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CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
MILESTONE CHECKLIST

Childhood Development Milestone Checklist

Watching your little one grow from an adorable blob of fat to a walking, talking little genius is exciting, scary, and weird for parents to witness. It seems like they grow up so fast, because they do. Between the ages of zero and five, your child will learn a ton, develop new skills, and grow before your very eyes!

But how do you know if your child is learning at the right pace? How do you know if your child is reaching important developmental milestones as they age? While every child is different and develops at their own pace, there are developmental milestones that they will reach as they grow.

While your child may be a late bloomer or develop faster than other children, these milestones still act as guidelines for how your child should be developing. At Yellow Brick Road Early Childhood Development Center, we will work with your child to help them reach these developmental milestones. As a childhood development center, we focus on helping our students grow, learn, and develop different skills that will help prepare them for their future.

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We believe that it is important for parents to know and understand how their children are developing, so that they can determine whether their children are on the right pace! Again, these milestones are not set in stone, but they can help you determine if your child is developing at the same pace as other children or if they are falling behind. Below, learn the milestones to watch for from the time your child is an infant to five-years-old.

Infant Developmental Milestones

1-3 months

First Three Months

After having your baby, you may realize that they do not do much, but that is all about to change! In the first three months, your baby will develop many new skills. They will develop motor, communication, and sensory skills. 

At Yellow Brick Road, we can start caring for your little one from the time they are six weeks old. That is when a lot of these development occur! 

Motor Skills

  • Able to lift head and check while laying on stomach
  • Able to open and close fists
  • Able to bring hand to mouth
  • Movements in arms and legs are smoother

Communication Skills

  • Turns head in direction of sound
  • Shows interest in faces
  • Quiets and/or smiles when in response to sound
  • Coos and smiles 

Sensory Skills

  • Follows moving objects with eyes
  • Reaches for toys dangling above them
  • Can be calmed with touching, rocking, and gentle sounds
  • Enjoys movement
4-6 months

Four to Six Months

By the time your baby reaches six months, they will be moving, communicating, and learning more! They begin to understand the world around them and show more interest in their surroundings. 

Motor Skills

  • Able to roll from stomach to back and back to stomach
  • Use their hands for support while sitting
  • Plays with feet while laying on back
  • Stands with support
  • Reaches for toys out of reach

Communication Skills

  • Responds to own name
  • Reacts to sudden noises and sounds
  • Isn’t upset by everyday noises
  • Babbles chains of sounds
  • Expresses feelings using sounds
  • Pays attention to toys that make sounds

Sensory Skills

  • Responds to people’s emotions
  • Enjoys social games and play
  • Is generally happy
  • Interested in the reflection in the mirror
  • Plays with toys with both hands and brings them to mouth
1 year

One Year

In the next six months your child will develop even more! You will be amazed at how quickly they are learning and growing. By age one, you baby will be much more active, vocal, and aware of their surroundings.

Motor Skills

  • Able to pull self into a standing position and walk with support
  • Moves around to explore and reach toys
  • Imitates during play
  • Uses fingers to pick up small objects

Communication Skills

  • Uses and understand “mama” and “dada”
  • Uses single words
  • Responds to simple directions
  • Babbles with rhythm and sounds of speech
  • Responds to “no”
  • Uses hand movements to communicate wants and needs

Sensory Skills

  • Cries when parents leave the room
  • Enjoys listening to music
  • Crawls to find objects in the distance
  • Explores toys with hands and mouth

Wobblers Developmental Milestones

1-2 years

One to Two Years

The wobbler program at our childhood development center is for children from one to two years old. Your child should be social, moving around, and continuing to work on their communication! In their second year of life, children will master some skills and begin learning new ones! At this point, they begin developing more cognitive skills and social skills.

Motor Skills

  • Able to walk without help
  • Begins to run
  • Can walk and down stairs with some support
  • Climbs onto and off of furniture without help
  • Kick and throws a ball overhand

Communication Skills

  • Begins to talk in two to four-word sentences
  • Repeat words overheard in conversations
  • Can follow simple instructions
  • Points to things in books and things in pictures when they are named
  • Knows names of family and familiar people

Cognitive Skills

  • Can find items even when hidden under multiple layers or covers
  • May begin using one hand more than the other
  • Can finish rhymes and sentences in familiar book
  • Begins to short colors and shapes

Social Skills

  • Copies adults and other children
  • Gets excited about seeing other children
  • Begins to show defiant behavior

Explorers Developmental Milestones

2-3 years

Two to Three Years

When your child is between two and three years old, they will be in our explorers program, where they will learn and grow by exploring the world around them, engage in activities with others, and continue to develop.

Motor Skills

  • Able to run easily
  • Climbs well
  • Walks well up and down stairs
  • Can pedal a tricycle

Communication Skills

  • Understands concepts like “his/hers”, “mine”, and similar words
  • Can hold a conversation with two to three sentences
  • Asks questions using “what” and “where” 
  • Uses plurals
  • Can speak well enough for other to understand

Cognitive Skills

  • Play make-believe with dolls, people, and animals
  • Can play with toys that have buttons or moving parts
  • Turns pages of book one at a time

Social Skills

  • Begins to make friends
  • Imitates other children and adults
  • Shows affection for friends
  • Show more emotions
  • Is no longer bothered from being separated from parent

Preschoolers Developmental Milestones

3-4 years

Three to Four Years

As your children continue to grow, they will become much more independent, be able to communicate and understand more, and will grow more curious. At Yellow Brick Road, our preschoolers program is for ages three to four!

Motor Skills

  • Able to catch a bounced ball a majority of the time
  • Can hop and stand on one foot for a couple of seconds
  • Able to dress and undress self
  • Can brush own teeth
  • Can feed self and pour

Communication Skills

  • Can sing or say child rhymes and poems by memory
  • Speaks in sentences that are five to six words
  • Tells stories
  • Begins to understand the basics of grammar

Cognitive Skills

  • Knows names of colors and numbers
  • Understands opposites
  • Understands the idea of “different” and “same”
  • Enjoys humor

Social Skills

  • Prefers playing with other children rather than self
  • Shares and take turns with other children
  • Plays make-believe and is more creative

Pre-K Developmental Milestones

4-5 years

Four to Five Years

Wow! Your child has grown up so fast! This is the last program at Yellow Brick Road and during your child’s last year here, they will learn and grow even more! We will help prepare them for their next step in school. By the time they are five, they will have learned so much!

Motor Skills

  • Able to hop and maybe even skip
  • Can use the swings and climb easily
  • Able to do somersaults
  • Use forks and spoons on own

Communication Skills

  • Speaks very clear
  • Can say complete name and address
  • Can tell a simple story
  • Speaks in full sentences
  • Uses future tense

Cognitive Skills

  • Can count to ten or more
  • Can copy different shapes
  • Can write some letters and numbers
  • Understands things used everyday like money, time, and food

Social Skills

  • Wants to make friends happy and be like friends
  • Can tell what is real and make-believe
  • Shows more independence
  • Agrees with rules and can be very cooperative
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