Every parent must know this!
3 min read
Dr Amulya P Rao
Mysuru: Every parent wants the best for their children. There is no paramount for the parents’ happiness when the infant starts crawling or walking or speaking in its first year. It is a pleasure to watch children grow and develop in every aspect. Isn’t it?
However, each child grows and develops differently, at his/her own pace. There are a few major checkpoints called milestones which every child can do at a certain age.
The period from birth to 5 years is very crucial for every child as the child achieves all the major milestones in terms of social, communication, cognition, and physical development by 5 years of age.
This week we will be sharing you the first year milestones of the infants.
If you have an infant at home, check whether he/she has achieved the following milestones according to his/her age. Put a tick mark in the in the box before the milestone, if your infant has achieved that milestone as per the age.
At 2 months
- Begins to smile at people
- Coos and makes gurgle sound
- Turns head towards sounds (before this the baby should respond to sounds either by crying or startling or eye blink)
- Pays attention to faces
- Begins to follow things with eye and recognize people at a distance
- Can hold head-up and starts pushing up when lying on tummy
At 4 months
- Smiles spontaneously
- Likes to play with people
- Copies some movements and facial expressions
- Cries in different ways to show hunger, pain or tiredness
- Begins to babble (bababa, bububu, etc)
- Recognizes familiar people and things at a distance
- Follows moving things from side to side
- Sees a toy and starts reaching for it
- Neck control is achieved
- Roll over from tummy to back
- Can hold a toy and shake it
- Brings hands to mouth
At 6 months
- Starts differentiating between familiar people and strangers
- Responds to others emotions
- Responds to sounds by making sounds
- Starts taking turns with parents while making sounds
- Jabbers ‘m’, ‘b’
- Responds to name
- Make sounds to show joy and displeasure
- Bring things to mouth
- Shows curiosity about things and tries to get things that are out of reach
- Begins to sit without support
- Rocks back and forth and sometimes crawl backwards instead of front
- Tries to stand
At 9 months
- Afraid of strangers
- Has favourite toys
- Understands ‘no’
- Uses fingers to point at things
- Copies sounds an gestures of others
- Makes a lot of different sounds
- Looks for things that you hide
- Starts watching if something falls
- Plays pee-ka-boo
- Starts with two finger grasp (Thumb and index finger)
- Stands with support
- Some even start walking with support
At 1 year
- Cries when mom and dad leaves
- Shows fear in some situations
- Hands a book when interested in listening to stories
- Put out arm and leg to help with dressing
- Sounds more like speech
- Tries to say words you say
- Says ‘amma’ and ‘appa’
- Responds to simple spoken requests
- Uses simple gestures like ‘no’ and ‘bye bye’
- Finds hidden things easily
- Explores things by shaking, banging or throwing
- Copies gestures
- Looks at right picture or thing when named
- Starts to use things correctly
- Starts walking without support but falls
- Starts climbing stairs with support
- Pushes toys
Ref: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC website
Remember, these are only a few major milestones that the child needs to reach within the particular age. If the baby doesn’t achieve any of these skills according to age or loses skills once achieved, or there is a delay by a month or a few months in achieving these skills then immediately consult a Speech-Language Pathologist and/or an Audiologist as it might be an indication of speech, language and/or hearing problem.
If you do not know these professionals then you can look into our previous article by clicking on the link https://www.mysoorunews.com/whom-to-consult-if-you-have-speech-voice-or-hearing -related-issues-read-expert-suggestions/ .
The executive council of Indian Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ISHA), requests all the parents as well as family members to be aware of these milestones and keep a track of their child’s development as they are the first observers of the whole process.
For more details on audiologists and speech-language pathologists and where to locate them, logon to www.ishaindia.org.in.
(The writer is a Research Associate, ISHA, Mysuru)
– Team Mysoorunews
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