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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
Three to Four Years
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
Four to Five Years
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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