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It should be noted that developmental milestones in babies are a guideline. Knowing when your child should be able to undertake specific activities helps you prepare for them. However, every baby is different and you shouldn’t panic or pressure your baby if they haven’t reached a designated milestone.
Instead, you should monitor them and make sure they are getting the best learning experience in a reputable facility such as this Croydon early learning center. If your baby is still struggling to reach a milestone by the time they should be achieving the next one, you need to speak to your doctor and have them assessed.
A great example of this is walking. Some babies start walking as young as eight months, others wait until they are eighteen months old. Both of these ages are considered within the normal range.
First Year Of Life
In the first year of your baby’s life, they should reach several key developmental milestones. Again, it doesn’t matter at what stage they do these things, it is only if they are past the next one that you may want to seek a medical opinion.
- Drinking from a cup
- Sitting by themselves
- Smiling
- Playing simple games like peek-a-boo
- The first tooth starts to appear
- Pulling themselves into a standing position
- Rolling over
- Crawling
- Gains an understanding of the word ‘no’
- Walks while holding onto things
- Starts to say mama and papa, or the equivalent
Years One To Three
At this stage, your baby is technically considered a toddler. Of course, to you, they will always be your baby. It should be noted that the first three years of a baby’s life are when they do most of their development. After this, the developmental rate slows as their brains become less adept at absorbing information.
During this stage of their life you can expect them to do the following:
- Feed themselves, making minimal mess
- Gain the ability to draw a line
- Run forward and walk backwards
- Walk up and downstairs
- Say their own name
- Learn to peal
- Know the names of common objects and body parts
- Dress themselves, or with just a little help
- Echoes words and even starts limited conversations
- Understands the importance of sharing and taking turns
- Recognizes colours and the difference between a man and a woman
- Builds their vocabulary
It is important to note that this is not an exhaustive list and your child can achieve these developmental milestones at any time during the first three years of their life.
Contrary to popular belief, the ability to reach these developmental milestones does not make one baby more intelligent than another. There are many factors in play, such as their environment, how stimulated they are, their natural personality, and other issues. These will influence how fast a baby reaches different milestones. But, that doesn’t mean you should attempt to change the environment they live in.
There are many other benefits associated with different environments. The secret is to ensure your baby is happy as much of the time as possible.
