Infants

Movement milestones

  • Walks alone

  • Pulls toys behind her while walking

  • Carries large toy or several toys while walking

  • Begins to run

  • Stands on tiptoe

  • Kicks a ball

  • Climbs onto and down from furniture unassisted

  • Walks up and down stairs holding on to support

Milestones in hand and finger skills

  • Scribbles spontaneously
  • Turns over container to pour out contents
  • Builds tower of four blocks or more
  • Might use one hand more frequently than the other

Language milestones

  • Points to object or picture when it’s named for him

  • Recognizes names of familiar people, objects, and body parts

  • Says several single words (by fifteen to eighteen months)

  • Uses simple phrases (by eighteen to twenty-four months)

  • Uses two- to four-word sentences

  • Follows simple instructions

  • Repeats words overheard in conversation

Cognitive milestones

  • Finds objects even when hidden under two or three covers

  • Begins to sort by shapes and colors

  • Begins make-believe play

Social and emotional milestones

  • Imitates behavior of others, especially adults and older children

  • Increasingly aware of herself as separate from others

  • Increasingly enthusiastic about company of other children

  • Demonstrates increasing independence

  • Begins to show defiant behavior

  • Increasing episodes of separation anxiety toward midyear, then they fade

 

PreSCHOOL

 

 

PRE K

Movement milestones

  • Hops and stands on one foot up to five seconds

  • Goes upstairs and downstairs without support

  • Kicks ball forward

  • Throws ball overhand

  • Catches bounced ball most of the time

  • Moves forward and backward with agility

Milestones in hand and finger skills

  • Copies square shapes

  • Draws a person with two to four body parts

  • Uses scissors

  • Draws circles and squares

  • Begins to copy some capital letters

Language milestones

  • Understands the concepts of “same” and “different”

  • Has mastered some basic rules of grammar

  • Speaks in sentences of five to six words

  • Speaks clearly enough for strangers to understand

  • Tells stories

Cognitive milestones

  • Correctly names some colors

  • Understands the concept of counting and may know a few numbers

  • Approaches problems from a single point of view

  • Begins to have a clearer sense of time

  • Follows three-part commands

  • Recalls parts of a story

  • Understands the concept of same/different

  • Engages in fantasy play

Social and emotional milestones

  • Interested in new experiences

  • Cooperates with other children

  • Plays “Mom” or “Dad”

  • Increasingly inventive in fantasy play

  • Dresses and undresses

  • Negotiates solutions to conflicts

  • More independent

  • Imagines that many unfamiliar images may be “monsters”

  • Views self as a whole person involving body, mind, and feelings

  • Often cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality