| CAN SHE DO THAT YET? HOW TO BE SURE YOUR BABY IS ON TRACK, WITHOUT WORRYING by Alice Sterling Honig, Ph.D. |
| It's hard not to compare "progress" notes on your baby with other parents. While no one would argue that normal development is a race, it can be disconcerting when your baby's peers are talking or walking well ahead of your child. Knowing when normally developing babies achieve various milestones can provide helpful clues for you. In addition, there are stepping stones to every new accomplishment. That's why knowing if your baby has mastered the prerequisites for a milestone is also important. For example, until babies have teeth and learn how to make rotary chewing motions with their tongues, they will have trouble learning to chew solid foods safely. Other prerequisites might be creeping and crawling before standing and walking or getting themselves upstairs before climbing downstairs. |
| STANDARD BENCHMARKS |
| Baby coos when you coo to him (2 months) Baby makes consonant-vowel combinations and begins to string together varieties of babbling sounds that will lead to words (6 months) Baby plays pat-a-cake with hands together at the body midline (8 months) Baby uses thumb and forefingers--pincer prehension--instead of fist or whole hand to pick up a crumb (1 year) Toddler starts to pretend--talks on toy phone or puts teddy to bed (2 years) Baby says some single words, but his receptive language is fine--he can understand what you say and carry out a sequence of actions, such as "Please get your sweater from the couch and put it in your stroller.' (2 years) Toddler begins to put two words together, such as, "My toy.' (2 years) |
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