- Babbling (“bababa”, “mama-mama”),lots of sounds that take on sounds of words
At 12 months, children should be able to:
- Attract attention (such as vocalizing, coughing)
- Crawl on hands and knees
- Shake head “no”, pushes away undesired objects
- Pull to a standing position
- Drink from a cup
- Wave bye-bye
- Hold out arms and legs while being dressed
- Walk with help
- Indicate requests clearly through actions
- Put objects into a container
- Have a 5-6 word vocabulary
At 18 months, children should be able to:
- Use 8-10 words
- Walk without help
- Understand that an adult can do things for him/her
- Lie to pull, push and dump things
- Follow simple direction (“bring me the ball”)
- Pull off socks, shoes and mittens
- Acknowledge people by eye contact and/or vocal response
- Like to look at pictures
- Feed self
- Make marks on paper with crayons
- Step off low object and keeps balance
At 2 years old, children should be able to:
- Use 2 – 3 word sentences
- Have at least 50 words
- Say names of toys
- Recognize familiar pictures
- Carry an object while walking
- Feed self with spoon
- Play alone and independently
- Turn 2-3 pages in a book at a time
- Like to imitate parents
- Identify hair, eyes, ears, and nose by pointing
- Build a tower of four blocks
- Show affection
- Stand from stooping
- Complete simple puzzles
- Kick ball
At 3 years old, children should be able to:
- Express affection openly and have a wide range of emotions
- Make mechanical toys work; play make-believe
- Sort objects by shape and color, match objects to pictures
- Follow a 2- or 3-part command; use simple phrases to communicate with others, such as “go outside, swing?”
- Use pronouns (I, you, me) and some plurals (cars, dogs)
Take the First Step and let’s begin the progress!
Since 2009, our agency has been successfully helping New York families to achieve full developmental potentials of their children.
We are happy to answer all your questions and guide you through every step.